DUNE captured Oscar gold on Sunday night. The sci-fi adaptation from Legendary and Warner Bros. took home six Oscars, winning in cinematography, editing, score, visual effects, production design and sound.
Best Cinematography was won by Greig Fraser, his first Oscar as part of a year that also displayed his work on The Batman. As he prepares to film Dune: Part Two, according to Hollywood He recently read a draft of the sequel, which is due out next year: “Part Two is a bigger story. I read the script, and I was more blown away than Part One.”
Hans Zimmer won for Best Original Score on Dune, but was not present at the ceremony. He previously received an Oscar for The Lion King in 1995.
Dune also won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. The winning team included production VFX supervisor Paul Lambert, who previously won Oscars for First Man and Blade Runner 2049; special effects supervisor Gerd Nefzer, who also won an Oscar for Blade Runner 2049; and first-time Academy Award recipients Tristan Myles, VFX supervisor at lead VFX house DNEG’s Vancouver studio, and Brian Connor, VFS supervisor at DNEG Montreal.
Joe Walker won for Best Film Editing, and has been nominated three times for an Academy Award and four times for a British Academy Film Award for his work on 12 Years a Slave (2013), Arrival (2016), Blade Runner 2049 (2017).
Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett won for Best Sound. Zsuzsanna Sipos and Patrice Vermette won for Best Production Design.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Dune is based on Frank Herebert’s 1965 novel.
Cast includes Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, David Dastmalchian, Chang Chen, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem.
Dune tells the story of Paul Atreides, a young noble from the planet Caladan whose family is just one of a number of several big “houses” clashing over the control of the planet Arrakis, better known as “Dune.” Arrakis is a unique planet because it’s the only place you can get a drug called “spice melange.” Spice is a catchall sci-fi plot device. It lets you see the future, travel across space, and even extends life.
