Oscar snub: Why 'Inception' director Christopher Nolan wasn't nominated

Is Hollywood just jealous of the critical and commercial success the young Nolan has already achieved? asks Chris Lee in The Daily Beast

Christopher Nolan (top, right), at a Oscar nominee lunch, failed to earn a Best Director nod for "Inception," which is in the running for Best Picture.
(Image credit: Getty)

The "biggest mystery of this year's Academy Awards" is how director Christopher Nolan, 40, garnered Best Picture and Best Original Screeplay nominations for his dreamy sci-fi hit, Inception, but failed to get a Best Director nod, says Chris Lee at The Daily Beast. The puzzling omission is a "slap in the face for a film-making wunderkind whose meteoric rise from art house auteur to Intelligent Action Ace has made him, arguably, the hottest director in town." One theory: Perhaps Nolan's peers failed to nominate him because they're jealous that he "enjoyed too much success too soon." But it's a bit more complicated, says Lee. Here, an excerpt from the Daily Beast:

"The directors have always been a persnickety branch, often going for a foreign language director over a mainstream filmmaker," the source said. "They don't seem to like to reward blockbuster directors. And they rarely award sci-fi or heavy special-effects films."

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