Why hasn't Christopher Nolan won an Oscar award?
Answers
Yo!
Here's your answer!
The same reason why Hitchcock, Kubrick, Tarantino have never won one to date. The fact is Oscar Awards lean heavily towards the following kind of cinema
Biopics
Period Epics
Dramatic movies.
Satires
Movies about persons with some disability or other.
Drama movies based on real life events.
War movies( preferably Holocaust, WWII or Vietnam)
That is because most of the Oscar jury is filled with members whose vision of cinema is still stuck in the 50’s and 60’s. In Hollywood’s earlier years, sci fi, thriller, crime, horror were often seen as B movies. And the Academy still considers them that way. This is the reason why a brilliant crime drama like L.A.Confidential gets overlooked for a sappy Titanic. Or a Pulp Fiction is not even considered. Though Sci Fi movies have been nominated, the Academy still looks at them as some sort of B Genre. As for horror, barring the odd Silence of the Lambs, it is not even considered.
Now let’s take a look at Nolan’s filmography
Memento- A mind bender of a crime thriller, that needed multiple viewings to just understand it. So no way.
Insomnia- A dark crime thriller, with a rather tragic ending not exactly Academy material.
Batman series( Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Batman Returns)- Again a superhero series at the end of the day, which is not considered a serious genre. Never mind the fact that The Dark Knight explored the concept of vigilantism, super heroism in such an indepth manner.
Inception- Was nominated, but lost out to Social Network. Again the highly complex narrative, which needed multiple viewings could have been a turn off.
Interstellar- This actually was something the Academy should have loved. It had an epic scope, great cinematography, themes of mankind’s survival, father- daughter bonding, but again sci fi is still a no go area.
That said Nolan’s upcoming Dunkirk is something that ticks most of the boxes needed for an Oscar winner- World War II drama, real life event, great cast. So he could well end up winning it for that.
Hope that this helps you!
-TGA.