#FIRSTLOOK: “THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE” RELEASE DATE IN 70MM

Following raves after its tiff50 debut, THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE is slated for a Christmas release in 70mm in select theatres.

Details:

Directed By: Mona Fastvold

Screenplay By: Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet

Cast:

Amanda Seyfried

Thomasin McKenzie

Lewis Pullman

Tim Blake Nelson

Christopher Abbott

Produced By:

Andrew Morrison, Joshua Horsfield, Viktória Petrányi, Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet,

Gregory Jankilevitsch, Klaudia Śmieja-Rostworowska, Lillian LaSalle, Mark Lampert

From award winning writer-director Mona Fastvold (The World to Come, The Brutalist) comes the extraordinary true legend of Ann Lee, founder of the religious sect known as the Shakers. Academy Award-nominee Amanda Seyfried stars as the Shakers’ irrepressible leader — who espoused gender and social equality while believing herself to be the female incarnation of Christ. The Testament of Ann Lee thrillingly imagines the ecstasy and agony of Ann Lee and her followers’ conviction and commitment to her own vision of utopia. More than a dozen original Shaker hymns are transformed into ecstatic “movements,” featuring choreography from Celia Rowlson-Hall (Vox Lux) and music by Academy Award-winning composer Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist).

#TIFF25: “THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE” REVIEW

By David Baldwin

Much like her partner Brady Corbet’s Oscar-winning film The Brutalist before it, Oscar-nominated Director Mona Fastvold’s THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE is a challenging film to nail down succinctly. It is an audacious project revolving around the “speculated retelling” of the story of Ann Lee (Oscar-nominee Amanda Seyfried), who founded the religious movement known as the Shakers in the late 1700s and believed herself to be the female reincarnation of Jesus. 

My describing the film as audacious only really skims the surface of what Fastvold has crafted here. It is a visually breathtaking feminist period piece tackling themes of religion and misogyny at the same time as it is a highly energized song and dance film, with extended sequences of Shaker dancing taking up a large part of the runtime. Each one is choreographed and depicted more exquisitely than the last, with Oscar-winning Composer Daniel Blumberg providing another magnetic, unreal score to go alongside it. The spectacular visuals are wonderfully detailed and tactile, taking full advantage of the graininess of the film cameras the project was shot on (sadly the Press screening our team attended was presented in Digital as the 70mm Film print stopped working less than 20 minutes into the screening, so fingers crossed the Public screenings do not end the same way). 

While I think the storyline could have been better streamlined and that many of the actors do not have nearly enough to do – the lovely Thomasin Mackenzie does well as the Narrator but is criminally underutilized otherwise – I cannot say enough superlatives about Seyfried. She pours her entire heart and soul into this performance, shattering preconceptions and soaring head and shoulders above everyone else. She is captivating in every frame and is hard to take your eyes off of. Her work as Ann Lee might just be the best of her entire career.

THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE screens at TIFF ‘25:

Tues. Sept 9 at 5:30 PM at TIFF Lightbox

Wed. Sept 10 at 9:30 AM at TIFF Lightbox

#TIFF25: DAY FIVE HIGHLIGHTS – DWAYNE JOHNSON, EMILY BLUNT, SCARLETT JOHANSSON, JUNE SQUIBB, JACOB ELORDI, OSCAR ISAAC, MIA GOTH, AMANDA SEYFRIED, LEWIS PULLMAN AND MORE

tiff50 day five is perhaps the most star-studded yet, taking the festival right to the summit! premieres for some of the festival’s most-anticipated titles: frankenstein, the testament of ann lee, eleanor the great, and the smashing machine all took place!

some of our day five highlights:

•amanda seyfried and lewis pullman at tiff for the testament of ann lee

•noah jupe at tiff for & sons

•lily james at tiff for swiped

•lee byung-hun at tiff for no other choice

•callum turner at tiff for eternity

•mia goth, oscar isaac, and jacob elordi at tiff for frankenstein

•scarlett johansson and june squibb at tiff for eleanor the great

•dwayne johnson, emily blunt, benny safdie at tiff for the smashing machine

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