Josh Brolin thinks it’s “dumb” Denis Villeneuve didn’t receive an Oscars Best Director nomination for Dune
The sci-fi epic is nominated for 10 Academy Awards this year
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Dune actor Josh Brolin thinks it’s “fucking totally dumb” that though the film received 10 Oscars nominations this year, director Denis Villeneuve did not receive his flowers in the Best Director category. In fact, Brolin thinks it’s so dumb he took to Instagram to express his happiness for the other crew members who were nominated, but also to gripe about Villeneuve’s snub.
“Hey, I just want to say congratulations to Legendary and Warner Bros., everybody who got nominated for Dune: editing, cinematography, score, music, writing, pretty much everything,” Brolin says in the video. “And 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?!’”
He continues, “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 fucking totally dumb. So congratulations for the amazing accomplishments that these incredibly talented people have been acknowledged for, because it’s all really, really dumb.”
This week, Dune racked up the second-most Oscars nominations behind Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog, which earned 12. In addition to being nominated in every individual craft category, Dune is also in the race for Best Picture (which Villeneuve would earn credit for as a producer).
After earning nominations for directing from the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards, and Directors Guild of America Awards, some thought Villeneuve was shoo-in for the Academy Award nomination. Those who did make the cut for this year’s best directing category include: Steven Spielberg for West Side Story, Jane Campion fo The Power of the Dog, Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza, Kenneth Branagh for Belfast, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Drive My Car.
There’s always a change to snag the nomination for Dune: Part Two.
15 Comments
I agree. Villeneuve should have gotten the nod for Best Director, but the movie should not have been nominated for Best Picture. It’s too unfinished.
Brolin is absolutely right. What Villeneuve was able to do with this book, and the way he did it, was exemplary.
He’s right, it is dumb. But Peter Jackson didn’t get any hardware for the Lord of the Rings movies until the whole series was done. Maybe there’s similar thinking going on here given how much the Academy hates awarding genre movies.
That’s my thought too about Jackson. If the sequel(s) are half as good, they should give it to him after it’s done.
every movie is a genre movie, the academy has no issue with awarding genre movies. They also have no issue with awarding sci/fi movies, when they warrant it.
This did not put a smile on his face.
Just expand the number of director nominations. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
I’ve already watched this movie three times, and will probably do so again in the near future. It’s a very comforting movie in a way. Visually it just has such an awesome appeal that it’s infinitely watchable to me.
I think it’s dumb too, but I was always more concerned that the film would get a sequel than I was about awards. And it has gotten lots of nominations, so that’s nice.
Probably two things were at play here: “Dune” is scifi (and the Academy hates recognizing scifi as legitimate art), and the movie ends so abruptly that it feels unfinished. If the sequel is just as good, he’ll have a much better shot at the Oscar.
I definitely agree. Of the nominated directors, I’d take out Anderson. Licorice Pizza was cute (age gap weirdness aside) and looked good but was too loose and rambling for my tastes.
Opening up Best Picture to 10, and leaving Director at 5 always felt off. Should probably open that up to say at least 7, and min 6.
Behold, as a wild ass in the desert, go I forth to my twitter account.
Well Josh, I think it’s dumb that you beat up Diane Lane and got away with it but we don’t all get what we want now do we
I get that it’s an honor just to be nominated, but seeing as how nobody requires any of the voters to actually watch everything that’s been nominated, it seems like they’d be just as well off going off of their shortlist for every category. I think it’s been reported in the past that most of the voters don’t even watch every film nominated for Best Picture, so like, why narrow it down at all? Let Bob Hollywood vote for Snake Eyes as Best Picture if that’s the only thing he saw last year. The best movies should still float to the top, and it might even be a bit more accurate if less people vote for Green Book by default.