Oscars: Christopher Nolan Says First Oscar Win for Best Director “Means The World”

Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan won the Academy Award for best director, his first Oscar ever, on Sunday night.

“I have so many people to thank,” Nolan said during his acceptance speech. “The most incredible cast, Matt Damon, Robert, Emily, Florence, just so many others, all at the top of their game, led by the incredible Cillian Murphy… a crew, some of whom have been awarded tonight. I can’t say enough about the incredible crew that we got together on this film. Thank you to Chuck Roven for putting the book in my hands… The incredible Emma Thomas, producer of all our films and all of our children. I love you. To the academy, just to say movies are just a little bit over 100 years old. I mean, imagine being there 100 years into painting or theater. We don’t know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think that I’m a meaningful part of it means the world to me.”

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Nolan was nominated alongside Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall), Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things), Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest) and Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon).

Throughout the awards season, Nolan has received many accolades, including best director at the BAFTAs, Critics Choice, DGA, and Golden Globes. This is his first Oscar: He has been nominated in the best director category for 2017’s Dunkirk. His first Oscar nomination was for his Memento screenplay in 2002.

Oppenheimer won seven Academy Awards including best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr., best actor for Cillian Murphy, best score, best editing, best cinematography and of course, best picture.

Notably, this year, Scorsese earned more Oscar nominations for best director than anyone alive. With Killers this year, Scorsese had 10 best director nominations, surpassing Steven Spielberg, who has nine. Scorsese has won the category just once — for 2006’s The Departed. On that front, Spielberg still has one up on Scorsese, having won the category twice (for 1994’s Schindler’s List and 1999’s Saving Private Ryan).

There is one deceased director who has more than 10 Oscar nominations for this category: William Wyler, who was nominated 12 times, and won three times, for films such as 1959’s Ben-Hur.

When the Oscar nominations were announced, fans were outraged that Barbie director Greta Gerwig was notably snubbed in the best director category. But following last year’s omission of any female filmmaker in the category, Anatomy of a Fall’s Triet received a nomination. Gerwig was a notable snub, as the Barbie director, throughout the awards season, received various best director nominations (the Directors Guild of America, the Golden Globes, Critics Choice) and wins (Palm Springs International Film Fest). She was also on various pundits’ prediction lists for best director, including from The Hollywood Reporter.  Even host Jimmy Kimmel made a dig at the notable snub during his opening monologue.

Last year, no woman was nominated for best director. The nominees were Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin), Todd Field (Tár), Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once), and Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans). That was also in a year in which many Oscar contenders were helmed by women: Sarah Polley for Women Talking, Gina Prince-Bythewood for The Woman King, Maria Schrader for She Said and Charlotte Wells for Aftersun, who were all omitted.

The Academy has only nominated seven women (eight with this year’s nominations) in the best director category, and only three have won. Gerwig (for Lady Bird) along with Lina Wertmüller, Sofia Coppola, Kathryn Bigelow, Emerald Fennell, Chloé Zhao and Jane Campion are the only women nominated in the century-long history of the Academy Awards.

Bigelow won for The Hurt Locker in 2009, Zhao won for Nomadland in 2020 and Campion won for The Power of the Dog in 2021. Zhao was nominated in the category alongside Fennell for Promising Young Woman, which was the first time more than one woman was nominated in the category.

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