After being in the awards conversation in previous years with Poor Things and A Complete Unknown, Searchlight Pictures are looking to be a part of the conversation once again. With Rental Family and Is This Thing On? has perhaps long-shot possibilities, the distrib just lassoed Mona Fastvold’s third feature, The Testament of Ann Lee (alternative title, The Woman Clothed by the Sun, with the Moon Beneath Her Feet) as a new horse in the race. Having just premiered at the Venice Film Festival and TIFF, the top acquisitions title has a stand-out perf from Amanda Seyfried and another solid score Daniel Blumberg (last year’s Oscar winner for The Brutalist). We should be receiving a firm 2025 (limited) release date shortly – perhaps being squeezed into a December slot. For now, The Testament of Ann Lee is receiving film festival premieres a bit everywhere.
In our Venice Film Festival review, our Nicholas Bell mentions “the film is enchantingly photographed with its period perfect production design transporting us into the bosom of a brave new world grappling for meaning in a wilderness already long mastered by religious, patriarchal doctrine. Seducing us into its convictions with various musical numbers, allowing us to embrace its ultimate essence as a recuperative fable, Amanda Seyfried blazes with compassionate convictions for what feels revolutionary—a woman’s control of her own body.”
