Christopher Nolan has been crowned the best director of the past 25 years in a reader’s poll.
To coincide with the site’s 25th anniversary, Rotten Tomatoes asked its readers to vote for the best film director of the past quarter century in a tournament-style bracket.
A total of 64 directors were pitted against one another in rounds, with Nolan defeating Denis Villenueve (Dune) in the final with 56 per cent of the vote. According to the website, nearly 30,000 votes were cast in the final round.
In the semi-final rounds, Damien Chazelle (La La Land) and Jordan Peele (Get Out) were both knocked out. Sam Mendes (Skyfall), Bong Joon-ho (Parasite), Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) and Alex Garland (Annihilation) all made it to the quarter-finals.
Nolan is perhaps best known for directing The Dark Knight trilogy starring Christian Bale as Batman. His other films include thrillers Memento and The Prestige, and sci-fi blockbusters Inception, Interstellar and Tenet.
The director’s latest film is Oppenheimer, a historical biopic about the life of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer played by Cillian Murphy. The film, which was released in July, is the third highest-grossing film of 2023 so far, behind Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
According to reports, Nolan is said to be in talks to direct the next “two or three” James Bond movies featuring Daniel Craig’s successor. No official announcement has been made.
In a five-star review of Oppenheimer, NME wrote: “Not just the definitive account of the man behind the atom bomb, Oppenheimer is a monumental achievement in grown-up filmmaking.
“For years, Nolan has been perfecting the art of the serious blockbuster – crafting smart, finely-tuned multiplex epics that demand attention; that can’t be watched anywhere other than in a cinema, uninterrupted, without distractions. But this, somehow, feels bigger.”