Dune has won the Best Visual Effects Oscar at the 94th Academy Awards. Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction masterpiece has won six awards so far at the 2022 ceremony making it (at the time of writing) the biggest movie of the night so far.
Paul Lambert was the visual effects supervisor on Dune. Lambert has previously worked on Villeneuve’s other sci-fi epic, Blade Runner 2049 but has a long and storied career in filmmaking. Lambert got his start working on movies like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life and the Day After Tomorrow. After that, he worked on films like Tron: Legacy and the marvellous First Man.
The other nominees in the Visual Effects category included Ryan Reynold’s Free Guy, Daniel Craig’s last Bond movie No Time To Die, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies Shang-Chi, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. It’ll be a bitter pill for Spidey fans who were denied a nomination in the Best Picture category despite being one of the biggest films at the 2021 box office.
Hosted by Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes, the 94th Academy Awards managed to skirt controversy before they even began. The inclusion of a Fan Favourite category was the first thing that upset people.
While it may seem like a good idea, there has been valid criticism that the fact it’s open to a public vote means that studios with deeper pockets may be able to sway the public with expensive marketing strategies.
There has also been criticism of the decision to pre-record the presentation and acceptance of eight awards related to ‘below the line’ achievements.
This caused widespread outrage in the filmmaking community, with directors, actors, and producers coming forward to criticise the decision, perhaps most notably Steven Spielberg.
“I feel very strongly that this is perhaps the most collaborative medium in the world,” Spielberg wrote in a statement. “All of us make movies together… I feel that at the Academy Awards, there is no above the line. There is no below the line. All of us are on the same line bringing the best of us to tell the best stories we possibly can. And that means for me we should all have a seat at the supper table together live at 5.”
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