Cillian Murphy Wins Best Actor in a Drama Golden Globe for Oppenheimer

Cillian Murphy has won Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama at the Golden Globes for “Oppenheimer.” Read the full Golden Globes winners list here.

The award boosts the 47-year-old Irish actor’s momentum in the Oscar race considerably, and helps to power Christopher Nolan’s film to official juggernaut status. IndieWire’s Awards Editor, Film and TV, Marcus Jones had already listed him as a frontrunner for Best Actor at the Academy Awards alongside Bradley Cooper (“Maestro”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), Colman Domingo (“Rustin”), and Paul Giamatti (“The Holdovers”).

This was not the first time Murphy had been nominated for a Golden Globe, however. He was previously nominated as Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for “Breakfast on Pluto” in 2006.

Murphy has been a longtime collaborator of director Nolan, appearing in “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight,” “Inception,” “The Dark Knight Rises,” and “Dunkirk.” But “Oppenheimer,” which proved to be the third most successful film at the worldwide box office in 2023 with a $950 million gross (behind “Barbie” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”), was the first time he had had a starring role in a Nolan film.

The film placed at number two on IndieWire’s critics survey of the 50 best movies of 2023, just behind “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

In his review of the “Oppenheimer” from July 2023, David Ehrlich wrote, “At first, I…