“Dunkirk” director Christopher Nolan called his first Best Director Oscar nomination “a tremendous honor” Tuesday after being nominated in the category for the World War II film.
“It’ something I haven’t had before. It’s really thrilling,” the 47-year-old director shared with the Hollywood Reporter about the nod. “It’s really gratifying that people would recognize my work in that way.”
“‘Dunkirk’ opens as hundreds of thousands of British and Allied troops are surrounded by enemy forces. Trapped on the beach with their backs to the sea they face an impossible situation as the enemy closes in,” a description released with the trailer on YouTube read.
“It’s a very powerful story and it shows the unique power of an extraordinary true story,” Nolan added of the movie that tells the grueling story of the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.
The epic war movie received a total of eight nominations for the 2018 Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Picture, Best Original Music Score, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Production Design for Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas.
“It’s kind of crazy to me that he hadn’t been nominated before,” Thomas said of Nolan’s directing nod. “When I look at the films he’s made, I personally can make the argument for him having been nominated for any of them. When I look at Dunkirk, there is truly no one else who could have made that film the way he did.”
Previously, the Nolan had been nominated by the Director’s Guild of America for his work on “Memento” in 2000, “Dark Knight” in 2008, and “Inception” in 2010, but the Academy director’s branch never noticed him until now.
“Dunkirk” is an epic, heart-wrenching movie that pulls the viewer in and makes you feel like you are trapped there with the troops unable to get home. They deserve to take home all eight nominations, in my opinion, when the 90th Academy Awards takes place March 4.