Emma Thomas facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Dame Emma Thomas DBE
Thomas in 2011
Born	(1971-12-09) 9 December 1971 (age 53) London, England
Alma mater	University College London (BA)
Occupation	Film producer
Years active	1993–present
Title	Co-founder of Syncopy Inc.
Spouse(s)	Christopher Nolan ​ (m. 1997)​
Children	4
Relatives	Jonathan Nolan (brother-in-law) Lisa Joy (sister-in-law)

Dame Emma Thomas, Lady Nolan (born 9 December 1971) is a British film producer. A film producer is someone who helps make movies happen, from getting the money to hiring the crew and making sure everything runs smoothly.

Emma Thomas has produced all the major films directed by her husband, Christopher Nolan. Their movies have earned billions of dollars around the world and are known as some of the best films of their time.

She won the Academy Award for Best Picture (also known as an Oscar), a BAFTA Award for Best Film, and a Critics' Choice Movie Award for producing Nolan's movie Oppenheimer (2023). This made her the first British woman to win the Oscar for Best Picture. In 2024, she was given the title of "Dame" for her important work in film.

Early Life and Education

Emma Thomas was born in London, England, on 9 December 1971. Her father worked for the government, and she lived in the Middle East for part of her childhood. She first thought about working in government like her dad after finishing school.

Emma studied ancient history at University College London (UCL). She lived in the same student dorm as Christopher Nolan, who would later become her husband. They met during her very first week at university.

Nolan introduced Emma to the UCL Union's Film Society. Here, they showed movies using special 35mm film. They used the money they earned to make short news films and other short movies. Emma says that Nolan and the Film Society helped her discover her love for filmmaking. She would even bring snacks for the people working on her partner's short films.

Career Journey in Film

Starting Out (1993–2000)

While at UCL, Emma Thomas got an unpaid internship at a film company called Working Title Films. She worked as a "runner" (someone who does various small tasks) and a receptionist. After she finished her degree in 1993, she was promoted to a production coordinator. This meant she helped organize many parts of a film's production.

The first film she produced was a short movie called Doodlebug (1997). It was about a man trying to catch a bug-like creature in his apartment. She and Nolan made this film together while they were still at university.

After some other plans didn't work out, Emma produced her first full-length movie, Following (1998). She made it with Nolan and actor Jeremy Theobald. The film was about a young writer who follows strangers in London and gets pulled into a criminal world. This movie was made on a very small budget, about £3,000. They filmed it on weekends over a year, practicing scenes a lot to save expensive film. Following was well-liked by critics and won awards at different film festivals.

Emma then helped Nolan get his script for their breakthrough film, Memento (2000), made. The movie is about a man who can't make new memories and uses photos and notes to find his wife's killer. A producer named Aaron Ryder loved the script. The film was made with a budget of $4.5 million. Other studios didn't want it, thinking it wouldn't be popular, but it was released in 500 theaters in the U.S. Emma was an associate producer on Memento. The film was highly praised and nominated for two Academy Awards. Many critics called it one of the best films of the 2000s. She also helped director Stephen Frears with his film High Fidelity (2000).

Becoming Widely Known (2001–2013)

Thomas and her husband Christopher Nolan at WonderCon in 2010.

On 27 February 2001, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan started their own film company called Syncopy Inc.. She co-produced the psychological thriller Insomnia (2002). This film was a remake of a Norwegian thriller and was about two detectives investigating a murder in Alaska. It got good reviews and made $113 million, which was much more than its $43 million budget.

Emma Thomas also produced "The Dark Knight trilogy" with Nolan and other producers. This famous series included Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Together, these superhero movies earned over $2.4 billion worldwide and are seen as one of the greatest film trilogies ever. The Dark Knight was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning two. Many people were upset that The Dark Knight wasn't nominated for Best Picture. This led the Academy to change its rules, allowing more films to be nominated for Best Picture, a change sometimes called "The Dark Knight Rule."

While working on the Batman films, Emma also produced The Prestige (2006). This movie was about two rival magicians in the 1800s. She also produced Inception (2010), an original film about a thief who enters people's dreams to steal information. Both films were very successful with critics and at the box office. The Prestige made over $109 million, and Inception made $839 million worldwide. Emma received several nominations for Inception, including for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Film. She and Nolan also produced Zack Snyder's superhero film Man of Steel (2013).

Big Successes (2014–2017)

Emma Thomas's next big film was Interstellar (2014), which she produced with Nolan and Lynda Obst. This movie was about astronauts traveling through a wormhole near Saturn to find a new home for humans. Critics loved it, and astronauts praised its scientific accuracy. Interstellar made over $730 million worldwide and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning for Best Visual Effects.

Before Interstellar, she was an executive producer for Wally Pfister's film Transcendence. Through her production company, Emma also worked with another film company to release special Blu-ray versions of some other films. She is also on the board of directors for the Motion Picture & Television Fund, which helps people in the entertainment industry.

After being an executive producer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), Emma produced the historical war film Dunkirk (2017). This movie showed the World War II evacuation from the viewpoints of soldiers on land, at sea, and in the air. Emma and her husband became interested in making this film after a difficult sailing trip across the English Channel years earlier. They realized how amazing the real evacuation was. The film was highly praised and made $526 million worldwide, becoming the highest-earning World War II film at that time. Emma earned her second Oscar nomination for Best Picture for Dunkirk.

Recent Work (2020–Present)

Tenet (2020) was Emma Thomas's next film. It was about a main character who travels through time to stop a global attack. This movie was one of the first big Hollywood films to open in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its release was delayed three times because of the pandemic. Even though it didn't make enough money to cover its costs, Tenet still earned $363 million worldwide. Critics had mixed opinions about the film. It won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. After Tenet, Emma was an executive producer for Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021), which was a new version of the 2017 Justice League film.

Emma's twelfth film, Oppenheimer (2023), is a biographical thriller. It tells the story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in creating the first nuclear weapons. This was the first film she and her husband made that received an R-rating in the U.S. since Insomnia. It was also their first film made with Universal Pictures, after some disagreements with Warner Bros. Emma felt Oppenheimer was their "riskiest" film yet. She wasn't sure if people would want to see it in theaters after the pandemic. However, the film was a huge success, earning over $950 million worldwide. It became the highest-earning biographical film and the highest-earning World War II-related film ever. Oppenheimer won many awards, including top honors at the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Golden Globe Awards. Emma Thomas became the first British female producer to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Personal Life

Emma Thomas married Christopher Nolan in 1997. They have four children and live in Los Angeles.

Recognition and Awards

Variety magazine has called Emma Thomas a "dream producer" for both actors and film studios. Her film sets are known for being very calm and organized, and her movies are usually finished on time and within budget. Vanity Fair sees her as her husband's trusted advisor, and Robbie Collin from The Telegraph calls her the "driving force" behind one of cinema's most powerful couples.

Many people who work with Emma Thomas have praised her. Actor Cillian Murphy, who has been in six of her films, said her partnership with Nolan is "the most dynamic, decent, [and] kindest producer–director partnership in Hollywood."

Emma Thomas was made an honorary fellow of UCL in 2013. In 2023, she and Nolan received the Spirit of the Industry Award from the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO). This award recognized them for making films that "shatter the limits of what cinematic storytelling can achieve" and for their strong belief in the movie theater experience. John Fithian, a former president of NATO, called them "two champions of cinema" who have done the most to improve going to the movies. In 2024, at the same time Nolan was knighted, Emma Thomas was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her contributions to film.

Filmography

Accolades

Images for kids

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  Thomas in 2011

See also

In Spanish: Emma Thomas para niños