Baftas 2025: Adrien Brody wins ‘Best Leading Actor’
Adrien Brody has won the Bafta for ‘Best Actor’ for his role in Brady Corbet’s sweeping historical drama The Brutalist.
Brody was up against tough competition, including Timothée Chalamet for A Complete Unknown, Ralph Fiennes for Conclave, and Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice. Throughout the awards season, however, Brody has been heavily favoured to win for his demanding and emotionally nuanced role as fictional Hungarian architect László Tóth.
In his acceptance speech, Brody thanked Bafta and his fellow nominees and said, “I want to thank the British public for embracing me and my creative endeavours. England has felt quite a bit like home lately. I want to thank Brady and Mona [Fastvold] for your artistic integrity and perseverance and for taking me along this amazing journey and destination.”
Corbet’s three-and-a-half-hour film follows Tóth, a Holocaust survivor, as he immigrates to America after World War II and attempts to fulfil the American dream.
A wealthy patron (Guy Pearce) becomes both his lifeline and his greatest source of conflict as he tries to maintain his artistic integrity. The film also explores themes of trauma, particularly in Tóth’s relationship with his wife, played by Felicity Jones, from whom he was separated during the war and believed to have been killed.
The Brutalist was nominated for nine Baftas, including ‘Best Film,’ ‘Best Director’ for Corbet, and ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for Corbet and Mona Fastvold. It has already won ‘Best Director’ and is a favourite at next month’s Oscars, earning ten nominations.
The film faced a minor scandal last month when editor Dávid Jancsó revealed that he had used artificial intelligence software to alter Brody and Jones’s accents when they are speaking in Hungarian dialect, but it does not seem to have made a meaningful difference for Bafta voters.
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