Director Mona Fastvold conceived the idea for the film after discovering a Shaker hymn while wrapping her second film, The World to Come (2020).[2] Fastvold stated that the project initially struggled due to "zero interest" from the industry.[3][4]
Casting
Regarding the casting of Amanda Seyfried as Ann Lee, Fastvold stated, "Amanda has a lot of power. She's really strong. She is a wonderful mother. She is a little mad, and so I knew that she could access those things. She could access the kindness, the gentleness, the tenderness, and she could also access this power and this madness."[5]
As Lee birthed four children (all of whom died in infancy), Fastvold sought to depict the births "as real and direct and graphic and unapologetic as possible" using prosthetic vaginas.[2]
Composer Daniel Blumberg drew from original Shaker hymns to write the music for the film.[5][12] He worked with Fastvold from the pre-production stage to the sound mixing process, describing the film as "one of the most experimental, extreme project[s he has] ever done."[9] The soundtrack also includes three original songs that were written by Blumberg himself.[7]
Regarding her uninhibited singing in the film, Seyfried stated, "A lot of it was animal sounds as opposed to melodic sounds. ... I understood that I didn't have to sound beautiful in a way that is beautiful to me. It was more like a woman on her knees.[13]
In September 2025, Searchlight Pictures acquired distribution rights to the film in North America and several international territories, setting it for a limited theatrical release on 70mm film in the United States on 25 December 2025.[44][45][46]
Marketing
The first teaser trailer was released online on 6 November 2025.[47]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 53 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "Illuminated by Amanda Seyfried's sterling performance, The Testament of Ann Lee accepts The Shakers' founder on her own terms and reaches its own rhapsodic highs as a result."[48]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 77 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[49]
In his five-star review for The Irish Times, Donald Clarke described the film as "the stuff of masterpieces" and praised Fastvold for "creating a convincing version of Lancashire torn between industrial modernity and apocalyptic mysticism," adding that in the titular role, "Seyfried is electrifying."[50] Meanwhile, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated the film three out of five stars, calling it "a genuinely strange film, elusive in both tone and meaning, one which deploys the obvious effects and rhetorical forms of irony, while at the same time distancing itself from these effects and asking its audience to sympathise with and even admire [Ann] Lee, because she is not supposed to be the villain."[51]Robbie Collin of The Telegraph rated it four out of five stars, calling it "ravishingly staged and thrillingly ambitious" and writing that it "left [him] feeling wobbly and breathless."[52] Rita Di Santo of the Morning Star gave the film a perfect score of 10 out of 10, praising Fastvold for how her "uncompromising storytelling brings Ann’s world to life with visceral intensity" and "serves as a feminist manifesto about women’s conditions in the 16th century, denouncing the hardships of childbirth, violence and abuse against women."[53]
David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a grade of A−, calling it "a speculative, feverish, and altogether rapturous biopic," and declaring that Seyfried "gives the best performance of her career."[54] Guy Lodge of Variety wrote, "As a study of unyielding faith practiced on wholly singular terms, it's raptly respectful and intellectually curious, even if, dramatically, it can pall across the course of a languid 136-minute runtime. But it's as a full-blown song-and-dance affair — about the least likely, biggest-swinging shape Lee's story could have taken — that the film is most stunningly persuasive."[1] Lodge further added that Seyfried is "quite dazzling as Ann, the self-made icon, wielding a poised, peaceable, but controlling authority in scene after scene."[1] Awarding the film five stars, Loud and Clear critic Clotilde Chinnici writes that "Seyfried delivers an award-worthy performance as Ann Lee with her layered portrayal of a complex and fascinating woman."[55] She also commends the film’s technical achievements, noting that "the cinematography and the costumes immediately bring us back to mid-18th-century England, and later in the film, the United States."[55]
Jack Walters of Screen Rant praised Seyfried, calling her performance "career-best" and stating that she "delivers one of the strongest performances of the entire year in this film."[56] Writer and critic Alfred Castaneda echoed this sentiment, writing that "early in the film, it’s clear that this is the best performance of Amanda Seyfried's career."[57] Further praise for her performance came from Adam Nayman of The Ringer, who noted that "Seyfried powers through a performance that earns its instant tour de force reputation and then some."[58]AwardsWatch's Roberto Ruggio awarded the film an A, affirming that "Angelic and fierce at once, Seyfried gives the performance of a lifetime, ferocious, visceral, and vulnerable, making Ann Lee not just a historical figure from the past, but bringing her alive again."[59] Jeff Ewing of Collider affirmed that Ann Lee is "the role Seyfried was born to play," adding that "it's hard to imagine another person as the controversial figure."[60]
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