Although Christopher Nolan admits that he enjoys working on all film projects, big or little, the Oppenheimer filmmaker will most likely continue to focus on “large-scale” pictures.

In an online interview with Time magazine, the filmmaker said that some of his recent favourite films were smaller-scale dramas like Aftersun, which he regarded as “just a beautiful film,” and Past Lives, which he described as “subtle in a beautiful sort of way.”

Although Nolan admires the elegance of those productions, he has a “responsibility” to continue making blockbuster films with large casts, elaborate settings, and high budgets.

“I’m drawn to working on a large scale because I understand how fleeting the opportunity to marshal those resources is,” the Interstellar filmmaker told the site. “I know that there are so many filmmakers out there in the world who would give their eye teeth to have the resources I put together, and I feel I have the responsibility to use them in the most productive and interesting way.”

Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy, received 13 Oscar nominations for its $100 million budget. The budget is smaller than Christopher Nolan’s previous films, Tenet and The Dark Knight Rises, which cost $200 million and $250 million, respectively.

To make the most of the money, Nolan cut Oppenheimer’s shoot days from 85 to 57 while investing more in production design and location shooting.

“The U.S. government gave [the Manhattan Project] $2 billion, three to four years, and an Army Corps of Engineers to build the original Los Alamos,” production designer Ruth De Jong told The Hollywood Reporter. “I had [none of that].”