James Cameron on Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune’ Oscars Snubs: “Apparently These Films Made Themselves”

The Oscars’ snubbing of Denis Villeneuve continues to be a topic of discussion, with James Cameron now offering his own confusion over why the filmmaker wasn’t recognized with a Best Director nomination for either film.

Here’s Cameron, via The Globe and Mail’s Barry Hertz, using Villeneuve as an example of how science fiction almost never gets recognized at the Oscars:

I don’t think about the Academy Awards that much — intentionally. I don’t think I make a movie to appeal to that sensibility, I guess. They don’t tend to honor films like ‘Avatar,’ films that are science fiction, for example — they’re almost never properly recognized. You know, Denis Villeneuve made these two magnificent ‘Dune’ films. Apparently these films made themselves, because he wasn’t considered as a director, not even by the Director’s Guild. It’s like, okay, you can play the awards games or you can play the game that I like to play, which is to make movies people actually go to. Sorry.

Regardless, both Dune movies did get recognized with Best Picture nominations, but Villeneuve’s directing snub still stings for many. Cameron is right — these films didn’t direct themselves — but at the same time, there are 10 Best Picture nominees and only five Best Director slots.

Josh Brolin, who played Gurney Halleck in ‘Dune 2,’ a mentor to Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides, has been very vocal about the Villeneuve snub, originally saying he would quit acting if Villeneuve didn’t get recognized (which, of course, didn’t happen). Meanwhile, “Spider-Verse” director Chris Miller tackled the snub on X, writing: “There were many films that had great directing this year, but what Denis did — in all aspects of the craft — was masterful.”

The fact is, Cameron is right: the Academy has had a chilly history with sci-fi movies, snubbing plenty of classics, and the only sci-fi movie to ever win Best Picture, to date, has been “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (unless “Everything Everywhere All at Once” also counts as sci-fi?). Villeneuve, whose sole Oscar directing nomination was for “Arrival,” will get another shot at the gold with “Dune: Part Three,” set for a 2026 release.

Then again, with 10 Best Picture nominees now, the Academy has done a better job recognizing the genre, with films like “District 9,” “Her,” and “Arrival” all landing Best Picture nominations over the past 15 years. Probably the best — and most masterful — example of a sci-fi film not being nominated for Best Picture this century remains Alfonso Cuarón’s “Children of Men.”