Adrien Brody made Oscars history again this year. In addition to being the youngest winner of the Best Actor award, he’s now the record-holder for longest acceptance speech in Academy Awards history, breaking a record that’s stood since World War Two.
Brody added a second Best Actor statue to his awards cabinet at the 97th Academy Awards, for his performance in The Brutalist. The honor definitely wasn’t lost on him, since he commemorated the achievement with a speech that lasted five minutes and 40 seconds.
If that sounds a little long to you, the Academy would agree, since the wrap-up music started playing around three minutes in, only for Brody to wave it away. “I will wrap up, please turn the music off,” the emotional star says. “I’ve done this before, thank you. Not my first rodeo, but I will be brief, I promise,” he adds, before going on for another minute.
This put him a good 40 seconds over Greer Garson, who set the previous record at five minutes when she won Best Actress for Mrs. Miniver in 1943. After 82 years, she’s been usurped, and judging by some of the reactions, it might be another 82 before we see anything like this again.
In particular, Cillian Murphy, who won the category last year for Oppenheimer and gave out this year’s award, became a meme in the aftermath thanks to his patience behind Brody. Truly a man who represented us all in that moment.
Brody received one of three awards The Brutalist managed to get, the other two being Best Cinematography and Best Original Score. The drama, directed by Brady Corbet, which follows a holocaust survivor’s life after moving to the United States post-war, received a large number of nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Anora, from director Sean Baker, picked up the latter two. Brody got his first Best Actor Oscar win in 2003 for The Pianist, and he’s now two for two on nods and victories in the category.
We have a full list of the 2025 Oscars winners if you’d like to see who else won, and our upcoming movies guide will keep informed on the hopefuls for next year.