Dune 2 director Denis Villeneuve ‘against’ Academy's decision to disqualify Hans Zimmer for Best Score at Oscars 2025

Hans Zimmer, who won the Best Original Score Oscar for Dune in 2022, has been disqualified from the same category for Dune 2 at the Oscars this year.

While the nominations for Oscars 2025 will be announced on January 17, we already know that the two-time Academy Award-winning German music composer Hans Zimmer hasn't made it to the Best Original Score nominations this year for his terrific work in Denis Villeneuve's blockbuster sci-fi epic Dune 2. As per SlashFilm, Denis has voiced his objection to the Academy's decision. (Also Read: Kanguva at Oscars? Here's what making it to the 207 entries-long eligibility list actually means)

What Denis said

Hans Zimmer and Denis Villeneuve worked together on the Dune franchise.

“I am absolutely against the decision of the Academy to exclude Hans, frankly, because I feel like his score is one of the best scores of the year. I don't use the word genius often, but Hans is one," said Denis at a screening of Dune 2 at the Directors Guild of America in New York. He joked that while he's not “here to complain,” he argued that the score of Dune 2 is “rooted” in the first part because there is a “continuity” since the Dune franchise is like “one big movie that is cut in half.”

Denis was referring to The Academy's rule that a music composer is eligible for a nomination in the Best Original Score category only if 80% of the score is original. While Dune 2 does boast of a fresh score (for instance, the love theme – A Time Of Quiet Between The Storms), most of it is borrowed from the score of the first part, which released in 2021.

Hans is no Oscar virgin

Hans won the Oscars for Disney's 1994 animated musical The Lion King and Dune.