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)

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

What Denis said

“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 has been nominated consistently at the Academy Awards since 1989 for 12 times in the same category. His nominations include Barry Levinson's 1988 road movie Rain Man, Penny Marshall's 1996 Christmas fantasy The Preacher's Wife, James L Brooks' 1997 romantic comedy As Good As It Gets, Dreamworks Animation's 1998 musical The Prince of Egypt, Terrence Mallick's 1998 war epic The Thin Red Line, Ridley Scott's 2000 historical action epic Gladiator, Guy Ritchie's 2009 period mystery film Sherlock Holmes, Christopher Nolan's 2010 sci-fic epic Inception, his 2015 blockbuster Interstellar, and his 2018 war film Dunkirk.

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