Josh Brolin Is Peeved That ‘Dune’ Got 10 Oscar Nominations But None For Director Denis Villeneuve

Oscar nominations always make people mad, though this year people seem angrier than usual. The biggest controversy, at least according to Jimmy Kimmel and Kevin Smith, is over Spider-Man: No Way Home, the biggest moneymaker since the pandemic began and which was denied a Best Picture nomination. (Fans will have to make do with its lone nom for Best Visual Effects.) But one actor has chosen another snub to make him peeved.

As caught by /Film, Josh Brolin dropped an Instagram video last week in which he discussed how Dune — in which he plays super serious House Atreides weapons master Gurney Halleck — received a stunning 10 nominations, the second most, one behind The Power of the Dog. It even got one for Best Picture. But the actor’s mood was more somber, funereal, miffed. That’s because it should have been 11.

Brolin began by congratulating all his Oscar-nominated Dune colleagues, then he segued into mourning the one person who didn’t get one but, in his estimation, should have. And the unbelievable, almost numbing, flummoxing I feel for Denis Villeneuve not being nominated for Best Director,” Brolin said. “It’s just one of those things where you go, ‘Huh What!'”

Villeneuve did accomplish something no one, not even David Lynch, could do: He turned one of sci-fi’s most acclaimed yet dense tomes into a popular blockbuster, even with one of the most snickerable names in recent cinematic memory. It’s a huge feat, and he still has the second half of the first novel to film, to say nothing of the numerous, increasingly bonkers sequels. Maybe the Academy will finally recognize him when he gets to the one with the giant, horny sandworm-human.