Scenes and images from 'The Brutalist,' a big contender for the Oscars

After American audiences got a first impression of 'The Brutalist' in December, now other people all over the world can also see the film with Adrien Brody in theaters. The Oscar contender has been on display everywhere since mid-February.

Image: A24

The film recounts how László Tóth, a Hungarian Jewish architect who survived the Buchenwald concentration camp, arrives in the United States in the years following the Second World War.

The film consists of two parts. The first is called 'The Enigma of Arrival', in which the immigrant gets help from a friend and climbs up in American society through small, tough jobs.

Image: A24

The second part of the movie shows how, after a difficult start as a traumatized survivor and immigrant, Tóth becomes recognized as a grand figure of the brutalist architectural movement.

Image: A24

Monumental in its ambition, the film lasts 3 hours and 40 minutes. As in the productions of yesteryear, there is an intermission of 15 minutes between its two parts.

Despite the appearance of a biopic, the script and its characters are entirely fictional. If you google the name of Lasló Tóth, you'll find a completely different person.

Image: A24

Adrien Brody is joined in the movie by Felicity Jones who plays his wife, Erzsébet Toth.

Image: A24

Guy Pearce has the supporting role of the wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren.

Image: A24

Interestingly, the Australian actor, who plays an American with a Dutch last name, has lived in Amsterdam for years. Even so, the many award nominations he received for his role as 'The Brutalist's Van Buren are completely due to his talent and experience as an actor. Among the nominations is one for the Academy Award.

Meanwhile, the lead actor, Adrien Brody, has already picked up many awards for his role as the creative Hungarian immigrant.

Image: A24

This project has come more than twenty years after Brody's Oscar-winning role for 'The Pianist', which also had the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany as its backdrop. The difference with 'The Brutalist', however, is that 'The Pianist' was based on a true story.

Image: Canal+

After 23 years, Adrien Brody has mounted many stages of the 2025 awards ceremonies again. They included the Golden Globe and the BAFTA Awards.

As the actor told Vanity Fair, the movie was very personal to him. "It was a real therapy for me. Through this character, I was able to pay homage to the life of my grandparents and my mother's journey."

"I think a lot of the film is about the disconnect between the myth of the American Dream and the harsh reality of life. The hopes of immigrants who have fled oppression, and the suffering they have to go through," Brody said, as quoted by Slate.

"There are going to be great opportunities for this character, but he's also going to have to work hard and deal with conditions of great poverty. I think the film represents that complexity," the actor adds.

Image: A24

Difficulties for Holocaust survivors included "the rejection of some of [their] relatives" and "the ignorance of Americans disconnected from the horror of the Shoah," Slate argues.

In addition, the movie shows "the brutality and hypocrisy of the wealthy people whose favors [Tóth] attracts."

Image: A24

In total, the film of director Brady Corbet has already won 64 awards for a total of 169 nominations. The question is not if, but how many Oscars will be added to those.

The production received ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Adrien Brody. On March 2nd, we know how many the movie receives.

What is a 'Brutalist,' actually? For many average viewers, it will not be a familiar term. Brutalism is a trend in architecture that started in the 1950s. As Wikipedia describes it, "Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design."

Image: Film poster by Siddharth Vinod / A24

A known example of brutalist architecture is the AT&T Long Lines Building in New York City. Standing tall at Thomas Street in Manhattan, the windowless structure was made by brutalist architect John Carl Warnecke in 1974.

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