Oscars 2024: Christopher Nolan Wins His First Best Director Academy Award For Oppenheimer

Christopher Nolan has won the Oscar in the best director category for his film Oppenheimer. The movie centred around the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was played by Cillian Murphy. The 53-year-old director has garnered critical acclaim throughout his career, but had never won an Oscar until now. He was nominated for directing Dunkirk in 2017. He was also nominated for original screenplay for Inception in 2010. 

Best director nominations 

The best director nominees were Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest, Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things, Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer, Martin Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon, and Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall.  Oppenheimer is a three-hour, ambitious epic about the American physicist who developed the atomic bomb. Nolan is known for a style that favors documentary-style lighting, hand-held cameras and on-location shooting. He has been regularly praised by many of his contemporaries, including Martin Scorsese.

More about Oscars 2024 

This year, the Oscars began on a fun note with Kimmel's monologue. Kimmel started his monologue addressing Barbie's snub at the 96th Academy Awards. He looked at director Greta Gerwig who shared a laugh as he shifted his glance at the Academy members and said, "Don't laugh, you did not vote for her." 

He also spoke about director Christopher Nolan's no phone rule, eliciting laughter from the Oscars attendees. Kimmel then shifted his focus to Ryan Gosling, who is nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for his role as Ken in Barbie and Best Original Song (I'm Ken), saying, "Ryan, you are so hot."