Dunkirk won three Academy Awards at the 2018 ceremony.
Christopher Nolan’s film won for Film Editing, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing. These awards recognized its tightly intercut structure and intensely physical sound design, which place viewers among soldiers, sailors, and pilots during the evacuation of Dunkirk.
Dunkirk received eight nominations overall, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score. It did not win those categories. The film’s score was composed by Hans Zimmer, while Hoyte van Hoytema served as cinematographer.
The story concerns Operation Dynamo, the 1940 evacuation of Allied troops from the French port of Dunkirk after German forces surrounded them. Rather than presenting the event in straightforward chronological order, the film uses three timelines: land, sea, and air. Its cast includes Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Hardy.