Christopher Nolan won his first Oscar at the 2024 Academy Awards.
This is notable because Nolan has directed some remarkable films throughout his career:
🎬 Memento (2000)*
🎬 Insomnia (2002)
🎬 Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
🎬 The Prestige (2006)
🎬 Inception (2010)
🎬 Interstellar (2014)
🎬 Dunkirk (2017)
🎬 Tenet (2020)
His films have grossed more than $6 billion worldwide, ranking him amongst the highest-grossing directors in history.
He has been nominated for an Academy Award eight times, the first time in 2002 when Memento earned him a"Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen" nod...
... yet he didn't win his first Academy Award until 22 years later, on March 10th, 2024.
That award was for "Best Achievement in Directing", earned for Oppenheimer.
Nolan would win his second Academy Award roughly 15 minutes later when Oppenheimer was announced as the winner for "Best Motion Picture of the Year".
People may not recognize your work at first.
Or at second.
Or at seventh.
But keep going.
Keep doing remarkable work.
Eventually, people will notice.
And if they don't?
Keep going anyway.
* Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed I listed "2000" in parenthesis after Memento (to indicate when it was released) but stated a few lines later how Nolan was nominated for "Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen" for the film in 2002. Both years are correct. How? Memento premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2000, but its theatrical release in the United States happened on March 16, 2001. Because the film's wide release was in 2001, and since each year's Academy Awards show recognizes films released theatrically from the previous calendar year, Memento was a 2002 nominee.
P.S. I thought the 2024 Academy Awards show was the best we've seen in a long time. Jimmy Kimmel was funny (although, of course, not everybody will agree). The "streaking" bit with him and John Cena was hilarious. ("Costumes...") Having previous Oscar winners speak to the nominees in each major category was a nice touch. And the music!!! Billie Eilish's soulful performance of "What Was I Made For" was astounding, the indomitable Andrea Bocelli singing "Time to Say Goodbye" with his son during the In Memoriam was beautiful, and Ryan Gosling's incredible (and incredibly fun) performance of "I'm Just Ken" might have been the single best musical performance in Oscar history. From start to finish, it was just a well-done show!