Alexandra Schwartz
Appearances
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Our theme music was composed and performed by Meryl Garbus of Tune Yards, with additional music by Louis Mitchell.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
This episode was produced by Max Balton, Adam Howard, David Krasnow, Jeffrey Masters, Louis Mitchell, Jared Paul, and Ursula Sommer, with guidance from Emily Botin and assistance from Michael May, David Gable, Alex Parrish, Victor Guan, and Alejandra Deckett. The New Yorker Radio Hour is supported in part by the Cherena Endowment Fund.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
We're getting close to a decade. It's true.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
The Catholic Church was made for this moment. I think 2,000 years ago, the Catholic Church basically anticipated TikTok, Instagram, X. You don't have those little Swiss guard outfits and think they're not being photographed. Oil painting is not enough.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
Yes, I profiled the director, Brady Corbett. I mean, it's a small movie comparatively. It was on a $10 million budget, but it is a huge movie, both thematically and in its form. It is close to four hours when you include its 15-minute intermission. And rather than scare away audiences, this seems to have enticed people. You know, it's an immigration story.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
It's the story of a Jewish architect following World War II. So it has a lot of themes that Hollywood might like or consider certainly to be serious. And it's really being hailed as a filmmaker's film. Uh-oh. Yeah.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
Well, as opposed to, you know, Brady Corbett, both in his profile to me and more generally, has talked quite a lot about how much importance he gives to creative control, to having final cut. This was a theme of his speech at the Golden Globes where he won for best director, for instance. He does not wish to, you know, compromise his filmmaking ideals.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
to make a movie that might be more palatable to studios or to audiences. For once, don't you want to see a director get up and say, I'm a complete compromiser.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
The nominees for the Brody Award for Best Actor are Adam Driver for Megalopolis, Ethan Harisi for Nickel Boys, James Maddio for The Featherweight, Glenn Powell for Hitman, and Jason Schwartzman for Between the Temples. And, Richard, the winner is?
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
See, I actually thought that Adrian Brody had it kind of locked up for the Oscars until this recent controversy around generative AI being used to help perfect the Hungarian accents. of Adrian Brody and Felicity Jones, who played the main couple in The Brutalist.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
The problem that people are having is that it's not about the perfection or the imperfection, the fact that it was perfected using AI. Some people say, well, it's just using, you know, using a tool to augment the work of an actor not to replace the work of an actor and other people are coming in and saying it's not fully his performance he can't get the oscar
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
I thought he was pretty good, but, you know. Grump, grump, grump.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
Now, Alex, moving on to the next category for the Brodies, the nominees for Best Actress are... Yes, they are Joanna Arnault for That Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, Maria Dizia for Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, Lea Drucker for Last Summer, Carla Sofia Gascon for Amelia Perez, and Carol Kane for Between the Temples. And the Brody goes to...
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
One actress who made the Oscars list but didn't make yours is Demi Moore, who's back with The Substance. She won the Golden Globe. It seems like she's a strong contender for Best Actress at the Oscars. What do you think about her Oscar nomination, and why is she not on the Brody's list?
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
Okay, we're getting to the big ones. It's our third category. Richard, who are your nominees for Best Director of the Brodies?
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
Well, you know, Anora is a movie that has been so critically beloved and I think also loved by audiences who have seen it. Sean Baker's movie about a sex worker in a Manhattan club who can get swept away in a car. romance question mark with the son of a Russian oligarch. And it's been called insanely to me a Cinderella story. As I remember, Cinderella has a happy ending, but never mind.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
But, you know, I just feel I loved Anora. I don't think it's going to get any Academy love. And as we know, that's OK. We do not need the Academy to validate our feelings, critical and otherwise. But still, you know, it hurts me a little to see it come up totally short. But that's what I'll say about that.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
Yeah, I'd agree with that. And one actor who's key to that scene is Yuri Barsov, who is nominated as a Best Supporting Actor. I'm rooting for him. I think he has a shot.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
Oh, yes, Richard. Slaughter it here on Mike. LAUGHTER
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
Okay, the nominees for Best Picture are Between the Temples, Blitz, Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, It's Not Me, Juror No. 2, Megalopolis, My First Film, Nickel Boys, and O Canada. And the Brody goes to...
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
I love Nickel Boys. I think it's a terrific movie and I wish more people had seen it. I understand maybe why they didn't. I think there's an expectation that you're going into a movie about pain and about black pain specifically, and it might be preferable to hold off on that. It has been nominated for Best Picture. It has no chance at the Oscars.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Richard Brody Presents the 2025 Brody Awards
I would love to see it nominated for Best Director also, but mainly I just hope people see it. What's going to win? Ooh, good question. I think the Brutalist has a shot. The Brutalist or Wicked? Oh. Shut up. Shut up!