Dune has racked up an impressive 10 Oscar nominations, including the coveted nod for Best Picture. Despite the film’s recognition, one nomination was notably absent: the Best Director slot for Denis Villeneuve. The French-Canadian filmmaker handled the alleged snub with grace, but Dune actor Josh Brolin was definitely not happy with the Academy.
And thus he also expressed his outrage over Denis Villeneuve’s omission from the Best Director category, going so far as to drop an f-bomb on social media. He said:
And the unbelievable, almost numbing, flummoxing I feel for Denis Villeneuve not being nominated for best director. It’s just one of those things that you just go, ‘Huh? What?’ I don’t know how you get 10 nominations, and then the guy who’s done the impossible with that book doesn’t get nominated. It makes you realize that it’s all amazing, and then it’s all fucking, totally dumb.
So why the snub? In the case of Dune, it’s possible that there were simply too many directors in the nominations pool. The 2022 nominees include industry heavyweights like Stephen Spielberg, Kenneth Branagh, Jane Campion, and Paul Thomas Anderson, as well as the newcomer Ryusuke Hamaguchi. It’s possible that such a talented group of professionals split the vote, and Denis Villeneuve was the odd man out (to Josh Brolin’s chagrin)
But nonetheless, the film has already made its mark and indeed this snub comes to a major disappointment, but then with the incoming sequel, it might just be possible for the director to reclaim his lost honor.