✨The Testament of Ann Lee — Amanda Seyfried Transforms into a Visionary Historical Epic from Mona Fastvold

“A place for everything and everything in its place.”

This Christmas, faith, passion, and revolution collide on the big screen in The Testament of Ann Lee, the mesmerizing new historical drama from Mona Fastvold, the acclaimed director of The World to Come and co-writer of The Brutalist.

Presented in stunning 70mm, this visually transcendent film tells the extraordinary true story of Ann Lee, the visionary founder of the Shaker movement — a woman whose radical faith defied the conventions of her time and shaped American spiritual life forever.

📅 In select theaters Christmas Day, 2025

🎬 Presented by Searchlight Pictures

🌾 The Story — A Woman Who Dared to Imagine Heaven on Earth

Set in 18th-century England and pre-Revolutionary America, The Testament of Ann Lee traces the rise of Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), a working-class woman whose divine visions and uncompromising faith inspired the birth of a new religious movement — the Shakers.

Haunted by personal tragedy — including the loss of all her children — Ann’s journey from a factory worker’s daughter to a spiritual leader is both devastating and awe-inspiring.

Her message? Equality between men and women, celibacy, pacifism, and simplicity — beliefs so radical they transformed the meaning of devotion itself.

As her followers multiply, so do her enemies. Her ecstatic sermons and frenzied dances blur the line between salvation and madness, between body and spirit, in what becomes one of the most striking portraits of female faith ever captured on film.

“Mona Fastvold turns Ann Lee’s ecstasy into cinema’s poetry — a story sung as much as it’s seen.”

🎭 The Cast — Amanda Seyfried’s Most Daring Role Yet

At the film’s radiant center stands Academy Award® nominee Amanda Seyfried, delivering what critics at Venice called “the most fearless performance of her career.”

She’s joined by an ensemble of actors who bring depth and intensity to this tale of devotion, rebellion, and revelation:

Actor	Role
Amanda Seyfried	Ann Lee
Thomasin McKenzie	Mary Partington
Lewis Pullman	William Lee, Ann’s brother
Christopher Abbott	Abraham Standerin, Ann’s husband
Tim Blake Nelson	Pastor Reuben Wright
Stacy Martin	Jane Wardley
Matthew Beard	James Whittaker
Viola Prettejohn	Nancy Lee
Jamie Bogyo	Richard Hocknell
David Cale	John Hocknell

Each performance feels carved from faith and fire — especially Seyfried’s Ann Lee, a woman torn between divinity and despair. Her portrayal, both delicate and defiant, stands as one of 2025’s most powerful awards contenders.

🎼 Music, Movement, and Mysticism — A Spiritual Opera in 70mm

The Testament of Ann Lee isn’t just a film — it’s an experience. Fastvold reimagines the Shakers’ worship as something cinematic and transcendent, weaving together over a dozen reimagined Shaker hymns, breathtaking choreography by Celia Rowlson-Hall (Vox Lux), and an original score by Oscar-winner Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist).

Every hymn, every dance, feels like a prayer. Every silence feels sacred.

Shot by William Rexer, the 70mm cinematography bathes the film in candlelight, wind, and woodgrain — a world of faith made tangible, yet fragile.

🕊️ From Venice to the Oscars — A Critical Revelation

After premiering in the Main Competition at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, The Testament of Ann Lee earned glowing early reviews:

⭐ “Amanda Seyfried commands the screen — a performance of rare conviction.”

⭐ “A symphony of devotion and discipline — Fastvold’s masterpiece.”

⭐ “Visually rapturous, emotionally raw, musically transcendent.”

The film’s exploration of faith, feminism, and fanaticism has positioned it as a dark-horse awards-season contender, with critics predicting nominations for Best Actress, Cinematography, and Original Score.

📜 The Woman Behind the Legend

Before she became a spiritual icon, Ann Lee was a silversmith’s daughter from Manchester — uneducated, impoverished, yet profoundly gifted.

By the time she crossed the Atlantic in 1774, she had already been imprisoned for her beliefs. In America, she built a community of “Shakers” — named for their ecstatic dances — who lived by vows of simplicity, celibacy, and equality.

Her followers called her “Mother Ann.”Her enemies called her a heretic. But her influence — on architecture, song, and spiritual freedom — rippled across centuries.

Fastvold’s film doesn’t glorify her faith; it humanizes it — showing the cost of being a woman who sees divinity in a world ruled by men.

🎬 Behind the Camera — Mona Fastvold’s Vision of Faith and Form

Following The World to Come and her acclaimed collaborations with Brady Corbet, director Mona Fastvold returns with her most ambitious project yet — part biography, part musical, part religious fever dream.

Co-written with Brady Corbet, the film was produced by Andrew Morrison, Viktória Petrányi, Lillian LaSalle, and Fastvold herself, alongside an international team from The UK, Poland, and Hungary.

“It’s a film about the divine and the domestic,” Fastvold says.“Ann Lee created a world where women could lead — but at a cost that history forgot.”

📅 The Testament of Ann Lee — Release Info

Category	Details
Title	The Testament of Ann Lee
Genre	Historical Drama / Musical / Biography
Director	Mona Fastvold
Writers	Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet
Stars	Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Christopher Abbott, Tim Blake Nelson, Stacy Martin
Runtime	135 minutes
Premiere	Venice Film Festival 2025
US Theatrical Release	December 25, 2025 (Searchlight Pictures)
Format	70mm Presentation

🌟 Why You Can’t Miss It This Christmas

💫 Amanda Seyfried’s Career-Defining Performance – A haunting, spiritual portrayal worthy of every accolade.🎥 Mona Fastvold’s Visionary Direction – A masterclass in visual storytelling and emotional restraint.

🎶 Daniel Blumberg’s Ethereal Score – Music that blurs the line between faith and fantasy.

🌾 A True Story of Female Power – The untold history of a woman who built her own heaven.

🏆 Awards Contender – A sure-fire favorite for the 2026 Oscars and BAFTAs.

✨ Final Word — Faith, Fire, and the Female Spirit

The Testament of Ann Lee is more than a film. It’s a cinematic hymn to belief, to loss, to creation, and to the women who refuse to be forgotten.

Amanda Seyfried’s Ann Lee doesn’t just build a utopia — she builds a mirror, reflecting the devotion, doubt, and divine madness inside us all.

“In a world built by men, one woman dared to dance her way to God.”

🎥 The Testament of Ann Lee — presented in 70mm, only in select theaters this Christmas Day, December 25, 2025.