Christopher Nolan and his wife/producing partner Emma Thomas are being elevated to British nobility. The acclaimed filmmaker and producer will receive a knighthood and damehood, respectively, in recognition of their services to the film industry.
The prestigious honors, personally approved by King Charles III himself, represent the monarchy’s highest praise for the couple’s collective body of cinematic work. Their latest success, the critically lauded “Oppenheimer,” took home 7 Oscars including Best Director for Nolan during the recent ceremony.
Christopher Nolan had previously received a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) honor in 2019. But his knighthood, along with Thomas being named a dame, will now cement their status as British film royalty after two decades of influential, groundbreaking projects.
From “Inception” and “Interstellar” to their gritty Batman trilogy, the husband-wife duo have exhibited daring creativity, technical mastery, and caused a redefinition of the blockbuster landscape.
Also being honored by the monarchy is Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of streaming giant Netflix. Sarandos, who has spearheaded the platform’s aggressive content acquisition and creation since 2000, will receive a CBE for his services to the creative industries in the UK and beyond.
Under Sarandos’s guidance, Netflix has emerged as an entertainment juggernaut, both partnering with established studios and filmmakers like Nolan as well as opening doors for new, under-represented voices through its financial commitments to original programming across film and television.
As he said in a statement, “The UK’s creative brilliance…makes it an extraordinary place to invest.” Netflix’s deep investments in British production facilities and talent pools have made Sarandos’s CBE well-deserved.
