Adrien Brody could win his second Oscar thanks to The Brutalist

Adrien Brody is well on his way to earning a second Oscar after his big win at the 2025 Golden Globes on Sunday, 5 January for his work in The Brutalist.

The actor plays Hungarian-Jewish architect László Toth in Brady Corbet's epic, which also won Best Film in the Drama category. It explores 30 years of the Holocaust survivor's life in America after escaping post-war Europe with his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), and it is has earned rave reviews since it first premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

With his first big win in the bag it seems the actor is now poised to have a big comeback at the Academy Awards in March, 12 years after his first win for The Pianist in 2003 aged 29. Brody has had an interesting career trajectory since his first Oscar win all those years ago, going from the Academy Awards to Wes Anderson, B-movies, TV, and now, hopefully, back to the Oscars.

From the Oscars to B movies

After becoming the youngest ever winner for Best Actor at the Oscars —a title he continues to hold— Brody's career took an interesting turn with him following up the win with four very different films: romantic comedy Dummy, M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, sci-fi thriller The Jacket, and Peter Jackson's 2005 remake of King Kong.

King Kong was a huge box office success, and remains Brody's biggest blockbuster financially speaking, and it led to an array of unique movies, some good and some bad. On the latter end of the spectrum, Brody appeared in films like the poorly received Predator sequel Predators and 2014 action flick American Heist — the first of a number of "action hero" films he has starred in.

He also appeared in an array of Chinese blockbusters, including the poorly received historical action film Dragon Blade, in which he starred opposite Jackie Chan, 2012's Back to 1942, and 2018 Air Strike. The actor also appeared in Rian Johnson's 2008 heist caper The Brother's Bloom, which is misunderstood rather than bad but did poorly in the box office nonetheless.

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It seemed that the gripping, thought-provoking dramas like The Pianist were not coming Brody's way after his Oscar win, though it was also during this time that he started working with the director who would become his most frequent collaborator: Wes Anderson.

Joining Wes Anderson's acting troupe

Brody first appeared in a Wes Anderson film in 2007 when he appeared as one of three brother's in The Darjeeling Limited — while not the director's most beloved work, it was the beginning of a great working relationship between him and Brody.

The actor has appeared in five of Anderson's movies including the stop-motion movie Fantastic Mr. Fox, the hilarious The Grand Budapest Hotel, and the director's most recent movie Asteroid City. Brody has entered the celebrated Anderson acting troupe, and he remains one of his most frequent collaborators second only to Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson.

TV comeback

While his movie career had its ups and downs, one landscape that proved fruitful for Brody was the world of TV. The actor may not have been seen as a TV star to begin with, but an array of well-chosen roles brought him back into the forefront of people's minds.

His first TV breakthrough was FX two-part series Houdini, in which he portrayed the titular magician Harry Houdini, the limited series earned Brody an Emmy and SAG Award nomination in 2015. But it was Peaky Blinders that proved his big break on the small screen.

The actor starred in the BBC drama's third season as Luca Changretta, an Italian American gangster who comes up against Peaky Blinders leader Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy). Undoubtedly one of the show's best seasons, it gave Brody a chance to go toe-to-toe with Murphy and he delivered.

Brody went on to star in shows like acclaimed shows like Succession and Poker Face, while he also took the lead role in Stephen King-based horror series Chapelwaite.

Road to the Oscars

2024 was an exciting year for Brody as he received a huge amount of Oscars buzz from the moment The Brutalist premiered at Venice. The actor has spoken of feeling a personal connection to the movie because of his mother's Hungarian Jewish background.

The film has already won Brody an array of accolades including at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and now at the 2025 Golden Globes. In his acceptance speech for Best Actor, Brody said: "There was a time not too long ago that I felt that this may never be a moment afforded to me again."

And with his big Golden Globes win in the bag Brody has become the frontrunner at this year's Oscars, leading the pack with his toughest competition expected to be Ralph Fiennes' performance in Conclave.

The Brutalist premieres in UK cinemas on 24 January, 2024.