10 Best Norwegian Movies to Watch First

10 Essential Norwegian Films

Ranked native cinema in Norway’s own creative voice.

1. 

   1. Sentimental Value

   Affeksjonsverdi · 2025

   Two estranged sisters reunite with their charismatic father, a faded film director who offers one of them — an acclaimed stage actress — the lead in his comeback film. When she refuses, old family wounds and a shared house full of memories resurface. Joachim Trier's tender drama.

2. 

   2. The Worst Person in the World

   Verdens verste menneske · 2021

   Over four restless years in Oslo, a bright, indecisive young woman drifts between careers and lovers, trying to figure out who she is and what she wants. Joachim Trier's witty, bittersweet portrait of a life in flux.

   Why & details

   Curator’s note: The chronicles of four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.

3. 

   3. The Ugly Stepsister

   Den stygge stesøsteren · 2025

   In a fairy-tale kingdom where beauty is a savage competition, a plain stepsister will endure any gruesome sacrifice to outshine her radiant stepsister and catch the prince's eye. A grisly, subversive body-horror retelling of Cinderella.

4. 

   4. Headhunters

   Hodejegerne · 2011

   A slick corporate recruiter who moonlights as an art thief to fund his lavish lifestyle picks the wrong mark — a ruthless ex-mercenary — and finds himself hunted in a frantic fight for his life. A twisty, breathless Norwegian thriller from a Jo Nesbø novel.

5. 

   5. Trollhunter

   Trolljegeren · 2010

   A group of students investigating mysterious bear killings in the Norwegian wilds instead uncovers a secret government cover-up and a weary hunter whose real quarry is giant, very real trolls. A clever, deadpan found-footage fantasy.

6. 

   6. Troll

   2022

   When a blast in the Norwegian mountains awakens a colossal, ancient troll that begins rampaging toward Oslo, a maverick paleontologist is enlisted to find a way to stop it. A big-scale creature-feature blockbuster.

7. 

   7. The Wave

   Bølgen · 2015

   A geologist at a scenic Norwegian fjord town realizes too late that a mountainside is about to collapse and unleash a towering tsunami, giving residents only minutes to flee to high ground. A tense, well-crafted disaster thriller.

8. 

   8. U – July 22

   Utøya 22. juli · 2018

   In one unbroken shot spanning the real 72 minutes of the 2011 Utøya massacre, a teenage girl fights to survive and to find her younger sister as a gunman hunts campers across the island. A harrowing, immersive drama.

9. 

   9. Dead Snow

   Død snø · 2009

   A group of medical students on a remote ski holiday in the Norwegian mountains awakens a battalion of undead Nazi soldiers guarding buried loot, and must fight to survive the onslaught. A gleefully gory horror comedy.

10. 

    10. Elling

    2001

    After his overprotective mother dies, a sheltered, anxious middle-aged man is placed in state care and then set up in an Oslo apartment with a boisterous, woman-obsessed roommate, and the odd pair must learn to face the world. A warm, Oscar-nominated comedy.

    Why & details

    Curator’s note: 40-year-old Elling, sensitive, would-be poet, is sent to live in a state institution when his mother, who has sheltered him his entire life, dies. There he meets Kjell Bjarne, a gentle giant and female-obsessed virgin, also in his 40s.