Hans Zimmer triumphed in Sunday’s best original score category at the Academy Awards, claiming the Oscar for the music of “Dune.”
Zimmer did not attend the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre as he is on tour with his band in Europe.
It is Zimmer’s second Academy Award; he previously won for 1994’s animated “The Lion King,” although he has 10 other nominations for such modern classics as “Rain Man” and “Gladiator” and high-profile Christopher Nolan movies like “Inception” and “Interstellar.”
Zimmer’s victory had been widely predicted, as the composer has already won the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards for his music for Denis Villeneuve’s much-admired adaptation of the sci-fi classic.
“Dune” is the German-born composer’s second collaboration with the director, after their work together on “Blade Runner 2049.” Writing music for the project fulfilled a long-held ambition for Zimmer, who read Frank Herbert’s novel when he was 18 and had often imagined what the music of Arrakis might sound like.
Eerie, ominous and dramatic, the Zimmer score is a unique mix of choral, world-music, rock and electronic sounds created by friends and colleagues on three continents during the pandemic. He spent over a year experimenting with women’s voices; chants, whispers and screams all figure in the film’s elaborate soundscape.
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“One of the major themes of the book was the power of women,” Zimmer told Variety last year. “We were dealing with a culture that was extraterrestrial. I felt that the only thing that should be pure – and even that shouldn’t be quite pure – was the voice. I was trying to do the inner voices of the characters, without using words.”
Zimmer is expected to return for “Dune: Part Two,” due in 2023.
Upon receiving the news, Zimmer tweeted:
It’s 2am in Amsterdam, and my daughter Zoë woke me up to go to the hotel bar. Wow!! #Oscars pic.twitter.com/VlwnrElkaL
— Hans Zimmer (@HansZimmer) March 28, 2022
