Oppenheimer was one of the surprise success stories of the summer box office, and now Christopher Nolan's World War II-era biopic has received 13 Oscar nominations, more than any other film this year.
Notably, it is Nolan's first time being nominated as both director and screenwriter for one of his films, and it is also Nolan's most nominated film ever. (2008 The Dark Knight2010s beginning and 2017 Dunkirk each received eight.)
Oppenheimer is nominated for Best Picture (for producers Nolan, Emma Thomas and Charles Roven), while Nolan is competing for Adapted Screenplay. (He adapted the screenplay from J. Robert Oppenheimer's 2005 biography American Prometheusby Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.)
The film also received nominations for Actor (Cillian Murphy), Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Supporting Actress (Emily Blunt), Cinematography (Hoyte van Hoytema), Costume Design (Ellen Mirojnick), Makeup and Hairstyling (Luisa Abel). Original music (Ludwig Göransson), production design (production design: Ruth De Jong; set design: Claire Kaufman), editing (Jennifer Lame) and sound (Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin O'Connell)
Oppenheimer marks a career highlight for Nolan, a filmmaker who has worked with franchise films (The Dark Knight Trilogy), original concepts (beginning, Interstellar) and a war epic (Dunkirk). But Oppenheimer presented a unique challenge as the three-hour, R-rated biopic contained virtually no action while still managing to play like a thriller. With $952.8 million worldwide, the film is Nolan's third-highest grossing grosser of all time, falling just behind The Dark Knight rises (2012) and The Dark Knight (2008).
Nolan's films are regularly nominated for Oscars, but surprisingly the filmmaker hasn't been recognized very often on an individual level. He received nominations for writing Memory (2001) and beginning and a leading name for Dunkirk. And as a producer, he was among the nominees for Best Picture beginning And Dunkirk.
Earlier this month, at the Golden Globes, where Nolan took home several awards, his longtime producing partner and wife Thomas suggested that Nolan hasn't received as many individual awards in the past. “I'm really pleased that Chris was recognized because I think what he does is unlike anything anyone else does,” Thomas said. “Chris brings out the best in people by being the very best himself.”
This year's Academy Awards ceremony will take place on March 10 and will air on ABC.
