Oscar nominations: Proving a conspiracy against Christopher Nolan?

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Of all the major snubs among the Oscar nominations, arguably the most noteworthy was the absence of Christopher Nolan‘s name on the list of best directors. Again.

Nolan may be one of today’s most successful filmmakers, but he’s never been nominated for his directorial achievement despite receiving three equivalent bids from the Directors Guild of America: ‘Inception’ (2010), ‘The Dark Knight’ (2008) and ‘Memento’ (2000).

Indeed, voters’ failure to nominate ‘The Dark Knight’ for best picture was so shocking, it’s considered one of the reasons the academy expanded the list of nominees to 10. At least that may have resulted in Nolan’s first-ever nomination for best picture with Tuesday’s inclusion of ‘Inception.’

But why was he singled out again for a new slap?

Clearly, Nolan isn’t universally scorned across all areas of the academy. Members of the writers’ branch like him. He just received his second screenplay nomination, after ‘Memento.’ And, of course, his films do extremely well in the tech categories.

-- Tom O’Neil