Cillian Murphy’s Best Picture Win Is An Oscars First After 96 Years & 9 Nominees

At the 2024 Academy Awards, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer won the Oscar for Best Picture, leading to a historic and unexpected achievement for Irish actor and the movie’s star, Cillian Murphy. In total, ten films were nominated for Best Picture at the most recent Academy Awards. Along with Oppenheimer, the movies that were honored included The Holdovers, American Fiction, The Zone of Interest, Barbie, Poor Things, Past Lives, Anatomy of a Fall, Maestro, and Killers of the Flower Moon. Ultimately, Oppenheimer’s win was not only big for director Christopher Nolan, but for his star-studded cast as well.

Though the past year has been notable for cinema, Oppenheimer stood out among the rest for many reasons. First and foremost, its summer release date perfectly coincided with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, leading to a movie theater phenomenon called “Barbenheimer,” wherein audiences went to see both movies on the same day. Furthermore, Oppenheimer was significant because of its massive and star-studded cast, which included Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Matt Damon, and more. Above all, Cillian Murphy, who has long been a favorite of Christopher Nolan, finally earned the leading role in one of his films.

Cillian Murphy Is The First Irish-Born Best Picture Winner In Oscars History

The Academy Awards have existed for 96 years, and though many Irish actors have been nominated and won various awards in those decades, none have ever received the biggest award of the night: Best Picture. In this way, Oppenheimer’s Oscar success is not just groundbreaking for Christopher Nolan, who won his first two Oscars at the 2024 Academy Awards, but also for the film’s leading man and his country.

The fact that Cillian Murphy is the Irish actor to break this trend is very exciting as well. Though Murphy’s career has blown up in the last few years via Oppenheimer and Peaky Blinders, he has actually had a very long and impressive career. The Irish actor had his breakthrough in film in 2002 when he starred in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later. After that, he stayed in the public eye, playing supporting roles in movies like Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise and Inception. Though it took decades for him to become the leading man, it clearly worked out.

Other Irish Actors That Have Been Nominated For Best Picture

Although Cillian Murphy is the first Irish-born actor to win Best Picture, he is far from the first to be nominated. In total, there have been 7 Irish-born nominees for an Academy Award for Best Picture, some nominated twice for different movies. Notably, this statistic does not include actors who have Irish citizenship but were born in other countries, such as Daniel Day-Lewis and Michael Fassbender, who were born in England and Germany respectively. The other Irish Oscar nominees who came before Cillian Murphy include Noel Pearson, Jim Sheridan, Redmond Morris, Ed Guiney, Martin McDonagh, Kenneth Branagh, and Andrew Lowe.