Adrien Brody has won the Academy Award for best actor for his role in Brady Corbet’s post-war epic The Brutalist.
In 2003, Brody became the youngest ever winner of the same award, when he took the prize for his role in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, aged 29 years, 343 days.
Now 51, Brody’s win on Sunday means he retains that record; his key competitor for the award this time round was Timothée Chalamet, 22 years his junior, for Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.
Brody’s win puts him into the elite ranks of actors who have a 100% win rate at the Oscars from two or more nominations – Vivien Leigh, Hilary Swank, Kevin Spacey, Luise Rainer, Christoph Waltz, Helen Hayes and Mahershala Ali.
“Thank you got for this blessed life,” said Brody, taking to the podium. “If I may just humbly begin by giving thanks for the tremendous outpouring of love that I felt from this world and every individual that has treated me with respect and appreciation.
“I feel so fortunate,” he continued. “Acting is a very fragile profession. It looks very glamorous and in certain moments it is, but the one thing that I’ve gained having the privilege to come back here is to have some perspective. No matter where you are in your career, no matter what you’ve accomplished, it can all go away.”
Brody went on to thank Corbet and his wife and co-writer Mona Fastvold “for what you’ve done for independent film and for your beautiful spirit and for giving your space to existence this triumph of a work.”
He then paid tribute to his “amazing partner”, the fashion designer Georgina Chapman, “who has not only reinvigorated my own self-worth, but my sense of value and my values” and to her “beautiful children, Dash and India”.
“I know this has been a rollercoaster,” he said, referring perhaps to their father, the disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein, “but thank you for accepting me into your life. Popsie’s coming home a winner!”
As the wrap-up music began to play, Brody requested they stop so he could thank his parents for creating “just such a strong foundation of respect and of kindness and a wonderful spirit … and the strength to pursue this dream.”
Brody concluded on a more political note, saying that he was on stage “once again to represent the lingering traumas and the repercussions of war and systematic oppression and of anti-semitism and racism and othering.
“I pray for a healthier and a happier and a more inclusive world, and I believe if the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked. Let’s fight for what’s right, keep smiling, keep loving one another. Let’s rebuild together. Thank you.”
In The Brutalist, Brody plays László Tóth, a fictional Hungarian modernist architect who survives the second world war, via its concentration camps, and ends up in the US.
There, he’s commissioned by tycoon Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce) to design and build a huge community centre, with a chapel and swimming pool, in memory of his late mother. The film charts Tóth’s career, his combative relationship with his mentor, and his marriage to wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones).
In his review, the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw praised Brody’s “angular fierceness and passion”, calling it “a career best for him, surely, and an advance on his performance in Roman Polanski’s The Pianist.”
Brody has taken almost all of the key awards in the run-up to the Oscars, including the Golden Globe for actor in a drama, the Critics Choice award and the Bafta. But his run was broken last weekend, when Chalamet scooped the Screen Actors Guild prize.
In January, a minor row broke out when it emerged that AI had been used to help smooth the Hungarian accents of Brody and Jones. Corbet was quick to dampen down the backlash, saying the performances were “entirely their own”.
The 97th Academy Awards are taking place in Hollywood, hosted by Conan O’Brien.
Read more about the 2025 Oscars:
Oscars 2025: Anora takes it all, Adrien Brody’s second and Wicked dresses to impress – video
