Josh Brolin has warned the Academy that he will quit acting if they do not nominate Dune: Part Two‘s Denis Villeneuve for Best Director come January.
Brolin, who is a devout Villeneuvian after being in three of his films (2015’s Sicario, 2021’s Dune, and 2024’s Dune: Part Two), is putting his foot down regarding the Canadian’s claim to a seat on the coveted table of the year’s best filmmakers. “If he doesn’t get nominated this year, I’ll quit acting,” he told Variety while promoting the release of his memoir, From Under the Truck. That might sound extreme, but his outrage is justified.
Villeneuve has proved time and time again that he is among Hollywood’s very best. However, he is especially adept at big-scale science fiction productions, and those unfortunately and unjustly don’t tend to get a tremendous amount of love from the Academy.
While he did get a nod in Directing for Arrival (a favorite among fans of the filmmaker) in 2017, he lost out on a place with Dune in 2022. He was excluded in favor of the winner, The Power of the Dog‘s Jane Campion, as well as Belfast‘s Kenneth Branagh, Drive My Car‘s Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Licorice Pizza‘s Paul Thomas Anderson, and West Side Story‘s Steven Spielberg. That’s a stacked line-up to be sure, but an argument can easily be made for Branagh’s misplacement. As the co-writer and co-producer of the film, Villeneuve was, nevertheless, among the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Motion Picture of the Year that year.
For Brolin, however, there’s no question about whether Villeneuve belongs on the list in 2025. “[Dune: Part Two] was a better movie than the first one. When I watched it, it felt like my brain was broken open. It’s masterful, and Denis is one of our master filmmakers.” If the Oscars “have any meaning whatsoever,” he says, “they’ll recognize him.”
The 2024 film is an undeniable front-runner in the technical categories, and should earn a nod in Best Picture too, but where things look a bit wobblier at the moment is in the Directing and Acting categories. Lead Timothée Chalamet is getting more award buzz for his performance in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, while Villeneuve is up against the likes of Ridley Scott (Gladiator II), Jon M. Chu (Wicked), Sean Baker (Anora), Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez), Edward Berger (Conclave), Pedro Almodóvar (The Room Next Door), Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), or James Mangold (also for A Complete Unknown).
Though many of the movies listed above are an achievement in their own right, Dune: Part Two arguably stands as the best among the blockbusters, so it would be puzzling to see Scott or Chu nominated in Villeneuve’s place. The film retains the grandiose scale and visual prowess of its predecessor, but picks up the pace by finally jumping into the nitty-gritty of Frank Herbert’s magnum opus as it takes the viewer deeper into the world or Arrakis and the Fremen. It’s a gripping story about the power and danger of religious prophecy and charisma, commanded by dedicated performances from its star-studded cast composed of Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem and Brolin himself.
Let’s hope the Academy takes the Endgame actor’s pleas seriously, then, because just like the Best Director category will look much poorer without Villeneuve if he’s excluded ext year, so will the world of acting without Brolin. We’ll find out for sure whether the 56-year-old will be forced to Thanos-snap his career away when the Oscar nominations finally drop on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025.
