Dune Star Slams Denis Villeneuve's Best Director Oscar Snub

04/12/2022 11:55 pm EDT

Dune did what star Josh Brolin thought was impossible: score multiple Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, but no nod for director Denis Villeneuve. The first part of the sci-fi epic was nominated in 10 categories at the 2022 Oscars, but Villeneuve was shut out of the race that included Steven Spielberg (West Side Story), Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza), Kenneth Branagh (Belfast) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car). After calling out the omission as "totally f—ing dumb" on social media earlier this year, Brolin expanded on his confusion over Villeneuve's Best Director snub.

"It's the most asinine, bizarre ... I mean, that's why snubs are such a thing and that's why we all talk about them, but that's a snub, of a snub, of a snub that I just thought was an impossibility," the Gurney Halleck actor told Collider. "But given everything about the Academy Awards, there are many impossibilities that actually materialized. So it's all part of the game right now. I don't know. Is it post-pandemic mentality? Whatever it is, I don't understand it." 

Brolin added, "He helmed the whole thing. It's his creation. It's his interpretation."

But Villeneuve, who was nominated at this year's Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay as co-writer and Best Picture as producer of Dune, was unbothered by the supposed snub. (Campion ultimately won for The Power of the Dog while Dune was awarded six Oscars, including Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.)

"Frankly, if you had told me a few months ago that we'd be in the Oscar race, that we'd have that kind of recognition, I would have not believed you. It's really moving," Villeneuve, who was previously nominated for Arrival in 2017, told Movie Maker. "If you're nominated, it's a beautiful thing... I don't take things for granted, and I was deeply pleased with what we got."

In a video posted to Twitter in February, Brolin congratulated Legendary and Warner Bros. Pictures for the 10 nominations before calling out "the unbelievable, almost numbing, flummoxing, I feel, for Denis Villeneuve not being nominated for Best Director. It's just one of those things where you go, 'Huh? What?!'"

"I don't know how you get 10 nominations and then the guy who has done the impossible with that book doesn't get nominated. It makes you realize that it's all amazing and then it's all f-ing totally dumb," Brolin added at the time of the filmmaker's adaptation of the Frank Herbert novel. "So congratulations for the amazing accomplishments that these incredibly talented people have been acknowledged for, because it's all really, really dumb."

Dune: Part Two is expected to begin filming in July for a scheduled release date of October 20, 2023. Starring Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem, Dune is now streaming on HBO Max. 

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