The Tree of Life (film)

The Tree of Life
A series of images from the film arranged like mosaic tiles around the title.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTerrence Malick
Written byTerrence Malick
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyEmmanuel Lubezki
Edited by
Music byAlexandre Desplat
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • May 16, 2011 (2011-05-16) (Cannes)
  • May 27, 2011 (2011-05-27) (United States)
Running time
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$32 million[3]
Box office$61.7 million[4]

The Tree of Life is a 2011 American epic experimental coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick. Its main cast includes Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Jessica Chastain, and Tye Sheridan in his debut feature film role. The film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man's childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the universe and the inception of life on Earth.

After several years in development and missing its planned 2009 and 2010 release dates, The Tree of Life premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival,[5] where it was awarded the Palme d'Or. It ranked number one on review aggregator Metacritic's "Film Critic Top Ten List of 2011",[6] and made more critics' year-end lists for 2011 than any other film.[7] It has since been ranked by some publications as one of the greatest films of the 2010s,[8] of the 21st century,[9] and of all time.[10] The Tree of Life received three Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference var was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "The Tree of Life (12)". British Board of Film Classification. June 10, 2011. Archived from the original on July 7, 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  3. ^ "The Tree of Life". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  4. ^ "The Tree of Life". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Archived from the original on March 6, 2018. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  5. ^ Skiba, Justin (May 16, 2019). "Eight years ago today: The Tree of Life premieres at Cannes (May 16, 2011)". Two Ways Through Life - The Tree of Life (2011) Film Enthusiast. Archived from the original on January 12, 2021. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
  6. ^ "Film Critic Top 10 Lists - Best of 2011". Metacritic. Archived from the original on April 13, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  7. ^ "Best of 2011". CriticsTop10. January 13, 2013. Archived from the original on December 2, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  8. ^ Coyle, Jake; Bahr, Lindsey (December 13, 2019). "'Tree of Life' tops AP's best 10 films of the decade". AP News. Archived from the original on December 14, 2019. Retrieved July 31, 2020.
  9. ^ "The 21st Century's 100 Greatest Films". BBC Culture. August 23, 2016. Archived from the original on January 31, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  10. ^ "The Tree of Life (2010)". BFI. February 9, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2024.