“Dune: Part One” (2021) won a remarkable six Oscars. Would you believe it managed that feat without the benefit of a director? At least, that’s what you might think after the motion picture academy seemed to nominate the sci-fi epic for everything but Best Director. However, filmmaker Denis Villeneuve nevertheless returned to round out his story with “Dune: Part Two,” which was released in the US in March and could be just as formidable at the Oscars. Will Villeneuve get the Best Director nom this time?
To be fair to the academy, they didn’t totally snub Villeneuve. On the contrary, he was actually nominated for two awards: Best Picture as a producer of the film and Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing it, based on the notoriously difficult-to-adapt novel by Frank Herbert. And before that he did score a Best Director nom for another sci-fi film, “Arrival” (2016), bringing his career total to three nominations. But for a film with so many moving parts and such high production values and technical grandeur, “Dune: Part One” missing in the Best Director race was a strange oversight.
But things are looking up for Villeneuve when it comes to “Part Two.” As of this writing he ranks third in our initial Best Director predictions, trailing only Steve McQueen (“Blitz”) and Cannes Film Festival champ Sean Baker (“Anora”). And there are two Gold Derby Editors, two of our Top 24 Users, four of our All-Star Top 24 and over 400 everyday Users who think he’ll take home his first trophy. He could add a second to his mantel as well: “Dune: Part Two” ranks second in our early odds for Best Picture with support from two Expert journalists, one Editor, three Top Users and two All-Stars. And the trifecta is not out of reach as he currently ranks among our top five contenders for Best Adapted Screenplay, with one Expert betting on him to prevail. So this might not just be his year for a makeup nomination. It could be a full-on coronation.
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