Christopher Nolan wins Best Director, at last, for Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan has finally won an Oscar for Best Director. After years of trying—consciously or not—to crack this particular nut from a variety of angles (mind-blowing sci-fi spectacle, bombastic war movie, and now, formally ambitious biopic) the man has finally scored the prize for his 2023 film Oppenheimer.

Nolan’s win tonight comes after an awards season that has all but paved the way for victory: He previously won in similar categories at the Golden Globes, his native BAFTAs, and, most tellingly, from his peers at the Director’s Guild. And it’s hard to say he didn’t earn it: Oppenheimer is an incredibly ambitious piece of cinematic spectacle, whether you’re watching star Cillian Murphy suffer an immensely claustrophobic panic attack in the midst of a cheering crowd, or trying to avert your eyes from the massive explosion of the first Los Alamos test. Nolan wrangled a massive production to get this thing done, crafting a story of a man who defined the generation he lived in—for good and ill.

Nolan triumphed tonight over an extremely tight field of candidates: Other nominees at this year’s Oscars included Anatomy Of A Fall’s Justine Triet, Poor Things’ Yorgos Lanthimos, Zone Of Interest’s Jonathan Glazer, and Killers Of The Flower Moon’s Martin Scorsese.