Nuremberg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	James Vanderbilt
Screenplay by	James Vanderbilt
Based on	The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai
Produced by	Richard Saperstein Bradley J. Fischer James Vanderbilt Frank Smith William Sherak Benjamin Tappan Cherilyn Hawrysh István Major George Freeman
Starring	Russell Crowe Rami Malek Leo Woodall John Slattery Mark O'Brien Colin Hanks Wrenn Schmidt Lydia Peckham Richard E. Grant Michael Shannon
Cinematography	Dariusz Wolski
Edited by	Tom Eagles
Music by	Brian Tyler
Production companies	Bluestone Entertainment Walden Media Mythology Entertainment Titan Media
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates	September 7, 2025 (2025-09-07) (TIFF) November 7, 2025 (2025-11-07) (United States)
Running time	148 minutes[1]
Country	United States[2]
Languages	English German
Budget	$7–10 million[3]
Box office	$56.9 million[4][5]

Nuremberg is a 2025 American psychological thriller historical drama film written, co-produced, and directed by James Vanderbilt. Based on the 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai, the film follows U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) seeking to carry out an assignment to investigate the personalities and monitor the mental status of Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) and other high-ranking Nazis in preparation for and during the Nuremberg trials. Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Mark O'Brien, Colin Hanks, Wrenn Schmidt, Lydia Peckham, Richard E. Grant, and Michael Shannon have supporting roles in the film.

The film had its world premiere in the Gala Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2025.^[2] It was released theatrically in the United States by Sony Pictures Classics on November 7, 2025. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with particular praise for Crowe's performance.

On 7 May 1945, one day before Nazi Germany surrenders to the Allies, Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, Hitler's former second-in-command, surrenders with his family to U.S. forces in Austria. At the same time, Associate Justice Robert Jackson is informed of Göring's arrest, which prompts a discussion with his secretary, Elsie Douglas, about establishing an international tribunal to charge the surviving Nazi leadership with war crimes. Douglas is conservative, noting that such potential action has no legally-established international precedent; however, Jackson is enthusiastic, envisioning the tribunal as an opportunity of establishing one. Initially, the U.S. is reluctant to support Jackson's plans in favor of summary executions, however, Jackson persists by winning the support of Pope Pius XII by implying his knowledge of the latter's controversial relationship with the Nazi regime.

Elsewhere, U.S. Army psychiatrist Lt Col. Douglas Kelley is summoned to Bad Mondorf, Luxembourg, to evaluate the mental health of 22 Nazi leaders under Allied custody, including Göring, who have been selected for prosecution. Reporting to the warden, Col. Burton Andrus, Kelley begins his assignment with the assistance of interpreter Sergeant Howard Triest. Initital meetings with Göring are civil, however other prisoners such as Robert Ley and Julius Streicher react with contempt. Personally, Kelley appraises Göring as intelligent yet highly narcissistic, and plans to use his notes of those interactions to write a tell-all book for personal profit.

In due course, Jackson and British barrister Sir David Maxwell Fyfe are made prosecuting counsels for the newly-established International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany, which in turn charges the detainees with crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and conspiracy. In the lead up to the trial, Kelley and Göring interact warmly, with Göring going so far as to helping Kelley examine former-Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, in exchange for being allowed to write to his wife Emmy and daughter Edda. Kelley also develops a rapport with them, acting as a courier between them and Göring. In private, Kelley is approached by Jackson to report the prisoners' legal defense to him in order to shape the prosecution.

Before the trial can commence, Ley commits suicide by strangling himself in his cell, leading Andrus to summon psychologist Gustave Gilbert to provide a second opinion. At the trial's beginning, Jackson delivers a strong opening statement highlighting the need for accountability, while Göring is silenced and instead ordered to enter a plea; he and the other prisoners plead not guilty. During adjournments, Kelley learns that Göring's family had been arrested in connection with his reported art thefts and requests Andrus to intervene; Göring later learns of the development from Gilbert.

When the trial recommences, the prosecution shows footage displaying the regime's atrocities committed inside its concentration camps, causing an upset Kelley to confront Göring, who had previously denied any knowledge of such actions. Göring stands by his unawareness, and resorts towards denying the atrocities or comparing them with alleged crimes committed by the Allies. Dismayed, Kelley proceeds to get drunk and unwittingly reveals his private discussions with Göring to Lila, a journalist with The Boston Globe, who subsequently publishes the information. Infuriated, Andrus relieves Kelley and orders him out, but not before revealing that he was able to get Emmy and Edda released. While leaving, Triest reveals to Kelley that he is a German-born Jew, and that while his younger sister was able to escape to Switzerland, his parents were executed by the Nazis in 1942.

Triest warns that the regime's cruelty was unchallenged because of a general impassivity towards evil, which compels Kelley to stay and instead submit all his private notes on Göring to Jackson and Fyfe, predicting that Göring plans to use the trial to defend the regime's conduct. Correct to his predictions, Göring is able to evade Jackson's cross-examination, and proceeds to declare that his decree of the Final Solution was actually intended as a complete solution focused on the emigration of Germany's Jews rather than extermination. In turn, Jackson's ire towards Göring earns him a stern rebuke by the tribunal, which prompts Fyfe to take over. Fyfe exploits Göring's vanity and goads him into overtly admitting his continued loyalty to Hitler, which finally corners him. At the trial's conclusion, Göring is sentenced to death by hanging.

