Christopher Nolan was still sleeping when his film, “Oppenheimer,” landed a leading 13 Academy Awards nominations Tuesday. Emma Thomas, Nolan’s wife and producing partner, roused him after a flurry of congratulatory messages came through on her phone.
“Don’t take it as being blase,” Nolan told The Associated Press, laughing. “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.”
Nolan and Thomas didn’t have much reason to be anxious. “Oppenheimer,” Nolan’s sprawling American saga of J. Walter Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb, has more or less been the Oscar frontrunner since it made its acclaimed debut in late July. On Tuesday, it earned nominations for seemingly every creative aspect of its achievement, including acting nods for Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt.
“Oppenheimer” was nominated for Nolan’s direction and adapted screenplay; for Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography; Jennifer Lame’s editing; Ellen Mirojnick’s costume design; Ruth De Jong and Claire Kaufman’s production design; Luisa Abel’s makeup and hairstyling; best sound; and Ludwig Göransson’s score. It came one nomination shy of tying the record for best Oscar nominations ever.
“It’s flabbergasting,” said Thomas who spoke with her husband in an interview a few hours after nominations were announced. “Then we got on with the routine of getting a 16-year-old out of bed, but with a spring in our step.”
Though Nolan is regarded as the big-canvas auteur of his era, he’s never won an Academy Award — nor have any of his films won best picture. He was nominated for best director once before, for “Dunkirk.” But Nolan’s absence from the movie’s biggest stage has often been more notable than the honors his films have collected. After his “The Dark Knight” was overlooked for best picture in 2009, the academy expanded the category beyond five films.
But this year’s Oscars may be leading toward a coronation for the 53-year-old Nolan and a three-hour opus that broke records — and Hollywood conventional reasoning — in grossing nearly $1 billion worldwide.
The Associated Press contribtued to this article.