The BRUTALIST received 10 nominations at the 2025 Academy Awards. The film was recognized for Best Picture, Best Director (Brady Corbet), Best Actor (Adrien Brody), Best Supporting Actor (Guy Pearce), Best Supporting Actress (Felicity Jones), Best Original Screenplay (Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold), Best Original Score (Daniel Blumberg), Best Cinematography (Lol Crawley), Best Editing (Dávid Jancsó), and Best Production Design (Judy Becker & Patricia Cuccia). It won 3 Oscars: Best Actor, Best Original Score, and Best Cinematography.

The BRUTALIST received one nomination at the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards. The film was recognized for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role. It did not win any SAG Awards.

The BRUTALIST received 7 nominations at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards. The film was recognized for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama (Adrien Brody), Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture (Guy Pearce), Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (Felicity Jones), Best Director (Brady Corbet), Best Screenplay (Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold), and Best Original Score (Daniel Blumberg). It won 3 Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama, and Best Director.

Escaping postwar Europe, a visionary architect comes to America to rebuild his life, his career, and his marriage. On his own in a strange new country, he settles in Pennsylvania, where a wealthy and prominent industrialist recognizes his talent. A film by Brady Corbet, starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach De Bankolé, and Alessandro Nivola.

Directed by American filmmaker Brady Corbet from a screenplay he co-wrote with Mona Fastvold, The BRUTALIST is an ambitious epic period drama that follows László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor and Bauhaus-trained architect who emigrates to the United States.

The first half of the film is quite compelling as we follow the unfortunate life of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), an accomplished architect from Budapest who was forced to separate from his wife and sick niece.

Perhaps no state or nation in all the history of man has been the deciding ground of so many human issues as has the state of Pennsylvania. Decisions that founded and assured survival of a great nation, that brought into being important colonization movements, that established freedom of worship in America, that founded great religions, that gave birth to America’s educational system, that launched tremendous industrial empires, that forged the steel sinews and powered the driving wheels of today’s great civilization. Here is where things happen, where decisions are made, where industry is making the greatest strides of any state or nation in the world. Pennsylvania. Land of decision for America, for American industry, and for American families.

After emigrating to the United States, he initially stays in the storage room of a furniture showroom in Philadelphia owned by his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) and Attila’s beautiful Catholic wife Audrey (Emma Laird).

When Harry Lee (Joe Alwyn) approaches Attila with a job to renovate his father’s reading room into a proper library, László takes on the project. He designs a minimalist, modern library intended as a surprise for Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (Guy Pearce), who is away caring for his dying mother.

However, Harrison Sr., a millionaire industrialist, returns home unexpectedly and becomes furious upon discovering that his son allowed strangers into his house, firing everyone on the spot. When Harry Lee refuses to pay the fee, Attila blames László for destroying his reputation and accuses him of making advances toward Audrey.

The film never clearly explains whether Audrey deliberately lied to Attila or simply wanted László out of their lives. Either way, her plan succeeds, as Attila demands László find another place to stay, withdrawing his support.

Years later, László has become a heroin addict working as a laborer when Harrison Sr. appears and apologizes for his behavior during their last encounter. Harrison reveals that after the architectural community lauded the modern library renovation, he began searching for László and discovered his accomplished career as an architect in Europe. Harrison then invites László to his house to see the library László designed.

Is there a better description of a cube than that of its construction?

At Harrison’s estate, Harrison introduces László to his personal attorney Michael Hoffman (Peter Polycarpou), who can help expedite the immigration process for László’s wife and niece.

Later, Harrison makes an announcement to his family and friends that he will commission László to create a community center as a personal tribute to his late mother, Margaret Lee Van Buren, and as a gift to the townspeople of Doylestown. The center will include a library, theater, gymnasium, and chapel.

There was a war on. Many of the sites of my projects have survived. They remain there still in the city. When the terrible recollections of what happened in Europe cease to humiliate us. I expect for them to serve instead as a political stimulus, sparking the upheavals that so frequently occur in the cycles of people hood. I already anticipate a communal rhetoric of anger and fear. A whole river of such frivolities may flow undammed. But my buildings were devised to endure such erosion of the Danube’s shoreline.

The second half of the film struggles to maintain the impact and compelling narrative established in the first half. Instead, it shifts its focus heavily to László’s personal struggles and his reunion with his wife Erzsébet, who reveals she has been diagnosed with osteoporosis, a condition she chose to keep from László until they met in person. Their niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy) is portrayed as socially awkward, understanding both Hungarian and English but choosing not to respond in either language.

The second half is further marred by gratuitous sex scenes and an unexplained rape scene that seems to come out of nowhere. The narrative becomes increasingly confusing, particularly when Harry mysteriously vanishes after Erzsébet confronts him in front of his family and friends, leaving viewers without any resolution.

Don’t let anyone fool you. No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey.

The film concludes with an epilogue showing László Tóth’s final years as a celebrated architect being honored in Venice, but by this point, the scattered narrative has made it difficult to remain invested in his work or achievements.

At 3 hours and 16 minutes, with an intermission midway through, the film’s length feels excessive and arguably unnecessary. While similarly epic films like James Cameron’s Titanic (which runs 3 hours and 7 minutes) manage to hold audiences’ attention without a break, The BRUTALIST’s inclusion of an intermission seems questionable and potentially disruptive to the viewing experience. But then again, given that the second half pales in comparison to the memorable first half, you probably wouldn’t miss much by leaving at intermission.

