Nivola earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for his first performance on the New York stage in the 1995 Broadway production of A Month In The Country opposite Helen Mirren. Since then he has starred in numerous films including David O. Russell's American Hustle which earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award. Among his other films are Lisa Cholodenko’s Laurel Canyon (Independent Spirit Award nomination for best supporting actor), Coco Before Chanel, Junebug, Mansfield Park, Kenneth Branagh’s Love's Labour's Lost, Jurassic Park 3, Goal 1 and 2, The Eye, I Want You, Best Laid Plans, Janie Jones, Five Dollars A Day, and John Woo’s Face/Off (Blockbuster Entertainment Award nomination). In 2009 he was given the Excellence in Acting Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival.