“Tell me how it felt to be onstage,” the journalist played by Kodi Smit-McPhee says to Maria Callas in the new trailer for Maria. “An exultation,” she responds. “An intoxication. I thought the stage itself would burn.” Starring Angelina Jolie, Pablo Larraín’s Maria is a swooning portrait of that cocktail of emotion. 

Jolie has already earned a Golden Globe nomination for her stunning performance as Maria Callas. Previously, she won an Academy Award for her performance in Girl, Interrupted and has displayed her incredible range in films including Changeling, The Good Shepherd, Maleficent, and Those Who Wish Me Dead.  

Renowned Chilean filmmaker Larraín is known for such films as Jackie, Spencer, No, Neruda, and 2023’s El Conde, which garnered a Best Cinematography Oscar nomination for Edward Lachman’s chiaroscuro work.

Larraín says, “I’m excited to partner again with the Netflix team who care so passionately about movies. This film is my most personal work yet. It is a creative imagining and psychological portrait of Maria Callas who, after dedicating her life to performing for audiences around the world, decides finally to find her own voice, her own identity, and sing for herself. I’m deeply honored to tell this story and share it with audiences worldwide like Maria did with her life.”

Maria marks a new collaboration between Larraín and Lachman, who was also nominated for Academy Awards for his work on Carol and Far from Heaven. And it’s the second Larraín film written by Steven Knight following their work together on Spencer; Knight was nominated for an Academy Award for Original Screenplay for his work on Dirty Pretty Things and is the creator of Peaky Blinders.

Academy Award nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alba Rohrwacher, Pierfrancesco Favino, and Valeria Golino also star.

Find out more about Maria below.

Pablo Larraín

What is Maria about?

Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie is Maria Callas, one of the most iconic performers of the 20th century in acclaimed director Larraín’s operatic Maria. The film follows the American Greek soprano as she retreats to Paris after a glamorous and tumultuous life in the public eye, reimagining the legendary diva in her final days as she reckons with her identity and life.

When will Maria be on Netflix?

Maria is now streaming on Netflix. The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Aug. 29.

Is Maria based on a true story?

Yes — as a creative reimagining. Larraín grew up on a steady diet of opera, encouraged by his mother, who would take him to performances in Santiago, Chile. “We would see some of the operas that had made Callas so famous, even though she was no longer alive at that point,” the director said. “Then we’d go back home and then my mom would say, ‘All right, son, so you saw that, this is the real thing.’ She would play Maria Callas.”

The genesis of Maria as a film began there, and continued through the productions of Jackie and Spencer, Larraín’s films about the lives of, respectively, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Diana, Princess of Wales. Together with Maria, the films center on women living in the glass prison of incredible fame. “It felt like the right ending for this process of these three movies,” Larraín said. “It’s also my first movie about an artist, and it creates a different dynamic for me personally on how to connect with the character and the story.”

For Jolie, who would be given the assignment of bringing Callas to life, the role had a similar attraction. “I’ve never played a performer before,” Jolie said. “It was an honor and sometimes a bit of a head trip to be me playing her and us playing a third person onstage. As an actor, I wasn’t doing my performance of, say, Anna Bolena, but Maria’s. It was me trying to understand why she made those performance choices.” 

The actor came away with an even greater respect for Callas’ perseverance as an artist. “She couldn’t see,” Jolie said, pointing to the enormous prescription glasses Callas wore late in her life. “When she was young, she couldn’t wear those glasses and be onstage. It wasn’t accepted, so she had to memorize everything very differently. When you understand that, you see this person’s survival instinct. It wasn’t that she just wanted to be this; she had to survive and hide it and find a way around it and work twice as hard.”

Can I listen to the Maria soundtrack?

Yes. The full original motion picture soundtrack is available from Warner Classics. Although the film blends Jolie’s voice with the opera singer’s to heighten the sense of audiovisual immersion, the new album features restored audio from Callas performing the extracts of nine operas that appear in Maria. The arias include “Casta Diva” from Norma, “Vissi D’arte” from Tosca, “Sempre Libera” from La Traviata, “O Mio Babbino Caro” from Gianni Schicchi, and “Ebben? Ne Andrò Lontana” from La Wally. In addition, there are also numbers from Medea, I Puritani, Anna Bolena, and Otello.

“The music was her life,” Jolie said of Callas. “Her relationship to her voice and her body, her ability to sing, her presence onstage, and her communication with the audience — it was her life. It was the key to her as well.”

You can listen to the first single from the album below: 

Who’s in the cast of Maria?

The cast of Maria includes:

• Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted; Changeling)
• Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog, Dolemite Is My Name)
• Alba Rohrwacher (Hungry Hearts, Happy As Lazzaro)
• Pierfrancesco Favino (Padrenostro, Adagio)
• Valeria Golino (For Your Love, The Beautiful Game)

Can I see a trailer for Maria?

Yes! You can check out the trailer for Maria above. “Perhaps we could speak of your life away from the stage,” Smit-McPhee’s character suggests to Maria in the clip. “There is no life away from the stage,” she responds. That bears out in the footage we see from the film — no matter where Maria goes, she’s the center of attention, whether she likes it or not. 

Has Maria been nominated for any awards?

Yes. For the 82nd Annual Golden Globes Awards, Angelina Jolie was nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama ahead of the 2025 ceremony.

Maria was also nominated for the 97th Academy Awards for Best Cinematography for Ed Lachman’s work on the film. 

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