Angelina Jolie continues to garner praise for her buzzy new movie. At the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, the Oscar winner’s film Maria received a standing ovation at a Monday, Sept. 2 screening. A visibly emotional Jolie, 49, covered her mouth and put a hand to her chest, thanking the audience. A biopic about opera star Maria Callas, the Pablo Larraín-directed, Netflix-acquired film premiered to strong reviews at the Venice International Film Festival on Thursday, Aug. 29. Discussing her work in a post-screening panel at Telluride, Jolie recalled her nerves on the first day she sang as Callas on set. “I had seven months of opera classes, great teachers and Italian classes, and a supportive team that were going to help me,” she said. Nevertheless, “I was so nervous that morning I was out of my mind.” There were “not a lot of people in the room” that day, Jolie recalled. “And then we stepped up to eventually having more crew, eventually more extras, eventually more — up to La Scala,” she said, referring to the historic opera house of Milan, where they were granted a four-hour window to capture a scene. The Eternals star also raved about collaborating with Larraín, 48. “I knew that as long as I gave my best, Pablo would be okay with it and somehow make it work. I knew I needed to do my best to try to help solve the puzzle, but I knew that he was a kind person and he was supportive and that helped.” Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Aug. 30, Jolie revealed that she once “had somebody in my life who was not kind to me about singing,” specifying that “it was a relationship I was in.” Prior to filming Maria, she said, “I just assumed I couldn’t really sing… I just kind of adapted to this person’s opinion.” Jolie also opened up about working on “heavy moments” on the movie’s set alongside her two sons Maddox, 23, and Pax, 20, whom she shares with ex-husband Brad Pitt. At Telluride, she said, “I’m usually really good at stepping in and out [of character]. This one was very, very different.” She continued, “It wasn’t that I was nervous to sing in front of them, which I was. It was that parents don’t show that level of grief to their children, ever… But then through it, they would give me a hug and we’d [have] tea and it was this beautiful thing of communicating on a deeper level about pain.” On Saturday, Aug. 31, Jolie mingled at the Telluride fest with other artists premiering films there, including Pharrell Williams for his documentary Piece by Piece, Naomi Watts of The Friend and Danielle Deadwyler, Malcolm Washington and Pauletta Washington of The Piano Lesson. Maria, to be distributed by Netflix, does not yet have a release date.
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