The Testament of Ann Lee: Watch, Cast, Release & More

Amanda Seyfried has played her share of complicated women, but her turn as Ann Lee—the 18th-century visionary who founded the Shakers—might be the most demanding yet. The Testament of Ann Lee, a historical musical drama directed by Mona Fastvold, reimagines the ecstatic faith and hard bargains of America’s original utopian experiment. If you’re trying to figure out where to watch it, whether it’s worth the runtime, or what all the fuss about Shaker hymns actually means, here’s everything you need to know.

Lead Actress: Amanda Seyfried ·
Director: Mona Fastvold ·
Release Year: 2025 ·
Subject: Ann Lee and Shaker Movement ·
Premiere: La Biennale di Venezia

The production details below consolidate key credits and specifications from authoritative film databases.

What is The Testament of Ann Lee about?

The Testament of Ann Lee follows the real-life journey of Ann Lee (1738–1784), a Manchester, England-born woman who emigrated to colonial America and founded the Shakers religious movement. The film traces her emergence as a charismatic leader who preached radical equality between the sexes—a startling proposition in the 18th century—and gathered followers willing to abandon conventional society for communal living built around dance, song, and labor.

Plot summary

Co-written by director Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet, the film positions Thomasin McKenzie as Mary Partington, a narrator who guides viewers through the Shaker utopia’s ecstatic highs and inevitable fractures. The story spans Ann Lee’s arrival in America, her imprisonment for “dissidence,” her marriage to Abraham Standerin (Christopher Abbott), and her eventual leadership of a sect that called itself “the children of the second appearance of Christ.” The tagline—”Put your trust in Mother Ann”—captures both the devotion and the tension at the film’s core.

Shaker faith context

The Shakers (formally, the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing) practiced what they called “the Great Thanksgiving”—ritualized trembling, dancing, and speaking in tongues that observers often mistook for frenzy.

The film’s choreographer, Celia Rowlson-Hall, reimagined traditional Shaker hymns as rapturous movement sequences, per BAM. Composer Daniel Blumberg, an Academy Award winner, crafted original songs alongside period material, giving the film its distinctive musical texture.

Is The Testament of Ann Lee a real story?

Yes. The Testament of Ann Lee dramatizes the life of Ann Lee, an actual historical figure who died in 1784 and whose movement eventually spread to 19 states before declining to today’s few thousand practitioners. The film draws on documented events and, according to promotional material from Rotten Tomatoes, presents “the wild true story of Shaker faith.”

Historical basis

Ann Lee, called “Mother Ann” by her followers, was indeed imprisoned in 18th-century England for her religious dissent. She did emigrate to America in 1774 with her husband and a small group of believers. She did establish communities in New York state that attracted thousands. The film doesn’t invent her—it doesn’t need to.

Ann Lee biography

Born Ann Wesley (she took the surname Lee after marrying William Lee), Mother Ann was a factory worker in Manchester who experienced visions and gathered a following that scandalized both church and state. She crossed the Atlantic at 36, spent her final decade in America, and died without ever seeing the movement peak that her death would catalyze. Her followers, the Shakers, would go on to build over 200 communities across the United States.

How historically accurate is The Testament of Ann Lee movie?

The broad strokes track closely with the historical record. Ann Lee’s leadership, her imprisonment, her emigration, and her core teachings all match scholarly accounts. Where the film takes liberties, it does so with purpose: condensing years into scenes, merging characters, and heightening drama around the movement’s internal tensions.

Real events depicted

The Venice premiere on 1 September 2025 brought the film to audiences for the first time, with the 82nd Venice International Film Festival including it in main competition for the Golden Lion. The TIFF Canadian premiere in 2025 featured a Q&A with director Mona Fastvold, Amanda Seyfried, and Lewis Pullman, according to TIFF’s official channel. These festival screenings confirmed the film’s commitment to period detail in costuming, architecture, and dialect.

Creative liberties

Film scholar contexts note that the film’s narrator structure (Thomasin McKenzie’s Mary Partington) appears to be a composite character, as no single real-life figure served that function in the historical record. The film also emphasizes the ecstatic, bodily dimensions of Shaker worship—which were real but often exaggerated in contemporary accounts designed to discredit the sect.

Where will The Testament of Ann Lee stream?

Searchlight Pictures acquired North American distribution rights in September 2025, per Wikipedia. The release strategy followed a traditional theatrical window before digital availability.

Streaming platforms

The streaming release date landed on 10 March 2026, according to Rotten Tomatoes. As of the most recent listings, the film is available on Apple TV, as confirmed by Apple TV’s official listing. Other major platforms may follow as distribution windows open.

Roku options

Roku users can access the film through the Apple TV channel or by checking regional availability through their cable or satellite provider apps linked to the platform. The Searchlight Pictures release should appear across major streaming aggregators within months of the initial digital launch.

Is The Testament of Ann Lee a good film?

Critical consensus points toward yes. The film earned positive reviews, with Amanda Seyfried’s performance drawing particular praise—described as “career-best” in multiple assessments, per Wikipedia. She secured Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice nominations for Best Actress as a direct result.

Reviews

Early festival responses from screenings at BAM (Brooklyn, 16 January 2026), Milwaukee Film, and MSP Film festival confirmed audience engagement beyond the critical press. The film’s musical dimension—those reimagined Shaker hymns—divided some viewers but delighted others who appreciated the departure from standard period-drama convention.

Rotten Tomatoes score

Rotten Tomatoes listings show the film in active review aggregation as of this writing, though final percentages continue to evolve. The MPAA rating—R for Graphic Nudity, Bloody Images, Sexual Content, Violence—warns viewers that this isn’t a sanitized heritage drama, per Rotten Tomatoes.

Worth seeing

The Testament of Ann Lee suits viewers interested in unconventional biographical cinema, musical dramas that take historical religion seriously, or anyone who wants to see Amanda Seyfried in a performance stripped of the ironic distance she sometimes deploys in lighter fare. At 2 hours 17 minutes, it asks for a serious time commitment—but the BAM and TIFF Q&As suggest the film rewards engagement with its ideas.

“Academy Award nominee Amanda Seyfried stars as the Shaker’s irrepressible leader.”

— Official Synopsis, Rotten Tomatoes

“Put your trust in Mother Ann.”

— Trailer voiceover, Searchlight Pictures

The Shakers’ experiment lasted two centuries before fading to a handful of remaining communities. The Testament of Ann Lee suggests that what they built—and what eventually broke them—deserves more than footnote status in American religious history. For viewers willing to meet the film on its own ecstatic terms, the runtime pays dividends.