The Tree of Life (film)

The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Terrence Malick
Written by	Terrence Malick
Produced by	Sarah Green; Bill Pohlad; Brad Pitt; Dede Gardner; Grant Hill;
Starring	Brad Pitt; Sean Penn; Jessica Chastain;
Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki
Edited by	Hank Corwin; Jay Rabinowitz; Daniel Rezende; Billy Weber; Mark Yoshikawa;
Music by	Alexandre Desplat
Production; companies	River Road Entertainment; Plan B Entertainment;
Distributed by	Fox Searchlight Pictures (United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland); Summit Entertainment (International);
Release dates	May 16, 2011 (Cannes); May 27, 2011 (United States);
Running time	139 minutes;
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$32 million
Box office	$58 million

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 more than five years in production, The Tree of Life premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it was awarded the Palme d'Or. It ranked number one on review aggregator Metacritic's "Film Critic Top Ten List of 2011", and made more critics' year-end lists for 2011 than any other film. It has since been ranked by some publications as one of the greatest films of the 2010s, of the 21st century, and of all time. The Tree of Life received three Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography.