Christopher Nolan is considered to be one of the greatest movie directors of all time, and rightfully so. His filmography screams quality instead of quantity. Despite having only directed twelve films, most are instantly recognizable even to casual moviegoers.
However, his path to becoming what he is wasn’t paved with encouragement. Hollywood is littered with tales of aspiring filmmakers chasing their dreams against all odds. Nolan’s success from failure to fame is a beacon of hope for all such dreamers.
Christopher Nolan Could Not Get Into Film School and His Father Wanted Him to Get a “Real Degree”
Christopher Nolan is not a very public person and does interviews very rarely. The last year, he made some appearances during the release of Oppenheimer including an interview at the Cannes Film Festival.
There, Nolan discussed how he never went to a film school. This was because well, he could not get into one. His father knew his passion for filmmaking but still wanted him to get some “real degree” as a backup before he completely got himself into this industry.
“Just to be clear, I didn’t go to film school because I couldn’t get into film school. My father told me when I was trying to decide what to do at university. My father knew I wanted to be a filmmaker but he advised me, he said “go”, and as he referred to, get a “real degree” in a “real subject”. So that you have that (the degree) to fall back on, and then you could go to the film school afterwards”, which turned out not to be the case.
When he could not get into film school, Nolan studied English literature at University College London.
But I studied English and because that was the academic subject that I was best at and inclined most towards. But what I found as I studied at UCL, and studied English, is it greatly informed my filmmaking process, my writing process. I started to become more at ease with a lot of the literary concepts that underlie film criticism in particular.”
To date, he remains thankful for his experience in the university and its contribution to Nolan’s unique filmmaking.
Oppenheimer Grabs The Most Oscars Among the 2023 Movies Including Christopher Nolan’s First
The 96th Academy Awards took place on March 10, 2024, and it was all about Oppenheimer. The movie was nominated for a total of 13 awards, the most in this edition. Of these 13, the movie won a total of seven Oscars including the Best Picture award.
Christopher Nolan also won the award for Best Director. As surprising as it may sound, this was the first time a Christopher Nolan movie had won the Best Picture award and Nolan won the Best Director.
Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr also grabbed their maiden Oscars as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor. Further, the movie won Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Score to take the total tally to 7. Fans can tune into Peacock to stream Oppenheimer.
