First Look: Mona Fastvold’s ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ — Hitting Venice and TIFF in 70mm

Here comes an interesting film from the same team that brought us “The Brutalist.”

“The Testament of Ann Lee” stars Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Christopher Abbott, Tim Blake Nelson, and Stacy Martin. The film is directed by Mona Fastvold and co-written/co-produced by her longtime creative and romantic partner, Brady Corbet.

Plans are firmly in place for ‘Ann Lee’ to premiere at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, with a TIFF berth to follow. Clocking in at 137 minutes, the film has also been described by Seyfried as “really crazy.” And yes, it’s a musical.

Adding to the intrigue, a surreal first image from the film has now been released, giving us a tantalizing glimpse at the film’s unique visual language. Seyfried appears in full period costume, bathed in ethereal light, surrounded by what appear to be followers in trance-like formation.

“Brady just texted me that he saw the first cut,” Seyfried said. “He loves it, and he’s not biased about his own work. He’s not one to fucking blow smoke. Brady and Mona are dear friends of mine. They’ve scraped by making incredible indie movies. This is what they’re good at. And I got to play a famous cult leader in a musical set in the 1770s!”

“Ann Lee” is set in 18th-century England and is loosely inspired by real events. The film is described as “an epic fable” centered on the life of Ann Lee, the controversial religious figure who founded the Shaker Movement and was proclaimed by her followers to be the “female Christ.” Seyfried plays the titular role, backed by an ensemble that reads like a who’s who of rising and respected indie talent.

Unlike “The Brutalist” — co-written and directed by Corbet — Fastvold is taking the director’s chair for Ann Lee, while Corbet steps back to co-write and co-produce. Cinematographer Lol Crawley is not returning this time around, and there’s no word yet on whether the film was shot in VistaVision (as was The Brutalist), but festival showings will be in 70mm and the score is by Daniel Blumberg, fresh off his Oscar win for The Brutalist’s soundtrack.

This marks Fastvold’s third directorial feature, following 2020’s “The World to Come,” which also premiered in Venice, and 2014’s “The Sleepwalker.” She’s co-written all three of Corbet’s films — “The Childhood of a Leader,” “Vox Lux,” and “The Brutalist.” The two have been dating for over a decade and continue to function as one of the more artistically ambitious partnerships in contemporary indie cinema.