Oscars 2025: Why ‘The Brutalist’ Will Break Records at the Academy Awards This Year

2025’s Oscars season is approaching, and people are already eager to watch brilliant films, witness surprising decisions, and, of course, debate about which movie will receive the highest honor of the year. Each year, the Academy Awards highlight the greatest filmmakers and their films, and this year, one of the top favorites is Brady Corbet’s historical drama The Brutalist.

Adrien Brody in The Brutalist | Credit: A24/Universal Pictures/Focus Features

The Brutalist is a three-and-a-half-hour movie based on a Hungarian-Jewish immigrant architect, focusing on themes like survival and the power of art in post-Holocaust America. Boasting a very strong cast with Adrien Brody in the leading role and Guy Pearce as well as Felicity Jones in supporting roles, The Brutalist has made it into the awards season. But what exactly makes it a strong contender for the Oscars?

The Brutalist‘s critical acclaim and industry recognition

The Brutalist wins Best Picture – Drama at the 2025 Golden Globes | Credit: Golden Globes YouTube

The Brutalist has been embraced by critics and experts, making a serious bid for this season’s awards. It is currently rated 93% by the critics and 88% by the audience on Rotten Tomatoes. The film has been a big winner at the Golden Globes, taking the Best Motion Picture – Drama award, as well as the Best Director award for Brady Corbet and Best Actor for Adrien Brody.

Such victories are considered indicators of the Oscar winners, and the film’s momentum continues to grow steadily. The Brutalist has earned accolades from the New York Film Critics Circle, which listed it as the Best Picture of the year. Praise from such organizations is a booster and a clear sign that there is strong support within the industry.

Due to this, there are expectations that The Brutalist will have many Oscar nominations this year in the categories for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Score, among others. For many years, movies that started dominating the early awards season seemed perfect for the Oscars and all other awards and The Brutalist seems to follow the right track so far.

The Brutalist’s theme and story might also be more of interest to the Academy voters because a heavy theme with artistic subtlety historically had more appeal. There is much of the movie’s story that seems very intimate and personal, and the difficulties that are portrayed are relatable experiences for every person, and this might make a better impact on voters.

The Brutalist is packed with powerful performances

Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones in The Brutalist | Credit: A24/Universal Pictures/Focus Features

One of the most discussed topics in the movie, perhaps, is the brilliant performance by Adrien Brody as the immigrant architect with a traumatic past. The performance is evidence of Brody’s depth as an actor and his capability to develop and explain the feelings of the character who attempts to build a new life after a trauma.

For the Best Actor- Drama, his performance has earned him a Golden Globe award, which makes him the favorite in the same category for the Oscars. Apart from him, the supporting performances were also nominated for Golden Globes and they did add much to the overall impression of the film.

The film will most probably earn the Best Supporting Actor nomination for Guy Pearce and the Best Supporting Actress nomination for Felicity Jones’ passionate acting. The casting of such actors and actresses has added the shades of true-to-life feeling to the story, which made the movie characters very convincing.

The impact of these performances has helped place this film on the trajectory for awards season. Academy voters look for feature movies that present great dramatic performances, and The Brutalist gives some of the best performances from 2024. Thanks to Brody and supported by Pearce and Jones, viewers can expect back-to-back familiar faces on Oscar night.

Technical and artistic success of The Brutalist

Adrien Brody and Guy Pearce in The Brutalist | Credit: A24/Universal Pictures/Focus Features

Apart from narrative and performance, The Brutalist was a work of technical and aesthetic accomplishment. The movie has great cinematography by the director of photography, Lol Crawley, who was simply brilliant. Every shot is well set, focusing on contrasting the protagonist’s past with his present-day life.

The function of such visual symbolism complements the interaction of the characters, which adds an affective emotional resonance to the movie. Not surprisingly, the film will most likely be nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design for the Oscars 2025. Given such a solid foundation of technical and artistic content, The Brutalist is also capable of claiming Best Costume Design and Best Original Screenplay as well. 

The editing is one of the most important aspects of the majority of epic period dramas, and it is certainly worth mentioning that the film’s complex plot is skillfully combined by the editor Dávid Jancsó, who made smooth transitions throughout the movie even though it is quite long.

Adrien Brody in The Brutalist | Credit: A24 YouTube

In an interview with The Film Stage, Jancsó revealed it took him about two years to edit the movie in different formats and The Brutalist should be able to clinch the Oscar for Best Film Editing due to such technical perfection.

That is complemented by Daniel Blumberg’s haunting music that uplifts the movie. The music complements the film’s mood and tone and helps the viewers to get a lasting experience. Blumberg’s work will most likely be nominated for Best Original Score, and with his previous wins, like the Boston Society of Film Critics and St. Louis Film Critics Association awards, the composer might possibly win his first Academy Award as well.

2024 was a year full of great films and some not-so-great ones, and The Brutalist definitely belongs to the former category. The movie has been critically acclaimed, backed by powerful and technically brilliant performances, which puts it on the right track to win the 97th Academy Awards. As the final nominations will be announced on January 17, the movie is set to make history with probable wins in the Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor categories.

The Brutalist is available in theaters.