Christopher Nolan just won big with Oppenheimer during the 2024 Academy Awards —but how many Oscars does the acclaimed filmmaker have in total?
Nolan emerged onto the scene with 1998’s Following, a nippy, nasty little thriller produced on a shoestring budget. This paved the way for Memento, the director’s breakthrough film that also served as an early peek into his obsession with time as a narrative gambit.
After helming a remake of Insomnia, he took charge of The Dark Knight trilogy, three of the most widely praised superhero movies of all time (even TDKR, despite its controversial reception with fans). He’s also made some of the 21st century’s best films, including The Prestige, Inception, and Interstellar.
With the 96th Academy Awards now in the books, where Oppenheimer took home multiple trophies, you may be wondering: how many Oscars does Nolan have in total?
How many Oscars does Christopher Nolan have?
After more than two decades since his first nomination, Nolan has finally won his first Oscar in 2024.
Oppenheimer, his part-black-and-white epic about the “father” of the atomic bomb, lead this year’s crop of nominees with a whopping 13 nominations, including Best Picture.
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And during the award show, Nolan finally won big, taking to the stage for both Best Director and Best Picture. In addition, the film’s score, cinematography, editing, and cast all got a bunch of awards on the night as well.
He’s been nominated for eight Oscars in total. In 2002, he was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for Memento, with the award going to Julian Fellowes for Gosford Park.
In 2011, Inception was nominated for Best Picture (won by The King’s Speech) and Best Original Screenplay (won by The King’s Speech).
In 2018, Dunkirk was nominated for Best Picture (won by The Shape of Water) and Nolan earned his first Best Director nomination, losing to Guillermo del Toro.
His most controversial Oscars movie was The Dark Knight, which got nominated for eight awards (with Heath Ledger winning posthumously in the Best Supporting Actor category)—but Nolan wasn’t recognized, nor was the Batman film included in the Best Picture lineup. The backlash was so widespread and vocal that the Academy changed its rules, broadening the category to include 10 nominees instead of just five.
Oppenheimer has been sweeping throughout awards season—but Nolan was sleeping when the Oscar nominations came in. “Don’t take it as being blasé. We just didn’t want to jinx anything. Watching the nominations was more than our nerves could take so we just had a restless night and slept through,” he told AP.