After so many snubs and just not close enough, Christopher Nolan is finally an Oscar winner. The American-British filmmaker had earned eight nominations before the night began. Up for three individually tonight, he took his first Academy Award statue for Best Director.
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Nolan beat out some legendary competition including Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”), Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”), and Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”). He won comparable awards from the DGA, BAFTA, and the New York Film Critics Circle among other institutions. Nolan was also nominated in the Original Screenplay category and for Best Picture, as a producer.
Despite critical acclaim since he burst onto the scene with “Memento” in 2000 (and earned an Original Screenplay nomination), Nolan has only been nominated for Best Director one other time, in 2018 for “Dunkirk” where he lost to peer Guillermo del Toro for “The Shape of Water.” Nolan has also been nominated two other times for Original Screenplay (the other being “Inception”) and for Best Picture two additional times (“Inception” and “Dunkirk”).
It is common knowledge that controversy over Nolan’s masterpiece “The Dark Knight” being snubbed for a Best Picture nomination in 2009 (along with Pixar’s “Wall-E”) is a primary reason The Academy expanded the Best Picture category to 10 nominees in 2010.
Other films on Nolan’s resume include “The Prestige,” “Interstellar,” and “Tenet.”
“Oppenheimer” is now available on Peacock and for digital download.
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