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Queens native Adrien Brody wins Golden Globe for Best Actor for performance in ‘The Brutalist’

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Adrien Brody with his Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for “The Brutalist” at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on Jan. 5, 2025.
Photo by Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Queens actor Adrien Brody won his first-ever Golden Globe on Sunday night, beating off stiff competition to win the highly coveted Best Actor in a Drama Film award at the 82nd annual film and television awards.

Brody, 51, a native of Woodhaven, was nominated for his performance in the audacious three-and-a-half-hour post-war epic “The Brutalist.” The film follows a Holocaust survivor and architect in the United States after the Second World War.

It represents the first Golden Globe for Brody, who received the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in “The Pianist” in 2003 but lost out to Jack Nicholson at the Golden Globes the same year.

Brody, born in Jackson Heights, attended I.S. 145 Joseph Pulitzer Middle School and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City. Brody also attended Long Lake Camp for the Arts in the Adirondacks and briefly studied at Stony Brook University before transferring to Queens College for a semester.

The Queens actor beat off competition from the fancied Timothée Chalamet, nominated for his performance in the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” and Ralph Fiennes, nominated for his performance in the religious thriller “Conclave.” Daniel Craig (“Queer”), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”) and Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”) were also nominated in the Best Actor in a Drama Film category.

Brody paid tribute to his immigrant roots during his acceptance speech on Sunday night, stating that the Brutalist was a story about the “human capacity for creation” and mirrored his family’s immigrant story.

Brody is the son of photographer Sylvia Plachy and retired history professor Elliot Brody. His father is of Polish Jewish descent, and his mother, born in Budapest, Hungary, has Catholic Hungarian aristocratic and Czech Jewish roots.

“The character’s journey is very reminiscent of my mother’s and my ancestral journey of fleeing the horrors of war and coming to this great country,” Brody said during Sunday’s ceremony. “I owe so much to my mother and my grandparents for their sacrifice.”

“Although I do not know fully how to express all of the challenges that you have faced and experienced, and the many people who have struggled immigrating to this country, I hope that this work stands to lift you up a bit and to give you a voice. I’m so grateful. I will cherish this moment forever.”

Brody remains proud of his Queens roots and paid a visit to Woodhaven last May, stating that the neighborhood helped make him the man that he is today.

“This is where I was born and raised. Made me the man that I am these days,” Brody said during an Instagram video documenting his return to Woodhaven.

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Brody’s victory on Sunday night capped an excellent evening for the Brutalist, which also scooped Best Film, Drama and Best Director for Brady Corbet.

“Emilia Pérez,” an equally ambitious film about a Mexican lawyer who is recruited to help a notorious cartel boss retire and transition into a woman, also won big on Sunday night, winning Best Film, Comedy or Musical, Best Supporting Actress for Zoe Saldana, Best Song for “El Mal” and Best Non-English Language Film.