Oppenheimer finally netted Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas
Academy Awards – and now titles (Picture: Getty)
British filmmaker Christopher Nolan and his wife and producer Emma Thomas are to receive a knighthood and damehood for their services to film. Their recognition comes after their biopic Oppenheimer swept the 2024 awards season, winning seven
Oscars and seven Baftas. London-born filmmaker Nolan, 53, actually won his first Oscar(s) for directing the movie about the scientist dubbed the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, J, Robert Oppenheimer, which starred
Irish Actor Cillian Murphy in the titular role. He had previously been nominated for six Academy Awards for examining important questions throughout his body of work but had never won an Oscar until this year’s ceremony. The couple won the best picture Oscar and best film Bafta for the first time too, having previously been nominated for 2010’s sci-fi Inception and 2017’s war thriller Dunkirk. Nolan and Thomas, 52, have collaborated on all of his major feature films including The Dark Knight trilogy, 2010’s Inception, 2014’s Interstellar, 2017’s Dunkirk and 2020’s Tenet, since his filmmaking debut in 1998 with Following. Nolan was careful about his own expectations around the gongs Oppenheimer might bring to him and his wife and professional partner, calling the possibility of an Oscar ‘a dream come true’ and ‘thrilling’. The couple met at university and have worked together on all of Nolan’s films (Picture: Samir Hussein/WireImage) Oppenheimer was one of the biggest films of 2023 (Picture: Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal) ‘But it’s not something that’s ever on our mind while we’re actually making the film because it’s so tough to get a film done and to get it out there in the marketplace that can work for an audience – that requires all of your attention and all of your focus. You can’t take your eye off that ball at any point,’ he told Metro.co.uk ahead of the film’s home release in November. It’s unlikely the modest but highly revered filmmaking team would have been expecting to receive titles for their efforts, either, although Nolan was previously made a CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours for his services to film. Born in
London to a British father and
American mother, Nolan read English at University College London (UCL), choosing the school because of its filmmaking facilities. It is also where he met his future wife, Thomas, who was reading history, and with whom he has four children – Flora, Oliver, Rory and Magnus. Together they co-founded and run a production company, Syncopy, which has been behind many of their blockbusters. When Nolan was presented with the British Film Institute (BFI) Fellowship for being ‘one of the world’s most innovative and influential film directors’, he credited his wife. He said he never felt alone making films as Thomas ‘always saw things the same way I did in terms of the importance of the medium’. While collecting his directing Academy Award earlier this month, Nolan thanked his wife Thomas for being the ‘producer of all our films and all our children’. ‘Working together on these films is a huge benefit in terms of we both completely understand what the other’s going through. And we also remind each other to draw a line under it at the end of the day – or try to – and not bring everything home,’ Nolan had revealed to Metro.co.uk. Thomas and Nolan with producer Charles Roven (L) accept Oppenheimer’s best picture Oscar win, surrounded by the cast and crew (Picture: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images) He considers himself ‘very, very lucky’ to work with Thomas, but insisted that they try ‘not to talk about work all the time when we’re at home’, and instead strive for ‘a bit of a distinction there’. Read More Stories The most challenging part of working with her husband for Thomas is that it can be tricky ‘to get perspective on things because you’re in it 100% of the time’. ‘Being able to step back and take the 30,000-foot view is sometimes a little bit difficult, although we’re pretty good between the two of us [at] sort of looking at each other and saying, “Well, no, you’re quite worried about that. But I think…”’ She’s satisfied, however, that that is one of the marks of their partnership working ‘really well’ – coupled with their ability to have ‘very honest conversations’. ‘I think all the positives outweigh the negatives, I’ll put it that way!’ she shared with Metro.co.uk. Nolan’s second film together, Memento, received two Academy Award nominations, for best original screenplay and best film editing, as well as being a
box office success. Following the well-received Insomnia, a psychological thriller starring Al Pacino as a detective on the hunt for a killer in an Alaskan town, the duo continued their gilded run with Batman Begins and The Prestige. In 2010, Nolan directed sci-fi action film Inception, which starred
Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals ideas from victims’ unconsciousness. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning four. The filmmaking duo have impressed with many films over their career together, with 2010’s Inception becoming an eight-time Oscar nominee (Picture: Warner Bros/Kobal/Rex/Shutterstock) Their following sci-fi epics – 2014’s Interstellar and 2020’s Tenet – also enjoyed critical and award success. Nolan received his first best director Oscar nomination for 2017’s Dunkirk, which depicts the Allies’ retreat from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk during the Second World War. Accepting the best picture prize on behalf of Oppenheimer at the Oscars, Thomas confessed of their previous run of nominations: ‘I think any of us who make movies know that you dream of this moment. ‘I could deny it, but I have been dreaming about this moment for so long, but it seemed so unlikely that it would ever actually happen.’ The co-chief executive officer of
Netflix, Ted Sarandos, has also been made an honorary CBE for his services to creative industries in the March 2024 Honours list. The American businessman has been responsible for content operations at the streaming giant since 2000 and was appointed to his top position in July 2020. Publisher