The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) witnessed one of its most stirring premieres this weekend as Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Rami Malek led the charge in Nuremberg, a gripping historical drama that revisits the landmark war crimes trials of Nazi leaders in the aftermath of World War II.
The film is adapted from Jack El-Hai's 2013 non-fiction book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist drew a roaring four-minute standing ovation, setting an early high point for the festival's 50th edition.
Directed by James Vanderbilt, Nuremberg chronicles the proceedings against 22 of the Third Reich's most senior figures, tried in 1945-46 before an international tribunal for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.
The film focused on the complex relationship between US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley and Nazi officials he was tasked to evaluate. Crowe steps into the shoes of Hermann Goring, Adolf Hitler's right-hand man and the highest-ranking Nazi captured alive at the war's end.
Malek portrays Douglas Kelley, the American psychiatrist assigned to assess Goring and his fellow defendants in prison cells before they faced justice in the courtroom. The dynamic between the two actors forms the dramatic heart of the film.
"Goring was a fascinating character to play," Crowe told Reuters at the premiere. "You get to the end of the war, they decide there's gonna be a trial. And Hermann, he still thinks he can talk his way out of this."
Malek, known for his Oscar-winning turn as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, brings an understated but tense energy to Kelley — a man grappling with the psychological dimensions of evil at close range.
The ensemble cast adds further gravitas: Michael Shannon, Richard E Grant, John Slattery, and Leo Woodall take on key roles, representing lawyers, prosecutors, and military figures who shaped the course of international law. Grant plays British lawyer David Maxwell Fyfe, who was instrumental in the prosecution's case.
"There wasn't a question that anybody could ask [director Vanderbilt] that he didn't have the answer to," Grant said, praising the filmmaker's extensive research on both the trials and the individuals involved.
For Vanderbilt, best known as the screenwriter of Zodiac and The Amazing Spider-Man, Nuremberg represents a conscious departure from traditional wartime narratives.
"There have been a lot of World War Two movies but there haven't been a lot of post-World War Two movies," he explained on the red carpet. "This is a story about what happens after the war — about accountability, justice, and how you deal with unimaginable crimes when the guns fall silent."
That shift in focus is part of what sets Nuremberg apart in a cinematic landscape saturated with depictions of battlefields, resistance fighters, and Holocaust survival stories. Instead, the film zeroes in on a courtroom drama where the weapons are words, evidence, and moral conviction.
Real Goring and Kelley
Goring's presence at the trial was both commanding and unsettling. Once Reichsmarschall and head of the Luftwaffe, he was the highest-ranking Nazi tried at Nuremberg. His charisma and refusal to repent unsettled many, with some prosecutors fearing he might sway public opinion if not confronted directly.
Douglas Kelley, meanwhile, was among the first psychiatrists to examine Nazi leaders after their capture. He administered tests and interviews, probing whether their crimes could be explained by insanity, ideology, or the darker recesses of human psychology. His reports offered insight into the banality of evil long before the phrase became a staple of historical analysis.
By centring the film on their interactions, Vanderbilt draws the audience into the uneasy proximity between perpetrator and examiner, between evil and those charged with comprehending it.
TIFF, now in its 50th year, has long been a launchpad for awards-season contenders. Nuremberg's rousing reception suggests it could join the ranks of past festival hits that went on to Oscar recognition.
The four-minute standing ovation underscored the film's impact, with audiences visibly moved by its tense performances and moral weight. The premiere also highlighted TIFF's continued role as a global stage for serious, issue-driven cinema, even as the festival balances crowd-pleasing debuts and indie discoveries.
Beyond its historical subject, Nuremberg resonates with contemporary debates about accountability, justice, and the rule of law. At a time when international tribunals continue to prosecute war crimes — from the Balkans to Rwanda to Ukraine — the film's retelling of the first and most famous such trial feels timely.
For audiences, the reminder is clear: the principles enshrined at Nuremberg - that individuals, including heads of state, can be held accountable for crimes against humanity — remain a cornerstone of modern justice. Jack El-Hai's The Nazi and the Psychiatrist provided the blueprint for Vanderbilt's adaptation. The book, published in 2013, delved deeply into Kelley's psychological assessments and his complicated relationship with the Nazi defendants, particularly Göring.
The cinematic version distils that research into a tense drama that is both historically grounded and emotionally charged.
Following its world premiere in Toronto, Nuremberg will open in theatres in November, timed to reach both awards-season voters and general audiences drawn to historical drama.
Distributors are betting that the film's blend of courtroom intensity, star power, and moral gravity will resonate beyond history buffs, attracting mainstream attention much like Schindler's List or Judgment at Nuremberg did in earlier eras.
For Crowe and Malek, it represents another career milestone — embodying figures caught in history's most consequential trial. For Vanderbilt, it is a statement on the enduring need to revisit the past to understand the present.
As the applause faded in Toronto, one thing was clear: Nuremberg had struck a chord, reminding audiences that even 80 years on, the echoes of justice rendered in a German courtroom still reverberate across the world.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