The British government will knight American-British director Christopher Nolan for his contributions to cinema, following his Oscar win for the historical drama “Oppenheimer“.
The British government announced that Emma Thomas, his wife and a film producer, will be awarded a damehood, which is the female equivalent of a knighthood. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had nominated a list of honors that also included luminaries in the computer industry and Conservative MPs.
Earlier this month, “Oppenheimer,” a popular biopic about the race to create the first atomic bomb, won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and director Christopher Nolan’s first best director honor. Other well-known movies from his career include “Interstellar,” “Inception,” “Dunkirk,” and the Batman trilogy.
Along with Thomas, Nolan produced “Oppenheimer” and penned the screenplay.
The CEO of Google’s DeepMind division, Demis Hassabis, was one of the recipients of a knighthood. Other notables in the field of artificial intelligence were businessman Ian Hogarth, chair of the AI Safety Institute, and expert on AI to the British government Matthew Clifford, who were both awarded CBEs (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).
Mohamed Mansour, a billionaire businessman and Conservative Party supporter, received a knighthood in recognition of his contributions to politics, business, and philanthropy.
Sunak bestowed honors on his fellow Conservative parliamentarians as well, bestowing damehoods on Harriett Baldwin and Tracey Crouch and knighthoods on Philip Davies and Mark Spencer.
Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, received an honorary CBE for his contributions to the creative industries.
