Summary
- Dune: Messiah will surely aim for a LOTR-like Oscars run, but faces a tougher road ahead due to the novel's political focus.
- Some Oscar voters unfairly snubbed Dune: Part Two, casting doubt on the franchise's awards potential.
- Concerns rise over Academy voters neglecting their responsibilities, potentially affecting Dune: Messiah's chances.
Not every film trilogy deserves a Lord of the Rings comparison, but Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies are an exception – even with the third and final installment still yet to come. Dune: Messiah is the closest thing this decade has to a Return of the King-level film event, and an interesting Oscars trend suggests the same.
To be fair, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy was more mainstream, and had a much bigger cultural impact than Dune's success today. However, Denis Villeneuve's two epic space operas deserve praise for balancing high-budget spectacle with arthouse cinema-level storytelling. Now, all eyes are on Dune: Messiah as it aims to close the trilogy on a high note, including a potential Academy Awards sweep.
The Oscars Just Repeated Their Worst Ever Sci-Fi Snub
Denis Villeneuve was snubbed yet again for Dune: Part Two. Does this mean sci-fi's best chance for the coveted prize is done and dusted?
How Many Oscars Did Dune: Part Two Win?
Fewer Wins & Nominations Compared To Part One
Earlier this week, Dune: Part Two won two Oscars at the 97th Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects. The Timothée Chalamet-Zendaya starrer was nominated in five categories, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design. The two technical wins deserve high praise, but the overall awards-to-nominations ratio was a big step down from Dune: Part One. The first film was nominated for ten Academy Awards, winning six, including a controversial directing snub for Villeneuve.
|
Film |
Oscar Wins / Nominations |
|---|---|
|
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) |
4 / 13 |
|
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) |
2 / 6 |
|
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) |
11 / 11 (Clean Sweep) |
|
Dune: Part One (2021) |
6 / 10 |
|
Dune: Part Two (2024) |
2 / 5 |
The Lord of the Rings films faced a similar drop in Oscar wins and nominations within the series. The first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, won four Academy Awards from 13 nominations. However, the second film, The Two Towers, saw almost half that number, winning just two awards from six nominations – much like the Dune series. But the trilogy finale, The Return of the King, won more than both previous movies combined, sweeping all 11 categories it was nominated for.
Dune Might Be Following The Lord of the Rings’ Path
Can Dune: Messiah Sweep The Oscars?
Dune: Messiah is expected to follow in the footsteps of The Return of the King, and if things really work out, it could pull off a complete clean sweep at the Academy Awards that year. Even if winning a record-breaking number of Oscars sounds like asking for too much (though it isn’t all that crazy, considering Villeneuve’s high standards), the third Dune film should at least outperform the awards tally of the first two movies. More than any other category, sci-fi fans are hoping Villeneuve finally wins an honor that has eluded him for years: the Oscar for Best Directing.
It all rests in the hands of Oscar voters, who may unknowingly be repeating Lord of the Rings history with their ballot choices. Some industry analysts believe Dune: Part Two's relatively low number of wins might have been the result of voters collectively saving their recognition for a trilogy-ending finale. This kind of voting pattern was also observed in 2003 at the 75th Academy Awards, when The Two Towers experienced an Oscar “downgrade” of sorts. However, this trend can’t be taken for granted just because it mirrors a past coincidence.
Dune 2’s Overall Oscars Snub Was Unfair
Some Academy Voters Skipped It Entirely
Comparing Dune: Part One and Part Two, it’s hard to objectively pick the better film, as they feel more like two halves of a single 5–6-hour movie. Judging by the Oscars trend, it seems more people may have preferred the first film, which is fine. But what’s not fine is voters not even watching either or both films and simply abstaining from voting for them. An Entertainment Weekly report from February brought this problematic Oscars trend to light.
The first Dune, I couldn't get through; I'm not rushing for another three hours of Dune. There's still time to re-evaluate, but I really struggled.
The insider report revealed that some Academy voters skipped Dune: Part Two entirely, which may have contributed to its lower awards tally. The four anonymous Oscar voters quizzed in the report all admitted that they didn’t watch the film and, as a result, did not rank it on their Best Picture ballots, which include just 10 nominated films. This is a complete injustice to the Dune franchise, Denis Villeneuve, the film’s cast and crew of thousands, and the entire sci-fi genre, which the Oscars have long been infamous for snubbing.
Dune: Messiah Has A Tougher Road Ahead
As of 2024, the Academy has over 9,900 voting members, and if a significant number of them aren’t even watching the nominated films from the comfort of their own homes, it raises serious concerns. At this point, it might be time to rethink and revoke voting rights for those who neglect their responsibility. If not, Dune: Messiah might suffer a similar fate in the future. No one wants it to become another film remembered years later as a classic that was ignored by the Academy at the time of its release.
Dune: Messiah faces bigger challenges than just the Oscars in matching The Return of the King. The novel is more about political intrigue than large-scale battles, which are expected from a series finale. Unlike The Lord of the Rings, which adapted three separate books, Dune’s first two films came from a single novel, making Messiah a completely different story. Denis Villeneuve must overcome these hurdles to create a cinematic masterpiece worthy of an Oscars clean sweep.
Dune: Part Three
Display card tags widget Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget- Release Date
- December 18, 2026
- Director
- Denis Villeneuve
- Writers
- Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, Frank Herbert
- Cast
- Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor-Joy, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Robert Pattinson, Lea Seydoux, Nakoa-Wolf Momoa, Ida Brooke, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin
- Producers
- Mary Parent, Tanya Lapointe, Brian Herbert, Kim Herbert, Byron Merritt, Cale Boyter, David Minkowski, Denis Villeneuve, Ildikó Kemény, Joseph M. Caracciolo Jr.
- Prequel(s)
- Dune, Dune: Part Two
- Franchise(s)
- Dune
