Hans Zimmer blames “stupid rule” for Oscars snub with ‘Dune: Part Two’ score
Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer has discussed being snubbed from the Oscars for the Dune: Part Two score, labelling the disqualification as a product of a “stupid rule”.
In 2021, Zimmer was victorious at the Academy Awards in the ‘Best Original Score’ category for Dune: Part One. However, this year, he was unable to be nominated which prevented him from winning the prestigious prize for the third time in his career.
Zimmer was overlooked because the Academy’s rules state that in “cases such as sequels and franchises from any media, the score must not use more than 20 per cent of pre-existing themes and music borrowed from previous scores in the franchise.”
In response to the saga, Zimmer said on a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, “You know something? It’s not really a sore point. It’s just such a stupid point — how can it be a sore point? I got disqualified because I was using material from the first movie in the second movie, but it’s not a sequel. It is the completion… both movies are one arc.”
Zimmer continued: “So was I supposed to go and take all the character themes away and write new character themes and develop them? It’s just a stupid rule. What I didn’t want to do is go and bitch about it.”
The ‘Best Original Score’ category was won by Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist in 2025. The British musician, who was formerly a member of Cajun Dance Party and Yuck, recently said of his career in an exclusive interview with Far Out: “I came to film when I was about 17. I discovered film, and it was immediately this – I was watching more films than I would listen to records…”
Blumberg elaborated further on his long road to Oscars victory, adding, “I became a professional musician when I was 15, just immediately, as soon as I started making work, and that process immediately became demystified.”
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