At the tail end of the 1960s, in the wake of the Catholic Church’s Vatican II reforms to transform the church into a more progressive global entity, thousands of nuns left behind their habits and ...

Her film may have far too many weighty matters on its mind to leave much room for petty resentments, but one wonders if writer-director Maggie Betts isn’t the teeniest bit annoyed that a certain other ...

The Oscar winner gets characteristically candid about playing a role she'd long hoped to land, and the challenges of being a strong woman at any age. But the Reverend Mother’s ability to wield ...

NOVITIATE focuses on a young woman preparing to become a nun in the early 1960s, just as the Catholic church is poised on the brink of the sweeping changes of Vatican II. Maggie Betts wrote and ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Maggie Betts’s path to feature film director began in an airport bookstore. “I’m not religious, but I was getting on a plane a few ...

This is FRESH AIR. This past January, Margaret Betts won the breakthrough director award at the Sundance Film Festival for her feature debut "Novitiate." It's a coming-of-age story set in the 1960s ...

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our ...

Growing up, I heard my mother, Grace, and her siblings tell stories how tough were the Sisters of Charity at St. Bridget's School, Jersey City. My mother must have been a cut-up since she evidently ...

“Novitiate” is a love story about a girl in a relationship with a guy who just doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to her. It’s a fairly typical tale, except the girl is a 17-year-old nun in ...

Maggie Betts' Sundance premiere is filled with superior performances, but Qualley is its revelation. What makes a young woman choose to be a nun? In Margaret Betts’ revelatory “Novitiate,” which ...

Margaret Betts' debut film centers on a young woman entering the convent at the beginning of the Vatican II reforms. Critic David Edelstein says Novitiate is a "terrific start" to Betts' career. This ...