As good as Nolan's trilogy may have turned out (film 3 notwithstanding) the shear audacity of Jackson to bring the single greatest fantasy story ever written to life in one massive filming period is by far a bigger accomplishment. It's not even a contest, shooting 3 films at once and releasing them in consecutive years? Unheard of. 300+ day shooting, the constant script changes along the way, a fully CG character that had to act, a nightmare schedule for post production, and the fact that all it needed was one bad film to screw up the rest of the series. So much could have gone wrong with LOTR yet Jackson nailed it, and was justifiably rewarded. ROTK winning wasn't because it was the best film, it was for the entire project.