Mother! was written and directed by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. It was produced by Scott Franklin, Ari Handel, and Aronofsky himself and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was made for an estimated budget of $33,000,000 and grossed $18,000,000 in domestic ticket sales in the United States and earned $44,500,000 in total worldwide. Jennifer Lawrence headlines an all-star cast that includes Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Kristen Wiig.
Aronofsky wrote the screenplay for Mother! in just five days, and it was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, a prize which is awarded for best film at the festival. The film received mostly positive critical reviews with Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian saying that, "Darren Aronofsky's toweringly outrageous film leaves no gob unsmacked. It is an event-movie detonation, a phantasmogorical horror and black-comic nightmare that jams the narcosis needle right into your abdomen." The film focuses on religious as well as political themes and imagery, while it also is an allegory for man's relationship to nature.