Pirelli's 2017 calendar features Oscar prize winners

The 2017 Pirelli Calendar is finally here.

Lensed by renowned photographer Peter Lindbergh, this years line-up features a star-studded ensemble of Hollywood actresses, including Jessica Chastain, Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong'o, Charlotte Rampling, Lea Seydoux, Uma Thurman, Alicia Vikander, Kate Winslet, Robin Wright, and Zhang Ziyi. A large part of the high-profile actresses, have already been awarded an Oscar. The line-up also features Anastasia Ignatova, a Political Theory professor at Moscow State University, as special guest.

The 44th edition of Pirelli's legendary creation was shot over a period of four weeks in May and June of this year at five personally selected locations on two continents: Berlin, Le Touquet, London, Los Angeles and New York. A total of forty images, both portrait and ambient shots, were taken in the studio or outside on location around the city.

Lindbergh has lensed the Pirelli calendar twice before: First in 1996 when he photographed Carre Otis, Eva Herzigova, Nastassja Kinski and Tatjana Patitz in the El Mirage desert in California and later in 2002 edition at Paramount Pictures studios, Los Angeles. He also worked with Patrick Demarchielier to shoot Pirelli's 50th anniversary calendar in 2014.

'I wanted to show women in a different way: I did this by asking actresses who have always played an important role in my life and to try and get as close to them as possible through my photos. As an artist, I feel I have a responsibility to free women from the idea of eternal youth and perfection. Society's ideal of perfection is impossible to achieve', Lindbergh explained at the international press launch of the new calendar in Paris.

Check out a few of Lindbergh's stunning portraits below and sound off on twitter @fmd1_com using the hashtag #lovefmd.

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