A Family Home at the Heart of the Story

Filmed across Norway (Oslo), Sweden (Strömstad) and France (Deauville), Sentimental Value roots its emotional core in a single villa in Oslo’s Frogner district. The house functions almost as a character in its own right. Trier’s story spans more than a century — from 1918 to 2023 — following several generations whose lives unfold within the same walls.

The villa is a striking example of Norway’s dragon style architecture. With its steep gables, carved ornamentation and rich timber detailing, the building evokes the craft tradition of the Viking era and the stave churches. Dragon style emerged in the late nineteenth century as a romantic reinterpretation of Norwegian heritage, and its influence can still be seen in landmarks such as Holmenkollen Park Hotel, Dalen Hotel in Telemark, the ornate villas of Balestrand, and Buksnes Church in Northern Norway. In Sentimental Value, this architectural movement becomes a visual anchor, reinforcing themes of memory, history, and the passing of time.

Black-and-white 1940s photograph of the Frogner villa used in Sentimental Value, with minimal vegetation in front.
The Frogner villa featured in Sentimental Value, seen here in a 1940s photograph when the façade was more visible and the garden less overgrown.

Filming took place on location in Thomas Heftyes gate, where the production used the real villa’s exterior and first-floor interiors. The bedrooms and second floor were rebuilt inside a studio — a decision that led the filmmakers to one of Norway’s newest production facilities, Gateway Studios, allowing the team to recreate the home across different decades and changing seasons through virtual production, production designer Jørgen Stangebye Larsen tells Rushprint.no.

Exterior of the Scandic Holmenkollen Park Hotel in Oslo, showing its red wooden façade, ornate carvings and dragon-style architectural details.
Scandic Holmenkollen Park Hotel in Oslo, Norway. Built in 1894 in the distintive Dragonstyle architecture.
Front entrance of the yellow wooden Dalen Hotel in Telemark, Norway, with dragon-head roof ornaments and red-carpeted stairs.
Entrance of the historic Dalen Hotel in Telemark, Norway, featuring its yellow wooden façade, dragon-head roof ornaments, and red-carpeted steps. Image Credit: PhotosByTIM - stock.adobe.com
Red dragon style villa in Balestrand, Norway, with white carved wooden details and a view of the fjord in the background.
Dragon style villa in Balestrand, featuring carved wooden ornamentation, steep gables, and views over the Sognefjord.
The historic Buksnes Church in Gravdal, Lofoten, featuring red wooden cladding and carved dragon-style details.
Buksnes Church in Gravdal, Lofoten, built in 1905 in the distinctive dragon style with its red timber walls and ornate gables.

Oslo’s National Theatre: Nora’s Stage

Another key Oslo location is the National Theatre (Nationaltheatret), where Nora, played by Renate Reinsve, works as an actress. Designed by Henrik Bull and opened in 1899, the theatre sits between the Royal Palace and the Parliament, making it one of Norway’s most recognizable cultural landmarks. Its neo-renaissance façade, sculptural adornments and richly decorated interior provide an atmospheric setting for the film.

For Sentimental Value, scenes were shot both on stage and behind the scenes. Production designer Jørgen Stangebye Larsen and his team collaborated closely with the theatre to create two fictional productions within the film. Because the theatre remained open throughout the shoot, sets had to be designed for rapid assembly and removal between live performances — a unique logistical ballet balancing cinematic ambition with the theatre’s daily schedule.

Evening view of the National Theatre in Oslo, with its illuminated neo-renaissance façade and surrounding flower beds.
Oslo’s National Theatre, a landmark of neo-renaissance architecture and a key filming location in Sentimental Value.
Interior of the National Theatre’s main auditorium in Oslo, with ornate gold detailing, red seats, and a painted ceiling.
The ornate main stage of Oslo’s National Theatre, where several of Nora’s performance scenes in Sentimental Value were filmed. Photo: Gisle Bjørneby / Nationaltheatret

Recreating Frogner Through Virtual Production at Gateway Studios

While the film is rooted in authentic Oslo locations, its visual scope expands thanks to virtual production at Gateway Studios in Drammen, just outside Oslo. The house’s upper floor was rebuilt in full on a soundstage, surrounding it with LED walls displaying digitally reconstructed versions of the city across different eras. According to COO Åsmund Knutson, the production utilized the full offering at Gateway Studios.

A glimpse into how Sentimental Value used virtual production to recreate Oslo across multiple eras. The 3D environment shows Frogner as it appeared in the early 1900s, while the studio-built bedroom set used LED walls to display these shifting seasons and time periods directly outside the window.
A glimpse into how Sentimental Value used virtual production to recreate Oslo across multiple eras. The 3D environment shows Frogner as it appeared in the early 1900s, while the studio-built bedroom set used LED walls to display these shifting seasons and time periods directly outside the window.


Everything from the street to the gardens was recreated and captured through 3D, Lidar scans and extensive photographic reference. Trees subtly “grow” across decades; period-accurate architecture shifts; cars and surroundings evolve as the story moves through time. Virtual production allowed the team to depict weather changes, seasonal transitions and century-long transformations — all within a controlled studio environment.

Digital summer environment created by VP Nordic for the Frogner villa set, projected on LED walls outside the studio-built house.
Winter variation of the same virtual environment, showing how VP Nordic recreated different seasons and time periods through in-camera virtual production.
Bedroom set from Sentimental Value with a large window showing a digitally recreated street view.
Recreated bedroom from Sentimental Value, built on a soundstage at Gateway Studios, where virtual production allowed the team to show different seasons and decades outside the windows.
Side-by-side image showing a real photo of a historic building façade on the left and a nearly identical 3D environment reconstruction on the right.
Real-world reference photography (left) compared with VP Nordic’s 3D-recreated environment (right), used to achieve precise digital extensions of the Frogner villa façade in Sentimental Value

The digital environments were crafted by VP Nordic, who recreated the gardens, streets, and seasonal transitions in 3D so the view through the windows matched both the period and the tone of each moment.

Being able to shift from a warm summer day into a winter view in minutes is where the combination of studio work and virtual production becomes powerful.
— Johannes Skoog, VP Supervisor at VP Nordics.

This work represents a significant step forward for Norwegian filmmaking. As one of the first feature films to utilize Gateway Studios’ virtual production capacity, Sentimental Value highlights how Norway’s studio infrastructure is expanding to meet international demand. The facility’s advanced stages and LED volume environment enable producers to merge real Norwegian locations with cutting-edge in-studio world-building — a combination increasingly attractive to global productions looking to shoot in Norway.