While the narrative and backstories are fictional, the film suggests that László Tóth’s architectural design for the Doylestown Community Center, which serves as the story’s centerpiece, draws inspiration from his traumatic experiences as a Holocaust survivor. His design employs raw concrete, exposed structures, geometric forms, and minimal ornamentation, reminiscent of the Brutalist style that emerged in the mid-20th century.

In reality, Brutalism is rooted in modernist principles emphasizing functionality, social responsibility, and material honesty. The movement aims to create buildings that harmonize with urban environments while reflecting a progressive society. The term “Brutalism” comes from the French phrase “béton brut,” meaning “raw concrete,” highlighting the style’s emphasis on unrefined materials and visible structural elements. The movement gained prominence in post-World War II Europe, where there was high demand for affordable, durable buildings during reconstruction. Influential architects like Le Corbusier helped popularize this style through their groundbreaking designs.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Le Corbusier was a pioneering architect, designer, painter, urban planner, and writer. He became a French citizen in 1930 and is celebrated as one of the most influential figures in modern architecture. His career spanned over five decades, during which he designed numerous iconic buildings and urban plans across Europe, India, and the Americas. Le Corbusier’s architectural philosophy emphasized functionalism and the use of modern materials like concrete. He is known for several key concepts in architecture, including the “Modulor,” a scale of proportions based on human measurements. His notable works include the Villa Savoye in France and the master plan for Chandigarh in India. In 2016, UNESCO recognized 17 of his projects as World Heritage Sites.

The BRUTALIST premiered at Biennale di Venezia on 1 September 2024, where Brady Corbet was awarded the Silver Lion (Leone d’argento) for Best Direction. The film was theatrically released in the United States on 20 December, by A24.

Some are fascinated by Brutalism’s simple geometric shapes and raw, exposed concrete — while others can’t stand it. What makes this architectural style so divisive?
Among this year’s top contenders at the Oscars is the film “The BRUTALIST,” with 10 nominations. A hit with critics, the three-and-a-half-hour movie has also been honored with prizes at film festivals and has won Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. Along with its epic narrative scope, the film also pays tribute to the divisive architectural style known as brutalism. Despite how widespread the building style is, brutalist architecture also has its critics, with many dismissing the constructions as ugly. Nearly every city has at least one such massive structure dominating its space, its concrete gradually darkening and weathering. “These buildings don’t care about their surroundings, they say, ‘I am a building. Deal with it.'”

The Designer Behind László Tóth
Judy Becker crafts a vision of America seen through starkly different perspectives — wealthy businessmen shaping the nation’s future and refugees struggling to carve out a place in the promised land. “When I was designing his furniture, I wanted it to be pretty Bauhaus looking. This is the first creation we see of his in the film, and it’s the first thing he does after getting out of the camps. I wanted it to feel the most Bauhaus inspired, because he’s at the lowest point of his creative powers at that point in the movie. I felt like he was going back, pulling what he could out of his memory and his roots, and getting inspired by what he sees around him in the furniture store. That was his first thing: that was the Bauhaus. And then he goes onto functional modernism for the library, and then it’s brutalism.”

How the Colossal Sets of ‘The Brutalist’ Convey the World of a Visionary Architect
Production designer, Judy Becker, who with zero architectural training and a bare-bones budget, channeled the ghost of modernists like Marcel Breuer to create the rooms and buildings that give the movie its soul. To create the design, she looked at images of concentration camps, as well as Brutalist buildings, Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Johnson Wax Building and the Skyspaces of James Turrell. The result is a minimalist concrete structure with a skylight that, at certain times of day, shines a cross of light onto an altar in Carrara marble. “I was trying to make it minimal and elegant, but to have some relationship with the dialogue.” And while it was never actually built (scenes were rigged up on location or faked using models), Becker’s design for the Institute makes a convincing argument for the beauty and power of Brutalist architecture.

Holocaust survivor epic ‘The BRUTALIST’ wins big at Golden Globes
Brady Corbet’s magnificent and gauntly mysterious, quasi-Randian epic The Brutalist dominated the night – a movie about a fictional Hungarian holocaust survivor and architect who comes to the United States and gets taken up by a capricious plutocrat. It won best drama film, best director for Corbet and best actor for Adrien Brody.

“There is no more controversial style of architecture” says The Brutalist director Brady Corbet
Corbet, who co-wrote The Brutalist, chose to make brutalism the central subject of the film, which follows fictional Hungarian architect and Holocaust survivor László Tóth as he starts a new life in America. Corbet argues that in some ways brutalist architecture mirrors the immigrant experience.While The Brutalist is set in the post-war years, Corbet believes brutalism is still very relevant today as antagonism towards immigrants continues in the US. The independent film was shot on a budget of less than $10 million, making it imperative that no money was wasted and that the sets would be functional from the start.

The Brutalist wins the Silver Lion Award for Best Director at the Venice Film Festival
The Brutalist written and directed by Brady Corbet scored a lengthy 12-minute standing ovation at Venice International Film Festival and landed Corbet the Silver Lion award for best director. The Brutalist was filmed for several weeks in Carrara, Tuscany, on April 2023. The set involved the city’s historic centre, Corso Rosselli, Drogheria Riacci, the Bettogli Quarry and the Corsi Quarry in Colonnata.