Russell Crowe, Rami Malek drop historical drama 'Nuremberg' at TIFF 2025

Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Rami Malek captivated their Toronto audience in historical drama Nuremberg, which received a roaring four-minute standing ovation after its world premiere on Sunday.

Director James Vanderbilt's film chronicles the eponymous war crimes trials of 22 major Nazi figures after the end of World War Two.

Crowe plays the role of infamous German Nazi leader Hermann Göring, while Malek portrays U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who is assigned the task of evaluating him and other Nazi captives.

"There have been a lot of World War Two movies but there haven't been a lot of post World War Two movies," Vanderbilt told Reuters on the red carpet ahead of the premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

He said having an all-star cast that also includes Michael Shannon, Richard E. Grant, John Slattery and Leo Woodall, made working on the project easier, which is based on Jack El-Hai's 2013 non-fiction book "The Nazi and the Psychiatrist."

Göring was a fascinating character to play, Crowe said, as he dipped into explaining the different stages of the Nazi leader's life and ambitions, leading into the Nuremberg trials.

"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," Crowe said.

Grant, who dons the role of British lawyer David Maxwell Fyfe, spoke of Vanderbilt's exhaustive research on the topic.

"There wasn't a question that anybody could ask that he didn't have the answer to," the English actor said.

The movie will be released in theaters in November.