Christopher Nolan
Sir Christopher Edward Nolan CBE (born 30 July 1970) is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, he is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. Nolan's films have earned over $6 billion worldwide, making him the seventh-highest-grossing film director of all time. His accolades include two Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards. Nolan was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2019, and received a knighthood in 2024 for his contributions to film.
For other people with similar names, see Christopher Nolan (disambiguation).
Christopher Nolan
30 July 1970
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Film director
- film producer
- screenwriter
1993–present
Co-founder of Syncopy Inc.
4
- Jonathan Nolan (brother)
- John Nolan (uncle)
Nolan developed an interest in filmmaking from a young age. After studying English literature at University College London, he made several short films before his feature film debut with Following (1998). Nolan gained international recognition with his second film, Memento (2000), and transitioned into studio filmmaking with Insomnia (2002). He became a high-profile director with The Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012), and found further success with The Prestige (2006), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), and Dunkirk (2017). After the release of Tenet (2020), Nolan parted ways with longtime distributor Warner Bros. Pictures, and signed with Universal Pictures for the biographical thriller Oppenheimer (2023), which won him Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture.
Nolan's work regularly features in the listings of best films of their respective decades. Infused with a metaphysical outlook, his films thematise epistemology, existentialism, ethics, the construction of time, and the malleable nature of memory and personal identity. They feature mathematically inspired images and concepts, unconventional narrative structures, practical special effects, experimental soundscapes, large-format film photography, and materialistic perspectives. He has co-written several of his films with his brother, Jonathan, and runs the production company Syncopy Inc. with his wife, Emma Thomas.
Career
1993–2003: Early career and breakthrough
After earning his bachelor's degree in English literature in 1993, Nolan worked as a script reader, camera operator and director of corporate films and industrial films.[18][20][21] He directed, wrote and edited the short film Larceny (1996),[22] which was filmed over a weekend in black and white with limited equipment and a small cast and crew.[14][23] Funded by Nolan and shot with the UCL Union Film society's equipment, it appeared at the Cambridge Film Festival in 1996 and is considered one of UCL's best shorts.[24] For unknown reasons, the film has since been removed from public view.[22] Nolan filmed a third short, Doodlebug (1997), about a man seemingly chasing an insect with his shoe, only to discover that it is a miniature of himself.[17][25]
Nolan and Thomas first attempted to make a feature in the mid-1990s titled Larry Mahoney, which they scrapped.[26] During this period in his career, Nolan had little to no success getting his projects off the ground, facing several rejections; he added, "[T]here's a very limited pool of finance in the UK. To be honest, it's a very clubby kind of place ... Never had any support whatsoever from the British film industry."[27]
Shortly after abandoning Larry Mahoney, Nolan conceived the idea for his first feature, Following (1998), which he wrote, directed, photographed and edited. The film depicts an unemployed young writer (Jeremy Theobald) who trails strangers through London, hoping they will provide material for his first novel, but is drawn into a criminal underworld when he fails to keep his distance. It was inspired by Nolan's experience of living in London and having his apartment burgled; he observed that the common attribute between larceny and pursuing someone through a crowd was that they both cross social boundaries.[28] Co-produced by Nolan with Thomas and Theobald,[29] it was made on a budget of around £3,000. Most of the cast and crew were friends of Nolan, and shooting took place on weekends over the course of a year.[30] To conserve film stock, each scene was rehearsed extensively to ensure that the first or second take could be used in the final edit.[17][31] Following won several awards during its festival run and was well received by critics who labelled Nolan a majorly talented debutant.[32][33] Scott Timberg of New Times LA wrote that it "echoed Hitchcock classics", but was "leaner and meaner".[34] Janet Maslin of The New York Times was impressed with its "spare look" and "agile hand-held camerawork", saying, "As a result, the actors convincingly carry off the before, during and after modes that the film eventually, and artfully, weaves together."[35]