The 2025 Academy Awards are upon us, and while the event calls for celebration and festivities in the movie industry, some filmmakers are not exactly as excited. One of them is The Brutalist director Brady Corbet, who, while thankful that his film was nominated for an Oscar, also explained why it’s a bittersweet achievement since the film made him zero dollars.
Brady Corbet’s revelation about his film came from a recent interview on WTF With Marc Maron. There, Corbet stated that the last two Hollywood films he directed didn’t exactly help him financially, this includes Brutalist which is a Holocaust movie (something Hollywood always considers for nominations).
In the interview, Corbet stated that the three advertisements he directed in Portugal were the first time he had made money in years. He then clarified that The Brutalist earned him absolutely nothing despite generating thrice its budget at the box office and attracting 10 Academy Award nominations (which includes Best Director).
“Yes. Actually, zero. We had to just sort of live off of a paycheck from three years ago. I’ve spoken to many filmmakers that have the films that are nominated this year that can’t pay their rent. I mean, that’s a real thing.”
If you look at certain films that premiered in Cannes, that was almost a year ago … I mean, our film premiered in September. So I’ve been doing this for six months. And had zero income because I don’t have any time to go to work. I can’t even take a writing job at the moment,” explains Corbet.
Moreover, Corbet has further revealed that his struggles as a filmmaker are common and that other filmmakers in Hollywood also can’t sustain themselves in their works of art. Directors are also not paid to promote a film, unlike actors and actresses. So while Brady Corbet still has to go through lengthy press tours, he and other filmmakers don’t earn money from doing so.
Still, Brady Corbet did say that he managed to live off one big paycheck from three years ago, which is presumably enough for him and his wife. And with the number of nominations The Brutalist has, Corbet may well be on his way to higher paycheck demands in case the film wins even just one of its nominations.
Why Didn’t The Brutalist Sell?
As for The Brutalist itself, it’s a WW2 Holocaust movie where a Jewish architect flees from war-torn Europe to establish a new architectural style in the US. Adrien Brody once again stars as the well-educated Jewish protagonist, similar to his role in The Pianist where he won Best Actor.
So while history might be on the verge of repeating itself for Brody and his 2024 Holocaust movie by potentially raking Academy Awards, director Brady Corbet’s experience about filmmaking appears bleak for award-winning artists. In hindsight, a movie about an architect was never really going to sell as well in the age of streaming services and superhero popcorn flicks.
So sadly, the whole Martin Scorsese sentiment about film elitism might not be applicable in our modern world anymore. Coincidentally, Francis Ford Coppola’s similar self-funded 2024 movie about an architect flopped badly.
