Academy award-winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas have received honours from the Buckingham Palace on Wednesday. The Inception director formally received a knighthood from King Charles III while his wife, who has worked as a producer on all his films, received a damehood.

"Arise, Sir Christopher Nolan and Dame Emma Thomas. The couple were recognised for their extraordinary contribution to Film, with their partnership producing major blockbusters such as The Dark Knight trilogy and Oppenheimer," wrote the royal family on their official Instagram handle, sharing photos from the ceremony.

During their meeting, King Charles had praised their recent work Oppenheimer, the biopic of American theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that developed the atomic bomb during the Second World War.

"It was very nice that he knew our work and was aware of it, and, yes, he was hoping that I would take this as encouragement to do more of it," said Nolan, speaking about their conversation with Charles.

Emma Thomas said that she was "thrilled" and noted that she had never dreamed of anything like this happening. "I’ve heard anecdotally since about lots of younger people having their first experience of this story on the big screen, and then delving deeper and doing more of their own research into the events that we portrayed," she added.

The film, which won seven Academy Awards earlier this year, including Best Picture, brought the couple their first Best Film BAFTA as well. Oppenheimer received universal acclaim and grossed over $976 million worldwide.

The couple, who have been married since 1997, produced movies through their Syncopy banner. Aside from Oppenheimer, Emma Thomas also worked on other blockbusters like Tenet (2020), Dunkirk (2017), Interstellar (2014), The Dark Knight trilogy (2008-2012), The Prestige (2006), Batman Begins (2005), Insomnia (2002) and Memento (2000).