Cinderella

References

Cinderella

film by Branagh [2015]

Written by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

July 21, 2026

Quick Summary

The 2015 film Cinderella, directed by Kenneth Branagh, is a live-action adaptation of the classic fairy tale. The story centers on a kind young woman who, after her father's death, is cruelly mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters.

With the help of her fairy godmother, Cinderella attends a royal ball and captures the heart of Prince Charming. She flees at midnight, leaving behind a glass slipper, which the prince uses to find her. The film follows the familiar narrative of her eventual marriage to the prince, a reversal of her fortunes from hardship to happiness.12

Summary created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

3 Britannica Sources

Ask Britannica AI about this topic

Britannica doesn't have a full article on this topic, so we've curated a list of our relevant coverage.

Cate Blanchett
Hepburn, Dylan, and Academy Awards
…of the title character in Cinderella (2015). In Truth (2015) she played CBS producer Mary Mapes, who was fired after the accuracy of a segment by reporter Dan Rather on U.S. Pres. George W. Bush’s military service was called into question. Carol, a drama in which she played a married…
Read More
…of the title character in Cinderella (2015). In Truth (2015) she played CBS producer Mary Mapes, who was fired after the accuracy of a segment by reporter Dan Rather on U.S. Pres. George W. Bush’s military service was called into question. Carol, a drama in which she played a married…
Read More

Helena Bonham Carter
…of the title character in Cinderella (2015). She played a firebrand woman-suffrage campaigner, based on real-life activist Edith Garrud, in Suffragette (2015). In 2016 she reprised her role as the strangely proportioned Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland in Alice Through the Looking Glass. Bonham Carter then appeared in Ocean’s…
Read More
…of the title character in Cinderella (2015). She played a firebrand woman-suffrage campaigner, based on real-life activist Edith Garrud, in Suffragette (2015). In 2016 she reprised her role as the strangely proportioned Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland in Alice Through the Looking Glass. Bonham Carter then appeared in Ocean’s…
Read More

Kenneth Branagh
Branagh later directed Cinderella (2015), an adaptation of the classic fairy tale. In 2017 he portrayed a British naval commander in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, a World War II drama about the evacuation of Allied troops from France. That same year he directed and starred as the renowned detective…
Read More
Branagh later directed Cinderella (2015), an adaptation of the classic fairy tale. In 2017 he portrayed a British naval commander in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, a World War II drama about the evacuation of Allied troops from France. That same year he directed and starred as the renowned detective…
Read More

Disney Company
Continuing expansion: ABC, Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, and Lucasfilm
…them Alice in Wonderland (2010), Cinderella (2015), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Aladdin (2019), Mulan (2020), Cruella (2021), and Peter Pan & Wendy (2023).
Read More
…them Alice in Wonderland (2010), Cinderella (2015), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Aladdin (2019), Mulan (2020), Cruella (2021), and Peter Pan & Wendy (2023).
Read More

Derek Jacobi
…films, he reunited with the Cinderella cast onstage in Branagh’s production of Romeo and Juliet (2016).
Read More
…films, he reunited with the Cinderella cast onstage in Branagh’s production of Romeo and Juliet (2016).
Read More

Lily James
Breakout in Downton Abbey and subsequent lead roles
…title character in Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella (2015), though she had originally auditioned for the role of one of the wicked stepsisters; Elizabeth Bennet in the comedic monster movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016); and Natasha Rostova in a BBC miniseries adaptation (2016) of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. In…
Read More
…title character in Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella (2015), though she had originally auditioned for the role of one of the wicked stepsisters; Elizabeth Bennet in the comedic monster movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016); and Natasha Rostova in a BBC miniseries adaptation (2016) of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. In…
Read More