NATO to honour Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas at CinemaCon

National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) is set to present Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas with its Spirit of the Industry Award at CinemaCon in April for the event’s closing night Big Screen Achievement Awards.

The announcement comes as Nolan written-directed Oppenheimer prepares for theatrical release July 21 from Universal Pictures.

“I am deeply honored to present the Spirit of the Industry Award to our good friends Chris and Emma as my last official act as President of NATO,” noted outgoing boss John Fithian.

“No one has done more to advance the theatrical experience than these two champions of cinema.”

Nolan and Thomas’ films “shatter the limits of what cinematic storytelling can achieve, maintaining a shared passion and commitment to the theatrical filmgoing experience that is unwavering and unparalleled.”

Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception, The Dark Knight trilogy and others have earned more than $5 billion at the global box office and grabbed 11 Oscars and 36 nominations. Tenet was notable as the first studio film to test the waters in theaters during Covid-19 pandemic.

Oppenheimer is an upcoming biographical film written and directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American theoretical physicist credited with being the "father of the atomic bomb" for his role in the Manhattan Project—the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons. Supporting cast includes Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Rami Malek, Florence Pugh, Benny Safdie, Michael Angarano, Josh Hartnett and Kenneth Branagh.