Christopher Nolan has made a career using unconventional narrative structures to tell memorable cinematic stories. His 12 films have ranged from psychological thrillers (Memento, Insomnia) and high-concept action films (The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception) to science-fiction epics (Interstellar, Tenet) and stylized history lessons (Dunkirk, Oppenheimer) and have garnered a total of 49 Academy Award nominations, eight of which for Nolan individually. Now, he is diving into the fantasy genre with his feature adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, starring an ensemble cast of A-listers that include Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong’o, Samantha Morton, Charlize Theron, and Zendaya, led by Matt Damon as Odysseus. While we expect The Odyssey to be one of the leading Academy Award contenders in 2027 (watch this space for our instant predictions later this week), let’s look back at the films that brought Nolan to the ceremony in years past.
Memento (2001)
Nolan’s first recognition at the Oscars came for his second feature, Memento. Based on his brother Jonathan Nolan’s short story “Memento Mori,” the psychological mystery thriller stars Guy Pearce as a man with anterograde amnesia and short-term memory loss who is desperately trying to solve the murder of his wife. The neo-noir was lauded for its original storytelling in a nonlinear narrative with sequences of color and black-and-white to distinguish timelines that began at the beginning and end.
The filmmaker received attention from several precursors leading up to the Oscars, including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Screenplay, a Directors Guild of America nod, and a Best Picture nom at the Critics Choice Awards. He won Best Screenplay at that latter ceremony, and swept the top three categories at the Independent Spirit Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Memento scored two nominations at the 2002 Oscars, with Best Editing for Dody Dorn and Best Original Screenplay for the Nolan brothers. They lost the writing race to Julian Fellowes for Gosford Park.
Inception (2010)
Nine years later, Nolan competed for his sci-fi action film Inception (2010), about implanting ideas and taking information from people’s subconscious and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Elliot Page, Michael Caine, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Nolan received the trifecta nominations of Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay at all of the precursors: Golden Globes, Critics Choice, BAFTAs, DGA, and Producers Guild of America, 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.
Inception did come away with eight Oscar nominations overall, winning half of its tally: 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 received 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.
Dunkirk (2018)
In 2018, Nolan tried his hand in the war genre with the historic thriller Dunkirk, depicting the evacuation from the French enclave in 1940 World War II told from three perspectives of the land, sea, and air. 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 also 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 bring home the statuette for directing, he came up short to another overdue director, Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water, which also won Best Picture at the Oscars.
Oppenheimer (2023)
What finally delivered Nolan his Oscars was his the biopic Oppenheimer in 2023, about J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb.” Starring longtime collaborator Cillian Murphy in the titular role, the film was based on the 2005 biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, and featured Nolan’s typical star-studded ensemble, including Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Florence Pugh, and Josh Hartnett.
Grossing almost a billion dollars at the box office, Oppenheimer led the field with 13 Oscar nods, the most of any film by Nolan, and won seven: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Cinematography (Hoyte van Hoytema), Best Original Score (Ludwig Göransson), and Best Film Editing (Jennifer Lame). Nolan won his first directing prize and also Best Picture as part of the producing team, along with Thomas and Charles Roven.
The Odyssey (2026)
Nolan could raising the stakes with The Odyssey, about the Greek king of Ithaca facing gods and monsters on a perilous journey to reunite with his wife, Penelope, following the Trojan War. This is perhaps Nolan’s ambitious project, being the first movie entirely shot using Imax’s 70mm cameras. The Odyssey will be released on July 17.
