Denis Villeneuve Weighs In After Dune: Part Two’s Score Is Submitted For The Oscars (Despite Ineligibility Concerns)

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While the Dune: Part 2 release date might feel far away, it remains one of the best 2024 movies that’s come out so far. As awards season soon begins, we expect to talk a lot about how the Frank Herbert adaptation will be part of the 2025 Academy Awards. While it’s already in discussion for categories like Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and a ton of technical categories, it’s unclear if Hans Zimmer’s music for the film will get a chance to be nominated for Best Score after it was pointed out that it may be ineligible. Following discussions about this, the movie’s director has shared his thoughts.

Hans Zimmer was one of the 2022 Academy Award winners for his score on the first Dune movie, but history may not repeat itself for Dune: Part 2. The sequel’s score may reportedly be denied from being recognized in the category due to the cues from the music pieces having too many repeated cues from the 2021 film to be eligible. (The Academy’s threshold is 20%). Even so, the score has been submitted by Warner Bros. for the category and Denis Villeneuve said the following about the issue:

I don’t think this is over yet… I was there when Hans wrote the music, and he did a tremendous amount of music. ‘Part Two’ is a new score. I don’t accept this because it’s one of the most beautiful scores Hans has ever written, and I would love it, at least, to be considered.

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While speaking to Variety, the Dune writer/director is still hopeful the score to his sequel could still be part of the Oscar race with his recent comments. Per the publication, we won’t know for sure whether the Academy is considering Hans Zimmer’s score until the Oscar shortlist voting period begins on December 9. From there, The Academy will release which 20 scores have been shortlisted for the award before it’s whittled down to the five official nominees.

While Villeneuve is holding out hope Hans Zimmer’s score will be nominated this year, Oscar odds resource Gold Derby has completely shut it out of the Best Score race in its current predictions. While it’s very early in the season, right now, Daniel Blumberg’s score for The Brutalist, Volker Bertelmann’s work on Conclave, Clément Ducol’s score for Emilia Perez, Kris Bowers’ The Wild Robot score and the energetic Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross score for Challengers lead the ranking, with movies like Gladiator II and Saturday Night also high on the list.

While Dune: Part 2 may be completely shut out of the Best Score race, it’s currently a frontrunner for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. You can currently stream the movie with a Max subscription or rent/buy it. The next Academy Awards are set for Sunday, March 2, 2025.