Revisiting Christopher Nolan’s 5 Oscar nominations in honor of ‘Oppenheimer’

Christopher Nolan has made a career for himself for his unconventional narrative structures of storytelling. His 11 films have ranged from psychological thrillers to science fiction epics to “The Dark Knight” trilogy, and have garnered a total of 36 Academy Award nominations, five of which for Nolan individually. With his latest directed epic “Oppenheimer” breaking box office records and gathering massive awards buzz since its release on July 21 by Universal Pictures, let’s break down Nolan’s five Oscar nominations for three of his movies.

Nolan’s first recognition at the Oscars came for his second feature “Memento,” based on his brother Jonathan Nolan’s short story “Memento Mori,” both released in 2001. The psychological mystery thriller written and directed by Nolan stars Guy Pearce as a man with anterograde amnesia and short-term memory loss as he tries to solve the murder of his wife. The neo-noir was lauded for its original storytelling in a non-linear narrative with sequences of color and black-and-white to distinguish timelines that began at the beginning and end.

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The filmmaker received a range of nominations from different precursors leading up to the Oscars. This includes a Golden Globe Award bid for Best Screenplay, a Directors Guild of America nomination, and a Best Picture nom at the Critics Choice Awards, while winning Best Screenplay at that last ceremony, and sweeping the top three categories at the Independent Spirit Awards with Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. This resulted in two nominations for “Memento” at the 2002 Oscars with Best Editing for Dody Dorn and Best Original Screenplay for the Nolan brothers. They lost the writing category to Julian Fellowes for “Gosford Park.”

SEE Cillian Murphy (‘Oppenheimer’) interview

Nine years later, Nolan competed for his sci-fi action film “Inception” (2010) about implanting dreams and ideas and taking information from people’s subconscious, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Elliot Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Having been established as a writer, director and producer of his films at this point, Nolan received triple notices for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay at all of the precursors: Golden Globes, Critics Choice, BAFTAs, DGA and Producers Guild of America, while winning Best Original Screenplay at the Writers Guild of America Awards. So it came as a bit of a surprise when Nolan was snubbed for Best Director on Oscar nominations morning for such a technical heavy movie.

But “Inception” came away with eight Oscar nominations overall, winning half of its tally in Best Cinematography (Wally Pfister), Best Sound Editing (Richard King), Best Sound Mixing (Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick) and Best Visual Effects (Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb). Nolan still obtained his expected Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture mentions – the latter shared with his wife Emma Thomas – losing both to “The King’s Speech” and writer David Seidler.

In 2018, Nolan tried his hand in the war genre with the historical epic thriller “Dunkirk,” which depicts the evacuation from the French commune in 1940 World War II told from three perspectives of the land, sea and air. With very little dialogue and enhancing on the score, cinematography and editing, Nolan finally got his first Oscar nomination for Best Director, after being cited at all of the precursor award shows, along with Best Picture with Thomas. “Dunkirk” once again achieved eight total Oscar nominations, winning three for Best Editing (Lee Smith), Best Sound Mixing (Rizzo, Gregg Landaker and Mark Weingarten) and Best Sound Editing (King and Alex Gibson). While many believed Nolan had a shot to finally nab a trophy at the beginning of the season for such a directorial achievement, he came up short to another overdue director, Guillermo Del Toro for “The Shape of Water,” which also won Best Picture at the Oscars.

SEEEmily Blunt (‘Oppenheimer’) interview

Now Nolan is back tackling his first biopic “Oppenheimer” about the career of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb” and his role in the Manhattan Project in World War II. Starring longtime collaborator Cillian Murphy in the titular role, the epic thriller is based on the 2005 biography “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, and has an ensemble supporting cast that includes Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh and Josh Hartnett.

Filmed in IMAX and 65 mm film and already the third highest-grossing film of 2023 with almost a billion dollars at the box office, “Oppenheimer” is expected to gain high nomination numbers at the upcoming awards, and could land Nolan his first win in any of the top three categories, particularly Best Director. In addition, it could also get some actors recognized along the way, which would be rare as no performer has been nominated or won an Oscar for a Nolan picture, with the exception of the late Heath Ledgerfor “The Dark Knight” in 2009.

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