Oscar award winning filmmaker Christopher Nolan and his wife, producer Emma Thomas, are to receive a knighthood and damehood for their services to film.

The recognition comes after their biopic Oppenheimer won seven Academy Awards, including for Best Picture and Best Director.

Accepting the best picture prize, Thomas said: "I think any of us who make movies dream of this moment. But it seemed so unlikely that it would ever actually happen."

Highgate-born Nolan is also known for his Batman The Dark Knight trilogy and 2014 hit Interstellar.

Thomas has collaborated with Nolan on all of his major feature films.

Nolan has previously said he never felt alone making films as Thomas “always saw things the same way I did in terms of the importance of the medium”.

Born to a British father and American mother, Nolan read English at University College London (UCL), choosing the school because of its filmmaking facilities.

It is also where he met his future wife, Thomas, with whom he has four children – Flora, Oliver, Rory and Magnus.

Together they co-founded and run a production company, Syncopy, which has been behind many of their blockbusters.

Nolan was previously made a CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours for his services to film.

Reporting by PA.