British director Christopher Nolan is on course to win his first Oscar for the epic biopic Oppenheimer and Irish actor Cillian Murphy is tipped to collect the best actor prize at the 96th Academy Awards on Sunday (Monday AEDT).

Nolan’s ambitious telling of the story of J Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist described as the father of the atomic bomb, is considered the frontrunner to be named best picture.

Nolan is heavily tipped to win the directing prize, while Murphy, who plays the title role, is in pole position for the best actor gong.

Murphy has faced strong competition from The Holdovers star Paul Giamatti, but has pulled ahead in the race in recent weeks with wins at the BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Nolan has only been nominated for the best directing gong once before, for Dunkirk in 2018, but has also never won an Oscar.

He is also in the running for the adapted screenplay trophy, for his work adapting the Oppenheimer biography American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin, and the film is nominated for a raft of technical awards.

Robert Downey Jr, who plays Lewis Strauss – head of the Atomic Energy Commission in the film, is thought to be unbeatable in the best supporting actor category, having won all major awards leading up to the ceremony.

US actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph is also considered to be favourite to win the best supporting actress prize for her turn as a grieving cook in the boarding school drama The Holdovers.

But there is still suspense in the best actress category, which is thought to be a dead heat between Emma Stone for Poor Things and Lily Gladstone for Killers Of The Flower Moon.

Stone has won a number of precursor awards, including the BAFTA, and already has an Oscar for La La Land, but Gladstone’s win at the SAG awards means she is still very much in the race.

She would be the first Native American to win in the category.

The actress, a native of Montana’s Blackfeet reservation, has won critical acclaim for her role in Martin Scorsese’s western about the murders of wealthy members of the Osage tribe in the 1920s.

The German-language drama, The Zone Of Interest, directed by Jonathan Glazer, is favoured to win the best international film prize. The harrowing portrait of a family living in a house and garden next to Auschwitz is also nominated for best picture and best director.

Jimmy Kimmel will host the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony will begin at 1100 AEDT Monday.

-AAP