CHRISTOPHER NOLAN HAS won a top directing accolade at the Directors Guild of America awards for his film Oppenheimer.

Hollywood directors named Nolan the winner of the ‘Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film’ category for Oppenheimer, which stars Irish actor Cillian Murphy.

Nolan had been previously nominated four times for Memento, The Dark Knight, Inception and Dunkirk but last night was his first win.  

Accepting the award, Nolan said that “the idea that my peers would think I deserve this means everything to me”.

Almost all of the last 20 DGA winners have gone on to also win the Oscar for best director in the same year. This year’s Academy Awards are scheduled for 10 March, where Nolan is up in the directing category.

The DGA prize for best movie from a first-time filmmaker went to Celine Song for Past Lives.

20 Days in Mariupol won best documentary for its portrayal of Russia’s war reaching the Ukrainian port city, which became one of the hardest-hit sites of the invasion.

Director Mstyslav Chernov told the audience that his hometown was bombed earlier that day, with seven people killed, including children. 

“At the same time, I recognize the power of cinema… when those people run from the bombs that are falling on them, they sit in the basements, to cope with their fear, they watch films,” he said.

“Cinema not just leaves these stories in history for next generations… it also helps us all to cope with a sometimes unbearable world.”

Additional reporting by AFP