Hans Zimmer has won his second-ever Oscar; it’s just a shame that no one was around to see it. The musical maestro snagged the Best Original Score Oscar for his work on Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction masterpiece Dune. Zimmer’s score beat out the scores from fellow composers Germaine Franco’s (Encanto), Jonny Greenwood (Power of the Dog), Alberto Iglesias
(Parallel Mothers), and Nicholas Britell (Don’t Look Up).
Unfortunately, Zimmer, who’s widely considered one of the greatest living movie composers, received his award behind closed doors. The Best Original Score Oscar is one of eight ‘below the line’ categories that have been relegated to a pre-record that’s being filmed before the ‘main’ ceremony.
As a result, of this decision – which it’s been claimed relegates certain nominees to “the status of second-class citizens” – several protests have been organised, with some members of the award’s body promising to hold their awards upside down, wearing their badges upside down, and more than 70 filmmakers have signed a letter sent to the Academy criticising the decision.
At the time of writing, James Cameron, Jane Campion, Guillermo del Toro, Denis Villeneuve, and John Williams have all written to the Academy protesting the decision to cut these awards to reduce the ceremony’s run time.
Steven Spielberg has also released a statement calling out the Academy’s shoddy treatment of these eight awards, “I feel very strongly that this is perhaps the most collaborative medium in the world,” he wrote. “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.”
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