It’s One of the Best Films of 2025 That Almost No One Has Seen: Tale of Healing and Friendship Could Be the Big Surprise of the 2026 Awards Season – Film News

Alongside the great action, horror and fantasy stories, the good old intimate drama was present on the list of highlights of 2025. Just look at Norwegian Joachim Trier’s newest meditation on Sentimental Valor. With a story about intergenerational trauma, troubled parental relationships and the power of art to deal with both pains, Trier appears to be on a robust path to the highest honors in the American film industry, being nominated for important writing and directing categories at the 2026 Oscars.

Along with it, other dramatic features such as Hamnet: The Life Before Hamlet are awaiting premieres in Brazil, but have already toured festivals inside and outside the country, receiving praise from all sides. One specific title, however, went unnoticed on the public’s radar, despite the numerous awards received throughout the year.

Actress and screenwriter Eva Victor’s debut feature, the dramedy Sorry, Baby, brings a sensitive and sharp approach to a difficult topic already known, mainly from contemporary cinema: the traumas that persist after sexual harassment. Divided into chapters, the plot follows Agnes’ life before and after the violence with a view more concerned with the effects of the event on its protagonist than with exposing the details of the crime.

Sorry, Baby balances sensitivity and humor when faced with a thorny subject

It is through her friendship with her coursemate Lydie, her academic life and the affection she has for an abandoned cat that Agnes tries to process what happened to her. Throughout the narrative, the character goes from a promising graduate student in Literature and Literature to an admired university professor at the same college where she graduated. At the same time, the young woman seems stagnant and lonely.

His sober posture, sharp sense of humor and calm manner are soon accompanied by blank stares, aloof attitudes, panic attacks, guilt, anger and even confused pity for the aggressor. This whirlwind of complex and paradoxical feelings is precisely the focus of the simple and powerful script by director Eva Victor, whose participation in the film also extends to the main role.

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Victor balances the comic and dramatic tone very well with the thorny theme, leading the story to a conclusion as human and full of nuances as its characters. Without attempting to simplify, label, or universalize Agnes’s experience, Sorry, Baby understands that life does indeed go on even in the company of debilitating pain. It’s how we decide to face this pain, take care of our days and cultivate affection that makes the harshness of life more bearable and even beautiful.

Awarded at the Sundance Festival and nominated for best original screenplay at the Critics Choice Awards, Sorry, Baby was based on abuse suffered by Eva Victor in the past. Now, the filmmaker is nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress, with the film still on the New York Times best of the year list, as well as four nominations for the 41st Film Independent Spirit Awards for best film, direction, screenplay and supporting actress.

Sorry, Baby has been showing in Brazilian cinemas since 12/11.