The lights are going down and the orchestra is tuning up — it’s time for Maestro to take the stage.

Maestro is directed by Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born), who co-wrote the script with Josh Singer. Cooper also stars as cultural icon Leonard Bernstein; the film focuses on Bernstein’s lifelong relationship with actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (Carey Mulligan). You can catch a glimpse of their very first meeting and the ensuing love story in the trailer for the film above. 

Find out more about Maestro below. 

What is Maestro about?

Maestro is a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. A love letter to life and art, Maestro at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love.

“I think people will see the complexity of marriage and the many forms love can take,” co-writer Singer said. “I think those are both powerful themes.”

Listen to Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan on Skip Intro

In an episode of the podcast Skip Intro, Bradley Cooper tells Krista Smith about going “full Lenny” in his Leonard Bernstein movie Maestro, which he co-wrote, directed, co-produced, and stars in. 

“There's no all-in like Bradley’s all-in,” Carey Mulligan says about working with Cooper. “I can't think of a day where I wasn't completely delighted, even on the days when we were doing the sadder stuff. Certainly, [the] Thanksgiving Day fight, I had a complete blast, absolutely loved it.” 

Listen to Mulligan’s full Skip Intro interview below: 

For more on the incredible crafts behind Maestro, listen to prosthetic makeup designer Kazu Hiro, production designer Kevin Thompson, costume designer Mark Bridges, and editor Michelle Tesoro tell Krista Smith about their incredible journey to bring Bernstein’s universe to life.

Is Maestro in black-and-white?

Part of it is. The film’s juxtaposition of black-and-white and color photography, in multiple different aspect ratios, was always part of Cooper’s intention. “I knew for the first section I wanted to shoot in 35 millimeter, black-and-white,” Cooper told Netflix. The filmmaker cited inspirations ranging from Ernst Lubitsch to Hal Ashby to Sidney Lumet, all of which come into play as the film moves from the ’40s to the ’80s. “Working with the crew, and just communicating how important it was that the cinema of this feel like a memory, an imagination of these time periods, was so much fun,” Cooper said.

Is that really Bradley Cooper conducting in Maestro?

Yes! Cooper trained for months to capture Bernstein’s infamously energetic style of conducting. “One of my favorite Bernstein quotes is, ‘I need to conduct with every part of my body, with my shoulders, with my wrists, with my knees,’ ” Philadelphia Orchestra music director and Maestro consultant Yannick Nézet-Séguin told Netflix. “So many conductors just stopped with their wrists. Lenny’s face, it was so important.” Cooper took that advice to heart; his performance in the climactic performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 is wildly physical. The production’s expert source was pleased. “I can’t take credit at all for Bradley’s performance,” Nézet-Séguin said. “He really got Bernstein. It was insane, every gesture, every facial expression.”

Listen to the full soundtrack of Maestro.

Has Maestro been nominated for any awards? 

Yes. At the 96th Academy Awards, Maestro was nominated for seven awards, including Best Picture. Bradley Cooper was nominated for his fifth Best Actor Oscar, and Carey Mulligan picked up her third nomination for Best Actress. The film also received nominations for Best Original Screenplay (for Cooper and co-writer Josh Singer), Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Sound.

At the 81st Golden Globe Awards, Maestro picked up four nominations, including one for Best Motion Picture, Drama. Mulligan was nominated for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama, and Cooper was nominated for two awards — one for Best Director, Motion Picture, and one for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama.

Both Cooper and Mulligan were also nominated at the 30th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards: Mulligan for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role and Cooper for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.

And the film received seven nominations at the 2024 BAFTA Awards, including nominations for Cooper and Mulligan in Best Leading Actor and Best Leading Actress, respectively. Cooper was also nominated for Best Director, and for the film’s original screenplay. Maestro’s other BAFTA nominations included Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Makeup and Hair. 

When is the Maestro release date?

Maestro is now streaming on Netflix.

Who is in the cast of Maestro?

Carey Mulligan

as Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein

About the Character

Mulligan takes on the role of celebrated artist, actress, and activist Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein, who marries Bernstein after a whirlwind courtship. The two support each other’s ambitions and raise three children together. “It was just the most exciting part and felt akin to some of the roles that I’ve been privileged to play on stage, but had not found the equivalent of on screen so much,” Mulligan told Netflix. “It was so rich and there was so much breadth to her character and so much change in her life. I was just amazed that [Bradley] was asking me to do it.”

 

Mulligan has received two Oscar nominations, for her performances in An Education and Promising Young Woman. After Maestro, she’ll appear in the upcoming Adam Sandler film Spaceman.

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Bradley Cooper

as Leonard Bernstein

About the Character

Cooper, who also directed, co-wrote, and co-produced Maestro, plays celebrated composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. The film follows Bernstein from his unexpected Carnegie Hall debut to the autumn years of his life. It’s Cooper’s second film as a director, after 2018’s luscious remake of A Star Is Born. He took on the responsibility of portraying Bernstein with excitement and gratitude. “In A Star Is Born, the nuclear weapon was always Lady Gaga’s voice,” said Cooper. “For Maestro, I figured it was mine to mess up because I had a nuclear weapon and that’s Leonard Bernstein's music. Just the breadth of it, how diverse it is, and how moving it is.”

 

Cooper has been nominated for nine Academy Awards — four for acting performances (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle,  American Sniper, A Star Is Born), four for Best Picture (American Sniper, A Star Is Born, Joker, Nightmare Alley), and one for the adapted screenplay for A Star Is Born. 

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Maya Hawke

as Jamie Bernstein

About the Character

Hawke plays Jamie Bernstein, Leonard and Felicia’s eldest daughter. As she grows up, Jamie is caught up in pernicious rumors about her father’s love life that threaten her understanding of their relationship. 

 

Hawke is the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman; she made her acting debut in the 2017 Little Women miniseries on the BBC. In 2019 she made her first appearance as Scoops Ahoy employee Robin Buckley in Season 3 of Stranger Things — we last saw Robin watching Upside Down spores fall on Hawkins in the Season 4 finale.

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Sarah Silverman

as Shirley Bernstein

About the Character

Leonard’s patient sister Shirley is played by Emmy-winning comedian and actress Sarah Silverman. 

 

Silverman rose to fame as the star and co-creator of The Sarah Silverman Program, for which she nabbed an Emmy nomination.

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Gideon Glick

as Tommy Cathron

About the Character

Glick plays Tommy Cathron, a young protege of Leonard.

 

Glick is a familiar face to Broadway audiences; he’s appeared in productions of Spring Awakening, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Significant Other and To Kill a Mockingbird (for which he was nominated for a Tony Award). 

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Matt Bomer

as David Oppenheim

About the Character

Bomer appears as David Oppenheim, a musical contemporary of Leonard’s early in both of their careers (Oppenheim was a clarinet player and classical music producer). 

 

Bomer rose to prominence on the soap opera All My Children, before making his film debut in Flightplan starring Jodie Foster. He’s had a long-running collaboration with star producer Ryan Murphy, starting with American Horror Story and continuing on into films including The Normal Heart and The Boys in the Band. 

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