The Reel World of Films
By Eileen W. Cohen
April 2025
At the 97th Academy Awards ceremony held on Sunday,
March 2, 2025, audiences heard actor Adrien Brody give the longest acceptance speech (best actor) in Oscar history. Brody starred in the film, The Brutalist and portrayed a Hungarian Jewish holocaust survivor who migrates to the United States in hopes of achieving the American dream as an architect. Brody’s speech lasted five minutes and 40 seconds, avoiding the 45 second allotment time for acceptance speeches. Brody was quite comfortable speaking so long since he was already acclimatized to speaking lengthy narratives as Laszlo Toth, the protagonist in the film, The Brutalist. The film’s run time was three hours and 34 minutes.
The average run time for films is generally around 120 minutes (two hours), but I can recall several films I’ve seen that run way longer than two hours. The 2023 film Killers of the Flower Moon ran three hours/26 minutes. The 2022 Avatar: The Way of Water ran three hours/12 minutes. The 2019 movie The Irishman ran three hours/29 minutes. The 2019 Avengers: Endgame ran three hours/1 minute. The 2023 biopic Oppenheimer ran three hours. Looking back to 2004, director, producer and writer, Peter Jackson, delivered his conclusion to the Lord of the Rings series with a four plus hour epic. Are the run times for films getting longer? Yes, and why?
Audiences prefer more immersive epic experiences on the big screen. Screenwriters and directors want more time to develop their characters more deeply. They want more creative freedom. In filmmaking there is a rise of complex visual effects that can take longer to showcase on screen and other advancements in filmmaking technology.
Storytelling in films is becoming more ambitious, more complex and complicated. Some audiences may perceive that longer movies mean more “value” for their ticket. Whether it’s a short film or a long film, going to the movies, for audiences, will continue to be “an escape from reality.” Documentaries have always been a favorite with movie audiences because of their emotional and authentic engagement as well as being inspirational and entertaining. Documentaries show us stories of real people in real circumstances.
The iconic couple of former Beatles singer/guitarist, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, will be featured in a new documentary, One to One, opening in theaters on April 11. The film is set in 1972 New York. The film focuses on their One to One charity concert for special needs children as well as their music, their relationship and their political engagements. The movie contains archival and restored footage and home movies.
Netflix is also featuring a documentary, Pangolin: Kulu’s Journey, being released on April 21. The story is about a man who rescues a baby pangolin, and embarks on a mission to rehabilitate the animal and return it into the wild. The award-winning director is Pippa Ehrlich, also known for her work on the 2020 film, My Octopus Teacher. The film shows audiences a “poignant exploration of the connection between humans and the creatures we share our world with.” Pangolins are an endangered species because there is a demand for their meat and their scales. Their habitat is Africa and Asia and they are considered the “most poached and trafficked” animal in the world. Pangolins are also known as scaly anteaters. The movie runs one hour and 28 minutes.
Enjoy spring and until next time…
Eileen is a retired NYC school administrator and college professor. She is a part time Otis resident and an ardent cinephile with a love of creative writing, cooking and grandparenting.
