The film stars Vanessa Kirby, Shia LaBeouf, Molly Parker, Sarah Snook, Iliza Shlesinger, Benny Safdie, Jimmie Fails, and Ellen Burstyn as the family and associates of Martha (Kirby) involved in her traumatic childbirth, baby loss, and a subsequent court case against the midwife, Eva (Parker), whom Martha's mother Elizabeth (Burstyn) blames for the baby's death.

An international co-production of the United States and Canada, the film is partly based on Mundruczó and Wéber's stage play of the same name and explores themes of grief and loss.

It was released in select theaters on December 30, 2020, before beginning to digitally stream on Netflix on January 7, 2021, and became noted for its long take childbirth scene at the start of the film.

The film received generally positive reviews, with praise for the actors, particularly Kirby and Burstyn, though elements of the plot were criticized.

Martha struggles with nausea and pain during contractions and, when she reaches ten centimeters, Eva realizes the baby's heart rate has dropped dangerously low.

The play Pieces of a Woman was created by Kornél Mundruczó and Kata Wéber, a couple who experienced miscarriage during pregnancy.

The couple did not initially talk about their experience or process their grief, but Mundruczó read a scene written in Wéber's notebook depicting a woman and her mother debate child loss and felt that it needed exploration.

[3][4] Following (Polish) Maja, her senile mother, and her Norwegian husband, the play contained two scenes: the childbirth and a family dinner in the aftermath.

[7] In developing the play for the screen, Mundruczó chose to set it in Boston, thinking the city's historic Irish Catholic culture was a good translation of the conservative Polish society of the original.

"[13] The film explores themes of trauma, which Dr. Lipi Roy writing for Forbes found relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic when it was released;[14] Mundruczó and lead actress Vanessa Kirby both also commented that the loss in the film can speak to people who have been bereaved in the pandemic,[15] and Wéber spoke of the relevance of the isolation and inability to talk about feelings that Martha experiences.

[17] In the film, Martha's family are all physically present but not emotionally available to her, and they each find different ways to process their loss, according to Roy.

[14] Midwives speaking with NOW also noted that films exploring grief often do so by presenting it as a bonding experience, while Pieces of a Woman focused on the differences.

[7][17] Mundruczó was a fan of The Crown and wanted to cast Kirby after watching her as Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon and thinking her performance resembled Claudia Cardinale and Catherine Deneuve.

[27][17] In December 2019, Jimmie Fails, Ellen Burstyn, Molly Parker and Iliza Shlesinger joined the cast of the film,[28][29] followed by Sarah Snook and Benny Safdie in January 2020.

[35] Writer Wéber did not anticipate a one-shot take,[36] which Mundruczó planned from the start,[17] though knew she wanted all the details present.

Mundruczó did not do another practice, telling Vulture that "if you are very choreographed, then the whole shot can be really cold and calculated, [and] when you don't fix anything, it [can] become a Dogme style of shaking camera.

[5] Richard Brody of The New Yorker described the scene as a "mere stunt", saying that it is emotionally empty until the last moments and its significance to the rest of the film is an "ultimately pointless symbolic function: as evidence.

"[31] Vulture's Hillary Kelly instead felt that the scene "is a technical trick, but an emotional lever, too, a reminder that labor is a process you cannot wriggle out of once it has begun.

[39] The score consisted of piano, celesta and oboe owing to Mundruczó's insistence of classical music and was recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in New York, Budapest and Germany.

[43] A trailer was released in November 2020,[45][35] and the film opened in select theaters on December 30, 2020, before beginning to digitally stream on Netflix on January 7, 2021.

The website's critics consensus reads: "Pieces of a Woman struggles to maintain momentum after a stunning opening act, but Vanessa Kirby's performance makes the end result a poignant portrait of grief.

[58] The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney opined that while Kirby's performance is "the movie's shattered core", the film was undermined by a "pedestrian" courtroom speech and awkwardly upbeat ending.

[55][52][59] Distributor Netflix initially campaigned for Kirby, LaBeouf, Burstyn, Mundruczó, Wéber, Safdie, Fails, and Snook for awards contention in acting, directing, and writing categories, but removed LaBeouf from their publicity after assault allegations were made against him by former girlfriend FKA Twigs in late 2020[60] to maintain focus on the film and its significance.