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“The Testomony of Ann Lee” director Mona Fastvold has been a fixture of the impartial movie world for over a decade, and IndieWire has been documenting her work at each step alongside the best way.
Fastvold obtained the Visionary Award on the Winter 2025 IndieWire Honors, which had been held at NYA Studios West in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 4. Whereas she was honored for “The Testomony of Ann Lee” — her Amanda Seyfried-led musical in regards to the Shaker motion that Fastvold co-wrote along with her companion and frequent collaborator Brady Corbet — the auteur used her acceptance speech as a possibility to look again on her complete profession, starting with the primary time she learn a evaluate of a movie she directed.
“When my first movie premiered at Sundance in 2013, the primary evaluate that I ever learn of my very own work was from IndieWire. I do not forget that second so clearly… Fortunately, it was a form evaluate, it talked about Ingmar Bergman with hints of David Lynch,” Fastvold stated with fun, recalling IndieWire’s evaluate of “The Sleepwalker,” which marked her directorial debut. “That first evaluate meant a lot to me. It helped discover an viewers for the movie and it genuinely performed an element in securing distribution.”
She continued, “So to be standing right here now greater than a decade later and receiving the Visionary Award for our 100% independently made movie ‘The Testomony of Ann Lee’ simply feels extremely significant.”
Fastvold admitted that she nonetheless finds it surreal to be launched as an Oscar nominee (she picked up a Greatest Unique Screenplay nomination for co-writing Corbet’s “The Brutalist”), as she nonetheless identifies as an impartial filmmaker praying that every new undertaking finds an viewers. And whilst her profession reaches new important heights, Fastvold made it clear that she received’t ever abandon her roots in impartial movie.
“I’ve at all times carried out issues slightly bit in a different way,” she stated. “From how we construct the movies, and the way we produce them, and the way I run my units and the tales that I select to inform. And this story was about to turn out to be erased from historical past and forgotten. So it’s very thrilling to be acknowledged for that.”
The occasion occurred on Thursday, December 4, in Los Angeles with an intimate cocktail reception and awards ceremony. Keep tuned for extra unique editorial and social content material from the evening, together with video interviews, outtakes, and extra.
Watch Fastvold’s full acceptance speech from the 2025 IndieWire Honors above.
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