Dune - 10 nominations

 

Best Sound Mac Ruth Mark A. Mangini Theo Green Doug Hemphill Ron Bartlett

Best Achievement in Visual Effects Paul Lambert Tristan Myles Brian Connor Gerd Nefzer

Best Achievement in Production Design Patrice Vermette (production design) Zsuzsanna Sipos (set decoration)

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Hans Zimmer

Best Achievement in Film Editing Joe Walker

Best Motion Picture of the Year Mary Parent (producer) Denis Villeneuve (producer) Cale Boyter (producer)

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling Donald Mowat Love Larson Eva Von Bahr

Best Achievement in Costume Design Jacqueline West Bob Morgan

Best Achievement in Cinematography Greig Fraser

Best Adapted Screenplay Jon Spaihts (screenplay by) Denis Villeneuve (screenplay by) Eric Roth (screenplay by)

I love writing this blog.  But every now and then, a film comes along that makes writing a huge challenge.  Dune is one such movie, mostly because the plot is so complicated with so many storylines, characters, and subplots that describing it would take pages.  Here's the central story - the House of Atreides is assigned by the Emperor (of space?) to take over a desert planet that produces spice.  Spice is what allows interstellar travel, and is the most valuable commodity in the galaxy.  There is so much more to the story with messianic tropes, supernatural powers, family complications, coups and backstabbing and betrayal; the film (based on the book) is practically Shakespearean.

It's a sci-fi masterpiece, and admittedly, I didn't really love the original (but that could also be because the first time I saw the 1984 film was last year, and the visual effects were distractingly cheesy).  Dune has long been considered the book that is simply impossible to turn into a movie, and this part 1 by Villeneuve has proven that adage wrong.  It's a bit shocking that the director himself was not nominated for a 10 nominee film, but you'll note that Dune is nominated in every single technical category.  That is no mistake.  This film is epic in the truest sense of that word.  The cast is thrillingly strong (even Chalamet, who I generally find flat in his affect most of the time in most of his roles), and I have to note that this is Hans Zimmer's 12th Oscars nomination, and the one for which he is most likely to win his second award.

Dune is not for everyone.  It's still a science fiction film at its core.  It's long, it has lots of characters and subplots (as I already mentioned), and this is only part 1.  I believe part 2 will have more exciting action and will ramp up the tension.  This film is also the first half of a two parter, meaning that most of this film feels like important details for the set up, but doesn't necessarily have a payoff standing on its own.  That's ok, it was absolutely worth the time, "if you like that sort of thing."

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