Brady Corbet Offers Food For Thought Following ‘The Brutalist’s Best Motion Picture – Drama Golden Globe Win: “Final Cut Tie-Break Goes To The Director”

Following Golden Globe wins for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director – Motion Picture, The Brutalist filmmaker Brady Corbet offered some food for thought: “Final cut tie-break goes to the director.”

This, said Corbet, is “sort of a controversial statement,” though “it shouldn’t be controversial at all.”

The Brutalist proved one of tonight’s big repeat winners, setting the stage for what may be a big night at the Oscars. Still, Corbet recalled that there was a time he was told his film was “undistributable…that no one would come out and see it.”

Corbet “was told the film wouldn’t work, and I don’t resent that,” he reflected. “But I want to use this as an opportunity to lift up filmmakers — not just my fellow nominees, but all the extraordinary directors in this room.”

Continued Corbet: “Films don’t exist without the filmmakers. Please, let’s support them. Let’s prop them up. No one was asking for a three-and-a-half-hour film about a mid-century designer on 70mm, but it works. So, please just think about it, and have a great night.”

Corbet’s wins were the second and third of the night for the drama, which earlier saw Adrien Brody nab an award for his lead performance. Tonight, the film also was nominated for its lead performance from Felicity Jones and supporting turn from Guy Pearce, as well as in the categories of motion picture screenplay and original score.

Written Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist follows László Tóth (Brody), a Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor, who emigrates to post-war America to rebuild his life. After premiering at Venice, where Corbet won the Silver Lion for Best Direction, the film was released in the U.S. by A24 on December 20. In tonight’s Motion Picture – Drama category, it beat out the likes of A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Nickel Boys, and September 5.

For Corbet, the project came on the heels of another Venice drama, the pop star pic Vox Lux, starring Natalie Portman, which Neon released in 2018. And already, the team behind The Brutalist have wrapped on their next project, an under-the-radar musical starring Oscar nominee Amanda Seyfried, which is titled Ann Lee. Inspired by real events, the film is described as an epic fable about the founding leader of the Shaker Movement. Fastvold directed from her script written with Corbet and also served as producer, with The Brutalist‘s Golden Globe-nominated composer Daniel Blumberg again providing the original score.

View Corbet’s second acceptance speech of the night above.