---
name: "Mona Fastvold"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/mona-fastvold"
fi1m_id: "mona-fastvold"
imdb_id: "nm2178754"
tmdb_id: 1280031
wikidata_id: "Q11989842"
roles: ["Director","Writer","Producer"]
born: "7 March 1986"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 66
average_as: "director"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-10-01T00:37:33.388557+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Mona Fastvold

## Identity

Mona Fastvold

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/mona-fastvold
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** mona-fastvold
- **IMDb ID:** nm2178754
- **TMDB ID:** 1280031
- **Wikidata ID:** Q11989842
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Fastvold, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11989842, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2178754/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1280031

Director and writer. Born 7 March 1986 in Oslo, Norway.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 7 March 1986, Oslo, Norway
- **Active:** 2010–present
- **Also known as:** Mona Fastvold Lerche, Mona Fastvold-Lerche, Monica Fastvold, Mona Lerche, 莫娜費斯沃德
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 2 directing, 1 writing, 1 other
- **Frequently works with:** [Amanda Seyfried](https://film.one/person/amanda-seyfried.md), [Brady Corbet](https://film.one/person/brady-corbet.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination
- **Average Fi1m score:** 66, as director, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 68 (1), 2020s 69 (3)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Fastvold, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11989842, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2178754/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1280031

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*The Brutalist*](https://film.one/film/the-brutalist.md) (76)
- **Disney+:** [*The Testament of Ann Lee*](https://film.one/film/the-testament-of-ann-lee.md) (73)
- **Peacock:** [*Long Bright River*](https://film.one/tv/long-bright-river.md) (58)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Mona Fastvold

> Mona Fastvold makes period films about women who believe in something and keep to themselves, and she films them best when they are singing or working rather than talking. She is a director of considerable patience who does not yet quite trust her own pictures.

In *The Testament of Ann Lee* (2025) a room of people in plain wool begins to sing, then to stamp, then to spin, and one or two of them fall down, and Fastvold stops everything else to watch. She does not cut away and nobody explains. This is the thing she does: when her people are using their bodies, praying or dancing or working a field, the camera stays until the thing is finished. Celia Rowlson-Hall choreographs it and Daniel Blumberg scores it, and we sat through the first of those services braced to be embarrassed on everyone's behalf and were not. The stamping goes on long enough to stop being a number and become a congregation. Then a narrator arrives to tell us what we have just seen.

She came to this slowly. A child actor on Norwegian television, then a director of music videos, she made her first feature, *The Sleepwalker* (2014), with Brady Corbet as co-writer: a small, well-acted psychological drama that critics liked for its mood and faulted for giving so little away. Since then she has run two careers side by side. She co-writes the films Corbet directs, *The Childhood of a Leader* (2015), *Vox Lux* (2018) and *The Brutalist* (2024), and she directs her own: *The World to Come* (2020), a quiet film about two women on a farm, shot on 16mm, and then *Ann Lee*, which is her loud one. In between she has directed television, *The Crowded Room* (2023) and *Long Bright River* (2025).

Actors are the first thing to say for her. Amanda Seyfried is remarkable from end to end in *Ann Lee*, and the two of them have now worked together twice; Christopher Abbott has turned up three times. The period worlds are the second: plain wool, bare rooms, film grain, all of it done with care. The fault is the one we found in *The Brutalist*, which she wrote with Corbet. László Tóth comes up out of the hold of a ship and the Statue of Liberty swings upside down over him, and the shot got us before we had time to think about it. The film then spends three and a half hours making sure we have understood. *Ann Lee* has the same trouble in a smaller frame: between the hymns it explains itself, at length. *Long Bright River* has a good pair of sisters and eight episodes of wrapping, and we could not have told you which episodes were hers, which in television is a virtue of a kind.

"I’m always searching for the perfect choreography between the camera and the performer," she has said, and more than once she has found it. What she has not yet learnt is to stop when the dance is over. Start with *Ann Lee* for the services and *The World to Come* for the quiet; keep *The Brutalist* for an afternoon when you have the patience for its second half.

## Biography

Mona Fastvold is a Norwegian filmmaker and screenwriter. She co-wrote the screenplay for *The Brutalist* (2024) with Brady Corbet, who directed the film. She also directed and co-wrote *The Testament of Ann Lee* (2025).

Fastvold made her feature directorial debut with *The Sleepwalker* (2014), which she co-wrote with Corbet. She has directed *The World to Come* (2020) and co-written films including *The Childhood of a Leader* (2015), *Vox Lux* (2018) and *The Mustang* (2019). *The Brutalist* received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture.

Fastvold has collaborated extensively with Corbet on writing and directing projects. She previously directed music videos and worked in experimental theatre.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, hollywoodreporter.com, variety.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

### Directed (2) — the average rests on these

- *Long Bright River* (2025), Fi1m 58, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/long-bright-river.md)
- *The Testament of Ann Lee* (2025), Fi1m 73, Writer, Director, Songs, Producer, Vocals — [page](https://film.one/film/the-testament-of-ann-lee.md)

### Wrote (1)

- *The Brutalist* (2024), Fi1m 76, Second Unit Director, Executive Producer, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-brutalist.md)

### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited

- *Christine* (2016), Fi1m 68, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/christine.md)

