Why The Oscars Banned Hans Zimmer's Dune 2 Score From Competing

"Dune: Part Two" is one of the best films of 2024, a monumental achievement that seems like a shoo-in to be nominated for a swath of technical awards at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards. As of this writing, several screenings of the film are taking place throughout this week in Los Angeles, featuring director Denis Villeneuve giving Q&As after a number of them. One of these screenings includes a chat with Villeneuve and composer Hans Zimmer, moderated by the winner of Best Original Score for the 96th Academy Awards, Ludwig Göransson. It certainly seemed like Zimmer's work for "Dune: Part Two" was going to be a big part of the film's push at the Academy Awards.

Sadly, that part of the movie's awards campaign is now officially over — at least when it comes to the Oscars specifically. According to Variety, Zimmer's score has been deemed not eligible for competition. The rationale for this involves the Academy's rule regarding Best Original Score submissions, especially the "Original" part of that category title, which states that "in cases such as sequels and franchises from any media, the score must not use more than 20% of pre-existing themes and music borrowed from previous scores in the franchise." In the case of "Dune: Part Two," it seems the Academy feels that too much of the score is made up of pre-existing material.

While this is a bummer due to the level of achievement that the score for "Part Two" reaches — in this writer's opinion, it's superior to the score for "Part One" — it does make logical sense, at least from a point of assumed fairness, if nothing else. This is because Zimmer's score for "Part One" actually did win the Oscar for Best Original Score at 2022's 94th Academy Awards.

Of course, the ruling that the score for "Dune: Part Two" has been rendered ineligible for Academy Awards consideration isn't happy news, and it'll be no surprise if it causes a stir in fans of the film and its music. Yet it's hard to argue too much with the Academy's decision here, given the nomination and win for "Part One," to which the score for "Part Two" is undeniably indebted. People will likely voice their rebuttals to this decision by citing other examples of nominations and wins for scores that contain a good deal of pre-existing material. Most egregious are Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola's win for "The Godfather Part II" in 1975 (Rota had been nominated in 1973 for the first "Godfather" score, but it was disqualified for similar reasons to "Dune"), and John Williams' nomination for last year's "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny," a score that certainly contains a good amount of pre-existing material.

In any case, the future for "Dune" is hardly bleak, despite this minor setback. For one thing, the score for "Part Two" is still in contention for other voting bodies, including the Grammys, the BAFTAs, the Critics Choice Awards, and so on. For another, Zimmer is still very vocally proud to be a member of the "Dune" team, and shows no sign of backing away from Villeneuve or the franchise as it heads into a third film, which will likely adapt the events of the second of Frank Herbert's novels, "Dune Messiah." As Zimmer stated in an interview with Variety:

"I'm immensely proud of what we've collaboratively crafted with visionaries like Denis Villeneuve. This is our contribution to a larger cinematic experience."

So, it seems likely that there is going to be much more Zimmer music in "Dune" in the near future. Given how wild Herbert's source material becomes, it's entirely possible that Zimmer could find reason to introduce a whole new soundscape to the next film, and if so, the third "Dune" score just might find itself Oscar nominated. With the exception of those who've taken the Water of Life, we can't yet know for sure.

"Dune: Part Two" is streaming on Max.