Joe Walker, Film Editing Oscar Winner For ‘Dune’, Thanks Director Denis Villeneuve: “Merci Du Fond Du Coeur”

Joe Walker offered a heartfelt thanks to Dune director Denis Villeneuve on Sunday while accepting his Oscar for Best Film Editing for the sci-fi epic.

“Merci du fond du coeur,” or thanks from the bottom of my heart, he said, switching to French as he received the statuette. He slipped in a joke as well. “So you may not know, but the words ‘Oscar nominated’ can be used, in the hands of a skilled 17-year-old, as an insult. My daughter once said to me in argument, ‘It’s all very well for you, Oscar-nominated Joe Walker.’”

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Walker’s remarks were taped in an earlier pre-show and broadcast during the Oscar telecast on ABC. Film editing was among eight categories bumped from the live broadcast. Dune all but swept the craft awards, leading all films tonight with six wins. This was Walker’s first win after two previous nominations, for Arrival (in 2017, also directed by Villeneuve) and 12 Years a Slave (2014).

The Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment saga has 10 Oscar noms and was expected to sweep the crafts category, as it is. It has the distinction of being the highest grossing Best Picture nominee by far at over $400 million worldwide and $100 million in North America. Walker, as Deadline’s Pete Hammond noted, had a Herculean job weaving together all the huge elements of Dune, “while also keeping its actors from sinking in the sand.”

Timothée Chalamet stars as Paul Atreides as noble family becomes embroiled in a war for control over the galaxy’s most valuable asset while its scion is troubled by visions of a dark future. The film was adapted from Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel. Dune: Part Two is eyeing a fall shoot.

Walked, the Sicario editor, has called the Academy tone deaf for snubbing his category, backed up by an indignant creative industry. “Without film editing, all my movies would still be in dailies,” Steven Spielberg told Deadline. Villeneuve, James Cameron, Jane Campion and others had urged the Academy to reverse its decision.

Industry players on the red carpet today, including some film editing nominees, spoke out against the move.

The relegated categories — Animated Short Film; Documentary Short Subject; Film Editing; Live Action Short Film; Makeup and Hairstyling; Original Score; Production Design and Sound — were unveiled and pre-taped before the start of the official program and clips and were woven in throughout the night.

Check out Walker’s speech above and backstage comments below.

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