## Complete filmography (24)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Discipline* (2026), Director
- *The Testament of Ann Lee* (2025), Director, Writer, Producer, Vocals, Songs — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/the-testament-of-ann-lee.md)
- *Atropia* (2025), Thanks
- *Long Bright River* (2025), series, Director — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/tv/long-bright-river.md)
- *The Brutalist* (2024), Second Unit Director, Writer, Executive Producer — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/the-brutalist.md)
- *The Crowded Room* (2023), series, Director, Co-Executive Producer, Executive Producer
- *On Our Way* (2023), Executive Producer
- *Triangle of Sadness* (2022), Thanks — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/triangle-of-sadness.md)
- *The World to Come* (2021), Director
- *Homemade* (2020), series, Writer
- *The Mustang* (2019), Co-Writer
- *Vox Lux* (2018), Story
- *Rosy* (2018), Executive Producer
- *Follow the Roses* (2018), Executive Producer
- *Christine* (2016), Thanks — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/film/christine.md)
- *The Childhood of a Leader* (2016), Screenplay, Producer
- *The Sleepwalker* (2014), Director, Writer, Story
- *The Other Woman* (2010), as Sonia
- *Snapshots* (2010), as Eve
- *Capo Nord* (2003), Actor
- *Hotel Cæsar* (1998), series, as Daphne Flaa
- *The Origin of the World*, Writer
- *Self-Portrait*, Director, Writer, Executive Producer
- *David Byrne: Who Is The Sky?*, Producer

## Gallery

- ![Mona Fastvold](https://film.one/media/person/7323/gallery-5ded3633a124.jpg) Mona Fastvold — Sara Komatsu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Mona_Fastvold_at_the_2025_Toronto_International_Film_Festival._01_%28cropped%29.jpg/1280px-Mona_Fastvold_at_the_2025_Toronto_International_Film_Festival._01_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Amanda Seyfried, Mona Fastvold, Shannon Woodward, and Lewis Pullman, actors and director, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the movie T](https://film.one/media/person/7323/gallery-3a47f807d65e.jpg) Amanda Seyfried, Mona Fastvold, Shannon Woodward, and Lewis Pullman, actors and director, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the movie T — Sara Komatsu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Amanda_Seyfried%2C_Mona_Fastvold%2C_Shannon_Woodward%2C_and_Lewis_Pullman_at_the_2025_Toronto_International_Film_Festival._04.jpg/1280px-Amanda_Seyfried%2C_Mona_Fastvold%2C_Shannon_Woodward%2C_and_Lewis_Pullman_at_the_2025_Toronto_International_Film_Festival._04.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Amanda Seyfried, Mona Fastvold, and Lewis Pullman, actors and director, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the movie The Testament of An](https://film.one/media/person/7323/gallery-3f91c677f938.jpg) Amanda Seyfried, Mona Fastvold, and Lewis Pullman, actors and director, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the movie The Testament of An — Sara Komatsu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/81/Amanda_Seyfried%2C_Mona_Fastvold%2C_and_Lewis_Pullman_at_the_2025_Toronto_International_Film_Festival._01.jpg/1280px-Amanda_Seyfried%2C_Mona_Fastvold%2C_and_Lewis_Pullman_at_the_2025_Toronto_International_Film_Festival._01.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Amanda Seyfried, Mona Fastvold, and Lewis Pullman, actors and director, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the movie The Testament of An](https://film.one/media/person/7323/gallery-4fafa557e18e.jpg) Amanda Seyfried, Mona Fastvold, and Lewis Pullman, actors and director, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the movie The Testament of An — Sara Komatsu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Amanda_Seyfried%2C_Mona_Fastvold%2C_and_Lewis_Pullman_at_the_2025_Toronto_International_Film_Festival._02.jpg/1280px-Amanda_Seyfried%2C_Mona_Fastvold%2C_and_Lewis_Pullman_at_the_2025_Toronto_International_Film_Festival._02.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Mona Fastvold](https://film.one/media/person/7323/gallery-473b7afea172.jpg) Mona Fastvold — Image via TMDB
- ![Mona Fastvold](https://film.one/media/person/7323/gallery-cb2ba6155923.jpg) Mona Fastvold — Image via TMDB
- ![Amanda Seyfried, Mona Fastvold, and Lewis Pullman, actors and director, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the movie The Testament of An](https://film.one/media/person/7323/gallery-cabbf104820d.jpg) Amanda Seyfried, Mona Fastvold, and Lewis Pullman, actors and director, at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) for the movie The Testament of An — Sara Komatsu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Amanda_Seyfried%2C_Mona_Fastvold%2C_and_Lewis_Pullman_at_the_2025_Toronto_International_Film_Festival._03.jpg/1280px-Amanda_Seyfried%2C_Mona_Fastvold%2C_and_Lewis_Pullman_at_the_2025_Toronto_International_Film_Festival._03.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Film Crew: Andrew Morrison, Amanda Seyfried, Mona Fastvold and Daniel Blumberg pose at a photocall for "The Testament Of Ann Lee" at Berlinale 2026 in Berlin, G](https://film.one/media/person/7323/gallery-10e54c58730a.jpg) Film Crew: Andrew Morrison, Amanda Seyfried, Mona Fastvold and Daniel Blumberg pose at a photocall for "The Testament Of Ann Lee" at Berlinale 2026 in Berlin, G — Elena Ternovaja, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Andrew_Morrison%2C_Amanda_Seyfried%2C_Mona_Fastvold_and_Daniel_Blumberg.jpg/1280px-Andrew_Morrison%2C_Amanda_Seyfried%2C_Mona_Fastvold_and_Daniel_Blumberg.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 2025: Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated), for *The Brutalist*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/mona-fastvold