Adrien Brody on Sunday completed his return to the top of Hollywood’s A-list, winning the second best actor Oscar of his career for his searing portrayal of a Hungarian architect who emigrates to America after World War II in The Brutalist.

Both of Brody’s Academy Awards have come for Holocaust-related films.

He won in 2003 for Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, becoming the youngest man ever to triumph in the category at age 29.

This time, he bested Timothee Chalamet in Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Ralph Fiennes in papal thriller Conclave, Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice and Colman Domingo as a wrongfully convicted inmate in Sing Sing.

Cillian Murphy, the winner for Oppenheimer, presented the best actor award to Brody.

Directed by Brady Corbet, this three-and-a-half-hour film tells the story of a Hungarian immigrant architect striving to rebuild his life in the United States after World War II.

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The narrative resonated deeply with Brody, who revealed that his mother escaped from Hungary and crossed the Atlantic, mirroring the journey of his character. This marks Brody’s second Academy Award; he previously won the Oscar for Best Actor in 2002 for his role in the Holocaust film “The Pianist.”

While accepting his award, Brody emphasised the importance of learning from history, stating, “If the past can teach us anything, it’s a reminder to not let hate go unchecked.”