Dear Gossips,  

On the heels of the Critics Choice Awards kinda-sorta accidentally excluding Last Week Tonight from the talk show category, we have another awards show “controversy”, this time involving Dune: Part II and the Golden Globes. The “controversy” is that Dune 2 was not nominated for the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement Award, which this new iteration of the Globes invented last year (Barbie won) as, basically, their version of the “popular film Oscar”, which has been rightfully laughed out existence every time the Academy has tried it.

 

The reason Dune 2, which earned over $700 million at the global box office, wasn’t nominated is simple: it wasn’t submitted for consideration. 

Tweet about Dune not being submitted for consideration
 

Of all the films referenced in that exchange, only Dune 2 was actually eligible for consideration. The Golden Globes’ standard for eligibility is that a film must earn a minimum of $150 million globally, with $100 million coming from the US. While The Substance, Longlegs, and Terrifier 3 are all low-budget success stories, none of them topped the minimum earning bar for the Globes. And Dune 2, which did earn enough for consideration, was withheld because apparently someone involved with that film has the good sense to be embarrassed by a “popular Golden Globe” award, unlike anyone involved with the Golden Globes.

 

The Golden Globes in general are a farce—and a shady one at that—but a “popular” prize is especially silly. The Academy keeps trying it at the Oscars as a ratings ploy and it’s embarrassing every time, doubly so for the inherently embarrassing Golden Globes. This “controversy” isn’t a controversy at all—it’s a “nontroversy”—because someone at Warner Bros. had the sense not to diminish Denis Villeneuve’s achievement with this shallow trophy baiting. 

 

The Dune movies are very well regarded, Dune 3 is destined to be a major cinematic event that, if handled right, could be that franchise’s Return of the King. Now is not the time to sully Dune’s reputation as a perfect mix of artistic filmmaking and popular storytelling by going along with a craven ploy to make the new Golden Globes less embarrassing than the old Golden Globes. For once, Warner Bros. is in the right. 

Live long and gossip,

Sarah