MEMENTO

Memento tells its story in two directions at once: Color sequences run backwards, black-and-white sequences run forwards; they meet at the end. The viewer gets the same handicap as Leonard, its amnesiac hero — no memory of what came before, only polaroids, notes, and ink. Shot on 35mm; the structure IS the film's signature.

Memento brought Nolan his first Oscar recognition: 2 nominations — for the screenplay and the editing, the two crafts that make the backward structure work — and 0 wins. His career total now stands at 49 career nominations and 18 wins; every one of them traces back to this film.

No studio wanted to distribute it, so its backers released it themselves — and it kept growing anyway: $5.0M in, $40.1M out, a 8.0× return. Two decades on it still holds an 8.4 on IMDb from 1.4M voters — ranked #7 by vote count across Nolan's entire filmography.