Kelley pays Göring a final visit before leaving, where he comes to terms with Göring's true nature. On 15 October 1946, the night before his scheduled execution, Göring commits suicide by ingesting cyanide, much to Andrus' anger. The remaining executions proceed as scheduled, with Streicher suffering a nervous breakdown. Triest, who had yearned to reveal his Jewish heritage to Streicher before his execution, is instead compelled to gently assist him to the gallows. The execution goes poorly, with Streicher having to be weighed down on the noose to die.

Kelley, traumatized by his experiences at Nuremberg, returns to the U.S. and publishes his tell-all, 22 Cells in Nuremberg, which he has trouble promoting. The film's intertitles reveal that Kelley resorted to alcoholism and spent the rest of his life in vain warning about the possibility of a future regime parallel to the Nazis, before committing suicide in 1958 by ingesting cyanide; Triest managed to reunite with his sister; while Jackson's prosecutorial efforts at Nuremberg laid the foundation for international prosecution of war crimes.

In December 2023, it was announced that James Vanderbilt was set to write and direct the film, with Rami Malek, Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon starring.^[6] Additional casting with Richard E. Grant, Leo Woodall, John Slattery and Colin Hanks was announced in January and February 2024.^[7][8]

Filming began in Budapest, Hungary in February 2024 and wrapped by May 2024.^[9][10]

In June 2025, Sony Pictures Classics acquired North American and worldwide airline rights to the film and scheduled a release for it in the U.S. on November 7, 2025.^[11] The film's early special release with a Q-and-A session with Vanderbilt and Crowe was on October 27, 2025.^[12] At the premiere in Toronto, it received a four-minute standing ovation, one of TIFF's longest standing ovations ever.^[2][13]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 195 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Driven by a commanding performance from Russell Crowe, Nuremberg is a handsomely crafted historical drama, but its measured pacing and emotional restraint keep it from fully realizing the complexity of its subject."^[14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 61 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[15]

Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars, writing, "It's a solid film of [a] kind that used to be more common: an earnest, unpretentious Oscar Movie that wants to be seen by everyone, and consequently doesn't try to be too complex or arty. It wants to educate and inspire as well as entertain, and isn't shy about that ambition."^[16]

Writing for The Daily Beast, Nick Schrager found the film to be flawed in spite of the star actors in the film, and critiqued Vanderbilt's direction by stating, "Nuremberg is constructed like an old-fashioned awards-bait period piece, complete with trailer-ready lines of dialogue that put a neat-and-tidy button on scenes. There's a mechanical quality to Vanderbilt's plotting that negates the unexpected and enlightening."^[17]

In a review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw rated the film two out of five stars, noting: "All of these actors do their best, but the figure of Kelley himself is a ridiculous cartoon."^[18] He cited Rami Malek's performance as "deeply silly." Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times described the film as "well-intentioned and elucidating despite some missteps."^[19]

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref.
AACTA International Awards	February 6, 2026	Best Film	Nuremberg	Nominated	[20]
		Best Actor	Russell Crowe	Nominated
AARP Movies for Grownups Awards	January 10, 2026	Best Supporting Actor	Michael Shannon	Nominated	[21]
		Best Screenwriter	James Vanderbilt	Nominated
		Best Ensemble	Nuremberg	Nominated
		Best Period Film		Nominated
Artios Awards	February 26, 2026	Feature: Studio or Independent: Drama	John Papsidera and Anna Kennedy; Emily Bohbrink (associate casting director); Francesco Vedovati (location casting director)	Nominated	[22]
Camerimage	November 22, 2025	Golden Frog	Dariusz Wolski	Nominated	[23] [24]
Cinema for Peace Awards	February 16, 2026	Cinema for Peace Dove for The Most Valuable Film of the Year	Nuremberg	Nominated	[25] [26]
Golden Trailer Awards	May 29, 2025	Best Foreign Drama	TNT4 Channel	Won	[27] [28]
		Best Foreign Independent Trailer		Nominated
		Best Foreign Music		Nominated
		Best Foreign Thriller		Nominated
		Most Original Foreign Trailer		Nominated
Heartland International Film Festival	October 20, 2025	Overall Narrative Audience Choice Award	Nuremberg	Honored	[29]
New York Film Critics Online	December 15, 2025	Best Picture		Nominated	[30]
San Sebastián International Film Festival	September 27, 2025	Ateneo Guipuzcoano Award	James Vanderbilt	Honored	[31]
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association	December 7, 2025	Joe Barber Award for Best Portrayal of Washington, D.C.	Nuremberg	Nominated	[32]
Zurich Film Festival	September 27, 2025	Lifetime Achievement Award (Golden Eye)	Russell Crowe	Honored	[33]

• Judgment at Nuremberg, a 1961 American film
• Nuremberg, a 2000 TV mini series also focusing on the psychology behind the actions of the Nazis, starring Alec Baldwin as Jackson and Brian Cox as Göring
• Nuremberg, a 2023 Russian film

• Nuremberg at IMDb