Fresh off its Golden Globes wins for Best Drama, as well as Best Director and Best Actor, The Brutalist will open at Sag Harbor Cinema on January 17th. Co-writer Mona Fastvold and production designer Judy Becker will join the Cinema for a special screening on Sunday, January 19th at 3pm followed by a Q&A. 

Fastvold, an acclaimed director on her own (her last feature, The World to Come, premiered at the 2003 Venice Film Festival), co-wrote The Brutalist with her partner Brady Corbert, along with two of his other films The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux. Production designer Becker (Carol, American Hustle, Brokeback Mountain, I’m Not There) was responsible for both designing the visual concept of The Brutalist and for developing and envisioning the body of work of its protagonist, the fictional character László Toth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian architect who escapes Europe during WWII and arrives in America to rebuild his life. 

“Hailed as a new American masterpiece and called a ‘monumental’ achievement — by Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, Time Out, and The Hollywood Reporter — The Brutalist was seven years in the making, shot in three countries on film in large format VistaVision, and almost entirely independently financed,” says Sag Harbor Cinema’s Artistic Director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan. “The depth, vigor, and boldness of its vision solidify 36 year old Corbet as one of the most exciting and daring directors working in contemporary cinema and makes his collaboration with Fastvold an inspiring one to watch.” 

The Brutalist had its world premiere at Venice Film Festival in September 2024 where it received the Silver Lion. The film also received Best Film and Best Actor (Adrien Brody) awards at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and most recently received three Golden Globe wins for Best Drama, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Drama (Adrien Brody).

Tickets are available at the box office or sagharborcinema.org

ABOUT THE FILM

THE BRUTALIST

Directed by Brady Corbet

USA/UK/Hungary, 2024; 215 mins, in English and Hungarian, Italian, Hebrew, and Yiddish with English subtitles

Rated R

Escaping post-war Europe, visionary architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) arrives in America to rebuild his life, his work, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) after being forced apart during wartime by shifting borders and regimes. On his own in a strange new country, László settles in Pennsylvania, where the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) recognizes his talent for building. But power and legacy come at a heavy cost...Also starring Joe Alwyn (The Favourite), Raffey Cassidy (White Noise), Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac), Alessandro Nivola (American Hustle), Isaach De Bankolé, and Emma Laird. 

ABOUT THE GUESTS

ABOUT MONA FASTVOLD:
Mona Fastvold is a New York and Oslo based director/ writer. She made her directorial debut in 2012 with The Sleepwalker, which went on to premiere at Sundance in U.S. competition and was later distributed by IFC FILMS. The Sleepwalker was co-written by Brady Corbet (who also starred).

Corbet and Fastvold continued their close collaboration with The Childhood of a Leader, which had its international premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it won Best Director and Best First Feature, and earned Fastvold an Independent Spirit Nomination. Fastvold frequently writes for and in collaboration with several directors including Brady Corbet with Vox Lux and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre with Mustang, a feature film distributed by Focus Features. Fastvold directed her second feature The World to Come, starring Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby. The acclaimed film premiered in official competition at the Venice Film Festival 2020 and was distributed by Sony Pictures worldwide. Most recently she directed several episodes of Apple TV’s The Crowded Room, starring Tom Holland and Amanda Seyfried. She is currently at work on her their feature.

ABOUT JUDY BECKER:

Judy Becker, a native New Yorker, began her film career in New York’s fertile independent film community. Building on a lifelong interest in art and design, she started in the film business as a P.A. and worked her way up, learning on the job. A cinephile, she chooses her projects carefully, and has worked with some of today’s most acclaimed directors.

Becker has collaborated multiple times with David O. Russell (American Hustle, for which she received Oscar and BAFTA nominations; The Fighter; Silver Linings Playbook; Joy; and Amsterdam); Todd Haynes (Carol, for which she received a BAFTA nomination, and I’m Not There); Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Ruby Sparks and The Battle of the Sexes); and Ryan Murphy (Feud: Bette and Joan, for which she received an Emmy nomination; American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace; Pose; Ratched; and The Boys in the Band.) Other collaborations include Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain); Lynne Ramsay (We Need to Talk About Kevin), and Steve McQueen (Shame). She also designed the pilot of Lena Dunham’s Girls, for which she won an Art Directors Guild Award.

Becker lives in Manhattan’s Washington Heights with her husband, the editor Michael Taylor. She has spent almost every summer of her life in Truro, MA, and credits the art houses of Provincetown as playing a major role in her cinematic education.

About the Sag Harbor Cinema

As a not-for-profit 501(c)3, community-based organization, Sag Harbor Cinema is dedicated to presenting the past, present and future of the Movies and to preserving and educating about films, filmmaking, and the film-going experience in its three state-of-the-art theaters. The Cinema engages its audiences and the community year-round through dialogue, discovery, and appreciation of the moving image – from blockbusters to student shorts and everything in between. Revitalized and reimagined through unprecedented community efforts to rebuild the iconic Main Street structure after a fire nearly destroyed it in 2016, SHC continues a long historic tradition of entertainment in the heart of Sag Harbor Village.