Denis Villeneuve recently told MovieMaker magazine that he is “deeply pleased” with “Dune” landing 10 Oscar nominations, second only to Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” as the most nominated film at the 94th Academy Awards. While “Dune” broke into the best picture race and landed nominations in every craft category, Villeneuve himself got shut out of the best director race. His omission is considered one of the biggest Oscar nomination snubs this year.
“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 said after MovieMaker lamented over his snub for best director. “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.”
Villeneuve was widely expected to land in the best director Oscar race after picking up nominations in the category at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice Awards and Directors Guild of America Awards. With Villeneuve out of the running, this year’s Oscar race for best director boils down to 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”).
Josh Brolin, who Villeneuve cast in “Dune” as House Atreides weapons master Gurney Halleck, called out the Academy for snubbing Villeneuve last week following the nominations announcement. The actor called Villeneuve’s snub “unbelievable” and “almost numbing, flummoxing.”
“It’s just one of those things where you go, ‘Huh? What?!’” Brolin said in a video posted to social media. “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.”
Watch Villeneuve’s full interview with MovieMaker magazine in the video below.