Sawt Falasteen - For Oscar nominee Stellan Skarsgard, good cinema is like slow food

The "Sentimental Value" star, who will vie on March 15 for his first-ever Oscar in the best supporting actor category, says he believes quality will always shine through when moviegoers have the chance to peruse the menu.

"In food, you have something called slow food, which is very good," the 74-year-old Swede told AFP.

"How about slow distribution of films to let them grow automatically because people like them?"

In a fast-changing industry landscape where streaming services are only gathering pace, and movie theaters are shutting down nationwide, "Sentimental Value" has been an old-fashioned word-of-mouth success story.

In the film, directed by Joachim Trier ("The Worst Person in the World"), Skarsgard plays Gustav Borg, a fictional filmmaker who has a tense relationship with his actress daughter (Renate Reinsve) and tries to repair their frayed ties.

As a father of eight -- six of whom are actors, including Alexander Skarsgard ("The Moment") -- Skarsgard has joked that real life was good preparation for playing the self-absorbed Borg.

The film earned a whopping nine Oscar nominations overall, including best picture, director, international film and four acting nods.

Skarsgard is a favorite for Oscars glory, having already won a Golden Globe and several critics prizes.

But he's more content to direct attention away from himself and to the future of the industry that has sustained him for more than half a century.

"Everything is becoming the same all over the world. We're owned by the same people," he said. "It's a threat to the diversity of any art form."

Skarsgard hopes a variety of films continue to be shown on the big screen, produced by creatives with different perspectives and backgrounds -- and points to his own film as evidence that the old model can still work.

"'Sentimental Value'... has not started streaming, it has had a long life in the cinemas and it's growing and it's growing and it's growing," he said.

"It's growing because of word of mouth and that is because people have seen it and liked it and thought it was a good film. It does not grow because an advertising agency tells you to see it.

"And that's the way I want it to be," added the prolific actor, who has more than 150 credits in his nearly six-decade career including a recent turn in the Emmy-winning "Andor," a "Star Wars" series.

"You have to regard film as a cultural commodity in a way that benefits society."

- Oscars 'not so local' anymore -

This year's Oscars has a strong global slate, with two of the films nominated in the best international film category -- "Sentimental Value" and Brazil's "The Secret Agent" starring Wagner Moura -- also competing for the coveted best picture prize.

For Skarsgard, that internationalization of Hollywood's most prestigious award is a welcome development along the path to preserving diversity.

"The Academy members now are many more from around the world," he says.

"It's not so local as it was," he says.

So far, "Sentimental Value" has won the BAFTA award for best non-English-language film, earned the second-highest Grand Prix honor at the Cannes film festival, and snapped up a raft of European Film Awards.

Still, an Oscar nomination is special, and the chance to meet other nominees this month at a lavish luncheon in Beverly Hills ahead of the main gala was not bad at all, he told AFP.

"This is a pretty nice event because it's a room full of film workers and it's some of the best in the world," he beamed.

W.AbuLaban--SF-PST