Having Final Cut on Films Is a “Moral Responsibility”

Joachim Trier left San Sebastian Film Festival attendees in awe at an event Sunday morning where the Sentimental Value director spoke candidly and eloquently about his career.

The Danish-Norwegian filmmaker, an Academy Award nominee for his 2021 romantic dramedy The Worst Person in the World, is also known for Reprise (2006), Oslo, August 31st (2011) and Louder Than Bombs (2015). His most recent project, winner of Cannes’ Grand Prix this year Sentimental Value, is screening here at the 73rd San Sebastian Film Festival.

The film follows Trier’s frequent collaborator Renate Reinsve as Nora who, along with her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), are faced to confront their strained relationship with their father, a fading director named Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgard). Elle Fanning also stars in the movie as a U.S. actress, Rachel Kemp, hoping to be in Borg’s next feature.

Trier spoke — and Reinsve, in attendance, watched on — at the discussion in San Sebastian where he fielded a myriad of questions about his journey to film stardom and working predominantly in Europe. The director explained how he set the precedent to have final cut on all his films when, in the wake of the success of Reprise, he was tasked with finding a U.S. studio to work with.

“I need final cut, I’ve had it since film one,” he began. “To me, it’s a moral implication of taking responsibility for what the actors give a director — if they show their emotions, their bodies, whatever — we created a movie [and] I carry the responsibility of what they bring to the final product. No one that sits in some studio capacity and invests money should decide that, in my opinion. That’s not how art is made… [I have] a moral responsibility towards the cinematographer, maybe being away from his or her family for months on end to work on the vision that me, as a director, and all the others in the team created. To have an external power of financial interest come fuck around with that material diminishes the trust between us and the group.”

“I’m not going to shame people,” he added, “because it’s damn hard to make a film and many, many, many films are made every year where the director didn’t have final cut, and they’re wonderful films.”

Trier admitted that demanding final cut made it “tough” to get a film financed and while some U.S. producers showed immense support, Reprise was made out of Oslo, Norway and in collaboration with France. “I’ve worked in the European financing system my whole career and I’m super happy about it,” he added.

The financing system for cinema in Europe, while it has given Trier “a platform to express myself very freely,” he also believes it is constantly under political threat. “Right-wing political movements are always trying to diminish the idea of soft money support for the arts across most countries in Europe… We need support. And most art has always been supported by someone with an intention of not just making money, but supporting expression and artistic endeavors.”

At the same time, Trier said the need to have total creative control over his films is something that producers should be in support of. “If you [look at] film history, a lot of the films that commercially worked have also been made by directors that are deeply involved in the script process, deeply involved in the editing and has had a sense of control — the achievements of personal expression is at the core of some of the most successful films, financially.”

Trier continued that his championing of his actors should be mirrored by financiers’ attitudes towards filmmakers. “My approach to shielding, protecting, loving, nourishing [actors] is how producers and financiers should work with directors. Don’t employ directors unless you really want to support them and love them and help them, and [same with] writers and editors… I want Renate to do well, I want her to do something wonderful and I’m proud of Renate as a director. I think financiers should feel like that with directors and the creative team.”

Across the session, Trier covered an extensive range of topics, from grieving the late David Lynch and the intersection of film and love (“tenderness is the new punk!”), to believing in the power of the “European auteur” and the cinematic universes they build. When discussing Sentimental Value, Trier, father to two young children, admitted his own fear of failure as a parent played a huge role in writing Skarsgard’s part.

“I said going in, ‘I’m really scared of failing as a father.’ And it’s very symbolic to make this film for me, because I don’t want to be Gustav,” he said. “In Norway, we have had a lot of progression [for] female directors over the last 15, 20 years, and that has been great for us male directors too, because we have gotten a focus on [a] good set culture, where the macho energy is lessened and it’s not just all tough guys.”

This has allowed filmmakers in Norway to have “private conversations” about balancing being an artist with having children, he added. “Actually, the feminist discourse around cinema has helped men also allow ourselves bigger freedom of figuring out how we make movies [as parents].”

The San Sebastian International Film Festival 2025 runs Sept. 19-27.