While Dune: Part Two’s score has been disqualified for Oscar consideration, it won Hans Zimmer his fifth Grammy.

Despite previously being deemed ineligible by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar consideration, Hans Zimmer’s Dune: Part Two score managed an impressive win at the Grammy Awards. Zimmer wound up taking home the Best Score Soundtrack for a Visual Medium award. It marks his fifth Grammy win and his first since winning (with James Newton Howard) for The Dark Knight in 2009. Zimmer wasn’t there to accept the award but was also up for Best Song Written for a Visual Medium for his song “Love Will Survive” from the Peacock limited series, The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

The win marks something of an “I told you so” to the Academy, with the decision to omit Zimmer’s acclaimed score from Oscar consideration widely mocked. They reasoned that the film contained too small of a new score to existing themes ratio due to the movie repurposing themes and motifs from the first film. As per the rule, “In cases such as sequels and franchises from any media, the score must not use more than 20% of pre-existing themes and music borrowed from previous scores in the franchise.” 

Director Denis Villeneuve slammed the exclusion, stating, “I am absolutely against the decision of the Academy to exclude Hans, frankly, because I feel like his score is one of the best scores of the year…I don’t use the word genius often, but Hans is one…I’m not here to complain. The soundtrack is really a continuity of Part One.” 

We’ll be back tomorrow with a full rundown of all the Grammy Winners for the evening.