Christopher Nolan won his first Academy Award on Sunday night for directing Oppenheimer, the biopic about theoretical physicist and atomic bomb architect J. Robert Oppenheimer.
"Movies are just a little bit over 100 years old," Nolan said while accepting the Oscar. "We don't know where this incredible journey is going from here. But to know that you think that I'm a meaningful part of it means the world to me."
Nolan is best known for directing sci-fi films like Inception, Interstellar, and The Dark Knight Rises, as well as the World War II drama Dunkirk, for which he received a Best Director nomination. Oppenheimer racked up 13 Academy Award nominations and dominated the 2024 Golden Globes, taking home the top award for best drama.
Read more: The Most Memorable Acceptance Speeches in Oscar History
Nolan recently talked about the privilege of making blockbusters in a January TIME profile.
“I’m drawn to working at a large scale because I know how fragile the opportunity to marshal those resources is,” Nolan said. “I know that there are so many filmmakers out there in the world who would give their eye teeth to have the resources I put together, and I feel I have the responsibility to use them in the most productive and interesting way.”
Among the other directors nominated were Jonathan Glazer (Zone of Interest), Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things), Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), and Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall).
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Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com