Oscar Spotlight: Christopher Nolan

You know that kid in high school who was ridiculously talented but a little too genius to be able to fit in with the cool kids? British director Christopher Nolan is the film industry equivalent of that kid.

Nolanites will remember only too clearly when his incredible superhero allegory The Dark Knight failed to be nominated for a best picture or best director Oscar in 2009, despite being nominated in eight major categories. Fans created such an outcry over this injustice that the Academy were forced to open up the best picture category to 10 nominees the following year in what is now known as `The Dark Knight effect’. It seemed with the resounding critical and commercial success of Nolan’s mind-bending Inception this year, there was simply no way he or the film could be overlooked.

Well, the Academy got it half right. Although Inception has received the best picture nomination it rightly deserves, as well as nods in seven other categories, Nolan has again been snubbed from the best director list. How is it then, that someone who wrote, produced and directed the most original film of the season, can be utterly and completely ignored in the director category? That’s a good question. Iconic director Stanley Kubrick, with whom Nolan’s work has been closely compared to, never won an Oscar for best director or best picture despite being behind classics such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. The reality is the Academy isn’t able to handle the conceptually and intellectually challenging genius of a film such as Inception and a mastermind such as Nolan.

I think the best way to end this rant, is in the words of the wise God Damn Batman; "Oscar Nominations and NO nods for Dark Knight Rises?? I DON'T CARE IF IT DOESN'T COME OUT FOR ANOTHER YEAR. I'll remember this, Academy." Amen.