<\/p>\n
Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet\u2019s daughter Ada has attended seven editions of the Venice Film Festival. She\u2019s 10 years old.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something Fastvold claims they only recently realized. \u201cI feel like she\u2019s grown up at the festival,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n While an impressive \u2014 not to mention cute \u2014 statistic, it merely serves to underscore the incredible run this powerhouse indie filmmaking couple have had on the Lido, where they\u2019ve debuted four of six films they\u2019ve made together, including last year\u2019s epic \u201cThe Brutalist\u201d (directed by Corbet, who co-wrote with Fastvold). Venice became a springboard into awards season glory (and a somewhat sweaty springboard \u2014 due to 2024\u2019s intense heat Fastvold says she \u201cpassed out for a tiny bit\u201d at the early afternoon premiere.)<\/p>\n This year makes it five films, as Fastvold takes over the director\u2019s chair with competition entry \u201cThe Testament of Ann Lee\u201d (co-written with Corbet).<\/p>\n Speaking to Variety<\/em> from her native Norway after finishing post-production, Fastvold describes the film, starring Amanda Seyfried in the title role, as a \u201cspeculative retelling\u201d of the life of Lee, the founder of Christian sect the Shakers. In 1774, Lee emigrated from the U.K. with eight followers and, as the director notes, \u201ccreated the largest utopian society in American history with complete equality between men and women and all races and backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n The feature is also a musical, but \u201cnot a straight musical,\u201d nor is it a \u201cstraight biopic.\u201d Seyfried, who spent a year preparing for the role, sings, possibly for the first time on screen since 2012\u2019s \u201cLes Miserables.\u201d<\/p>\n There are clear parallels between \u201cAnn Lee\u201d and \u201cThe Brutalist,\u201d and not merely for a focus on persecuted European emigres seeking a better life in the New World.\u00a0On paper, both appear unlikely filmmaking propositions. Indeed, much has been written about the seven years it took to get the wheels moving on \u201cThe Brutalist,\u201d\u00a0about a fictitious Holocaust-surviving architect and the first movie with an intermission to become a major awards contender since \u201cGandhi.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnn Lee\u201d had a similar journey. Fastvold says there was initially \u201czero interest\u201d from the industry in her not-quite musical, not-quite biopic about an obscure 18th century religious leader. When Seyfried expressed a desire to play Lee, she warned her friend: \u201cI will pay you nothing, you\u2019re going to work very hard and it\u2019s going to be a very uncomfortable experience for you.\u201d<\/p>\n Fastvold herself persevered out of fascination for the subject. The Shakers \u2014 only two members remain, largely due to the sect\u2019s dedication to celibacy \u2014 became known for their utilitarian design and architecture that prioritized functionality, simplicity and craftsmanship. What interested Fastvold was their \u201ccollaborative spirit\u201d and a laborious, near-fanatical pursuit of perfection in what they created. It was a pursuit she recognized.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something about doing things \u2014 like these very, very difficult films that nobody wants until they\u2019re made \u2014 that really spoke to me as an artist,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cThere\u2019s an obsession there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnn Lee\u201d was shooting under the radar when \u201cThe Brutalist\u201d premiered in Venice last year. Fastvold gave herself just 48 hours at the festival before flying back to the set in Budapest (where she\u2019d been the previous summer filming \u201cThe Brutalist\u201d). When the awards season noise surrounding the film erupted soon after, Fastvold and Corbet simply took \u201cAnn Lee\u201d with them on the circuit.<\/p>\n \u201cI was editing the whole time we were campaigning. I\u2019d edit, edit, edit and then on the weekends would do Q&As with Brady,\u201d Fastvold says, adding that she came to love the contrast of promoting one project while working on another. \u201cHowever much of a privilege it is to get to talk about your films, which neither of us have ever done to that extent, the real joy is to make them. We\u2019re both awkward and prefer to be behind the camera \u2014 we both chose to leave acting behind for good reason! \u2014 so it\u2019s wonderful to just disappear into the edit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Brutalist\u201d wound up with a healthy haul of honors, including three Oscars, four BAFTAs and three Golden Globes, alongside almost unanimous acclaim.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was all a beautiful gift and hopefully makes it a little bit easier for us to make more movies,\u201d says Fastvold. But has it? \u201cWe don\u2019t know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n The offers of other work, as they tends to do following a major awards hit like \u201cThe Brutalist,\u201d did come through. But that\u2019s not why Fastvold and Corbet \u2014 who as directors have now had two features each in competition in Venice \u2014 labored over the film.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you going to do, spend four years directing a movie about superheroes?\u201d she says. \u201cNo offense to anyone who does, I\u2019m sure it\u2019s very fun. But there\u2019s that obsessive, compulsive need to just create something\u2026 a little Shaker spirit. So we\u2019re just gonna keep making our films.\u201d<\/p>\n And they\u2019re films that Fastvold and Corbet\u2019s daughter Ada \u2014\u00a0even at the tender age of 10 \u2014\u00a0now doesn\u2019t simply watch being made in her summer holidays (and often appears in as an extra), but happily watches at their Venice premieres.<\/p>\n She may have been too young to appreciate her mother\u2019s first time at the festival as director with 2020\u2019s \u201cThe World to Come.\u201d \u201cShe was little so was just doing cartwheels in the corridors outside,\u201d Fastvold recalls. But she did sit through all 3 hours and 35 minutes of \u201cThe Brutalist\u201d and its standing ovation (either 12 or 13 minutes, depending on who you believe). \u201cShe liked it \u2014\u00a0which was nice,\u201d says Fastvold, who notes that she did lean over to \u201ccover her eyes a couple of times\u201d during the not-so family friendly scenes.<\/p>\n As for \u201cThe Testament of Ann Lee,\u201d Ada has only seen \u201cbits and pieces of it in the edit,\u201d says Fastvold. \u201cI\u2019ve saved the whole experience for her in Venice.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet\u2019s daughter Ada has attended seven editions of the Venice Film Festival. She\u2019s 10 years old. It\u2019s something Fastvold claims they only recently realized. \u201cI feel like she\u2019s grown up at the festival,\u201d she says. More from Variety While an impressive \u2014 not to mention cute \u2014 statistic, it merely serves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1974307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[346873,352242,312940,352243,352241,333428],"class_list":["post-1974306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-amanda-seyfried","tag-ann-lee","tag-brady-corbet","tag-brutalist","tag-mona-fastvold","tag-venice-film-festival"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/\u2018Its-Going-to-Be-a-Very-Uncomfortable-Experience.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1974306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1974306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1974307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1974306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1974306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1974306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}