Steven Spielberg Just Named His Favorite Christopher Nolan Movie, And It Might Surprise You

Steven Spielberg has finally settled a debate that fans have wondered about for years, naming his all time favorite Christopher Nolan film, and the answer is not ‘Oppenheimer’ or ‘Inception’.

During a conversation about crafting Disclosure Day’s stunning four minute oner, Spielberg was asked if he had a favorite Christopher Nolan movie, and his response came without a moment of hesitation.

Spielberg didn’t even pause before answering that his pick would be 2000’s ‘Memento’, one of Nolan’s very first releases. He doubled down on just how much the film means to him, declaring that it will remain his all time favorite movie that Nolan has ever made, calling it a forever favorite.

Emily Blunt, who was sitting beside Spielberg for the conversation, was asked the same question and gave a very different answer. Blunt said she could not pick Oppenheimer given her own role in the film would make her opinion biased, so instead she landed on ‘The Dark Knight’ as her favorite Nolan project.

For longtime cinephiles, Spielberg’s pick carries real weight. ‘Memento’ earned widespread critical acclaim, including a 93 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it landed Nolan his first Academy Award nomination with a nod for Best Original Screenplay.

The film also turned a modest 9 million dollar budget into more than 40 million dollars at the box office, a result that helped put Nolan on the map as a major filmmaker and opened doors to bigger projects down the line, including the Batman franchise that would follow.

The exchange happened while Spielberg and Blunt were promoting ‘Disclosure Day’, the director’s new sci fi thriller that marks his return to the alien genre after years away from it. The film also stars Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson and Colman Domingo, and was released theatrically in the United States on June 12. Coincidentally, Nolan’s next film, ‘The Odyssey’, is set to arrive in theaters on July 17 of next month.

It is a fun bit of symmetry that two filmmakers often mentioned in the same breath as some of the greatest directors of their generation are now publicly trading praise for each other’s work.

Spielberg singling out ‘Memento’ specifically also feels notable, since it shows the kind of lasting impression Nolan’s early, low budget mind bender left on one of cinema’s most influential figures, even decades after its release and long before the director became known for blockbuster scale epics.

Fans on social media have already latched onto the exchange, with many pointing out how rare it is to get such a direct and unprompted ranking from someone as legendary as Spielberg. Given that ‘Memento’ was inspired by a short story written by Nolan’s brother Jonathan and starred Guy Pearce in the lead role, the film’s enduring legacy continues to grow even twenty five years after it first hit theaters, proving that sometimes the smallest projects leave the biggest marks.

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