What 2023 biographical film about the atomic bomb’s lead scientist won Best Picture? Oppenheimer did.
Written and directed by Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer follows J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who led the Los Alamos Laboratory during the Manhattan Project. The project assembled scientists in wartime secrecy to develop an atomic weapon before Nazi Germany could do so. Cillian Murphy portrays Oppenheimer, with Robert Downey Jr. playing Lewis Strauss.
The film is based partly on American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. It moves between the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer’s postwar security hearing, and Strauss’s confirmation struggle, using shifts in perspective to explore scientific ambition, political power, and moral responsibility.
At the March 10, 2024, ceremony honoring 2023 releases, Oppenheimer won seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Film Editing, Cinematography, and Original Score. A common mix-up is confusing the film’s subject with the bomb’s inventor as a lone individual: the Manhattan Project was a vast multinational effort involving many scientists, engineers, soldiers, and technicians.