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.
Plot
When Supreme Court Associate JusticeRobert Jackson learns that ReichsmarschallHermann Göring, Hitler's second-in-command, has surrendered with his family to American forces, he realizes an international tribunal will be needed to hold the former Nazi leadership to account. Göring is remanded at Bad Mondorf, Luxembourg, with twenty-one other Nazi leaders selected for potential prosecution. Their mental health is evaluated by U.S. Army psychiatrist Major Douglas Kelley to determine the risk of suicide. Some prisoners such as Robert Ley and Julius Streicher are contemptuous of their captors, but Kelley appraises the free-talking Göring as intelligent, narcissistic, and charismatic. Kelley plans to write a tell-all book after the trial, while Göring promises to "escape the hangman's noose".
Jackson and British barrister Sir David Maxwell Fyfe are appointed to the international prosecutorial teams of the newly-established International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany. The detainees are indicted for crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy. Göring helps Kelley examine former Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess. In exchange, Kelley delivers a letter to Emmy Göring and their daughter Edda, whom he develops a relationship with. When Ley kills himself in his cell, despite Kelley's favorable appraisal of his emotional state, warden Colonel Burton Andrus summons psychologist Gustave Gilbert to provide second opinions.
The trial opens with the defendants denied the opportunity to make opening statements; all plead not guilty. Kelley learns that Göring's family has been arrested in connection with his art thefts. Göring is stunned when Gilbert reveals the arrests, a move Kelley disagrees with. The prosecution shows documentary film footage of the atrocities committed in the concentration camps. Kelley angrily confronts Göring, who denies any awareness of the Final Solution, and compares the Holocaust with the atomic bombings of Japan. He goads Kelley by stating he'll be more prominent in history than Kelley could ever be. Kelley drunkenly reveals his private discussions with Göring to Lila, a Boston Globe journalist who publicizes the information; Andrus orders Kelley relieved of duty and discharged. As Kelley leaves for the United States, his interpreter, Sergeant Howard Triest, reveals that he is a German-born Jew whose parents disappeared at Auschwitz in 1942. Triest warns that impassivity towards evil left the regime's cruelty unchallenged.
Kelley gives his notes on Göring to Jackson and Fyfe, predicting that Göring will use the trial to defend the regime's conduct, and suggesting that they extract a confession by appealing to Göring's sense of infallibility. Jackson flounders in open court as Göring insists he had not intended for the Final Solution to "the Jewish question" to be extermination. Fyfe gets Göring to confess that he would have followed Hitler even with full knowledge of the genocide. Bidding goodbye to him in his cell, Göring asks Kelley on whether years from now, he would acknowledge the Nazis were "human"; the question goes unanswered.
At the end of the trial Göring is sentenced to death by hanging. The night before his execution, Göring commits suicide using cyanide he had kept hidden from the guards. The remaining executions proceed as scheduled; Triest does not reveal his Jewish heritage to a despondent Streicher and gently assists him to the gallows. Kelley, traumatized by the trial, returns home and publishes his tell-all book. Twenty-two Cells is a commercial failure and Kelley falls into alcoholism. A title card states he repeatedly warned against those whose psychological tendencies mirror the Nazis coming to power again, before committing suicide in 1958. Triest reunited with his sister who escaped to Switzerland. Jackson's prosecutions laid the foundation for international prosecution of war crimes.
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[weaselwords]TIFF's longest standing ovations ever.[2][13]
Reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 72% of 188 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 LA Times described the film as "well-intentioned and elucidating despite some missteps."[19]
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
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