(Credits: Universal Pictures)
Irish actor Cillian Murphy is set to be honoured by the Palm Springs International Film Festival for his performance in Oppenheimer.
Alongside Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was one of 2023’s most anticipated movies, with many viewers opting to watch them as a ‘Barbenheimer’ double feature due to their matching release dates.
Oppenheimer stars Murphy as the eponymous theoretical physicist who was responsible for developing nuclear weaponry. The movie also features performances from Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett and Florence Pugh.
While Oppenheimer didn’t generate as much at the box office as Barbie, it remains the third highest-grossing movie of the year. Critics have widely praised Murphy’s performance, and more awards could potentially be on the horizon.
Palm Springs International Film Festival, which runs in January 2024, will award Murphy with a prize due to his “stunning” portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer.
The festival’s chairman, Nachhattar Singh Chandi, said, “Murphy gives a stunning portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer as a conflicted scientist leading the Manhattan Project to produce the world’s first atomic bomb.”
“For this career-best performance, we are honoured to present the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, to Cillian Murphy,” he added.
In a four-star review of Oppenheimer, Far Out wrote: “With Oppenheimer, Nolan hasn’t just delivered an entertaining, thought-provoking movie as he had done with his previous efforts, but a thoroughly important one that informs even the most sheltered of us about the global situation we find ourselves in today.”
Watch the trailer for Oppenheimer below.
