Adrien Brody at his best: Five essential films to revisit on the Oscar winner’s birthday

Today marks the birthday of Adrien Brody—Hollywood’s brooding chameleon and the youngest ever Best Actor Oscar winner. Known for his angular features, intense eyes and roles that flirt with emotional ruin, Brody doesn’t just play characters—he inhabits them. As the actor turns 51 (and somehow hasn’t aged a day since The Pianist), we round up five of his most unforgettable screen performances.

As Adrien Brody turns a year older, we revisit five standout roles that define his career—from haunting dramas to surreal comedies and sci-fi thrillers

Brody’s latest—and arguably boldest—outing as a Hungarian-Jewish architect rebuilding his life in post-war America is nothing short of hypnotic. Directed by Brady Corbet, The Brutalist is as much a visual feast as it is a slow-burn character study. Brody’s performance, quiet yet deeply expressive, anchors the film’s mood of displacement and ambition. It's an arthouse gem that reminds us he’s still taking risks, still redefining himself.

In Wes Anderson’s pastel-hued, precision-composed world, Adrien goes full villain mode as Dmitri Desgoffe-und-Taxis. With slicked-back hair, scowling menace and comic timing that’s pitch-perfect, he’s deliciously despicable. It's a side of the actor we don’t see often—stylised, theatrical, and yet fully in control. Proof that even in an ensemble, he commands the screen.

In this gritty indie drama, Adrien plays a substitute teacher navigating a broken education system and his own emotional numbness. It's one of his most underrated performances—subdued, aching, and incredibly human. The film doesn’t pull punches, and neither does Adrien, turning what could’ve been a one-note role into a slow-burning portrait of quiet despair.

A bonkers sci-fi horror that’s part Frankenstein, part moral quandary, Splice sees Brody playing a geneticist who helps create an experimental human-animal hybrid. The plot veers into some truly bizarre territory, but Brody grounds it with conviction and curiosity. It’s genre cinema done right, and he brings both intelligence and intensity to a role that could’ve easily veered into parody.

The film that changed everything for Adrien. His portrayal of Władysław Szpilman, a Jewish pianist struggling to survive the Holocaust, earned him a well-deserved Academy Award at just 29. Raw, haunting and devastatingly human, the actor famously lost over 30 pounds and isolated himself emotionally to tap into the role. The result? A performance that still hits like a punch to the gut over two decades later.