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Rhys Salcombe, part of the team that won the best visual effects award from Dune: Part Two at the Oscars on Sunday night, said that it was a “shame” that he got played off before he was able to deliver his acceptance speech.
Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic Dune: Part Two was nominated for seven awards at the 97th Academy Awards, including best picture. It ended up walking away with the awards for best sound and best visual effects.
Salcombe, along with Paul Lambert, Stephen James, and Gerd Nefzer, accepted the award for best visual effects.
Dune: Part Two production VFX supervisor Paul Lambert began the acceptance speeches, thanking Villeneuve, as well as all the different VFX companies that worked on the film, including “DNEG, Wylie Co., Rodeo, Territory, the incredible MPC”, followed by James and Nefzer.
Unfortunately, Salcombe was unable to make a speech, due to the 45-second timer that the Academy uses to remind winners to wrap up their speeches.
Speaking to BBC Radio Wales Drive, the Aberystwyth native said he was still happy his teammates “got the chance” to speak.
On social media, several people brought up best actor winner Adrien Brody, who delivered an acceptance speech so long it officially broke the Oscars record for the longest one in history.
After accepting his second acting Oscar for his lead role in Brady Corbet’s historical epic The Brutalist, Brody went on to speak for an astounding five minutes and 40 seconds. That’s ten seconds longer than the previous Guinness World Record holder, Greer Garson, who spoke for five minutes and 30 seconds after she was awarded the 1943 Best Actress Oscar for her role in the war romance Mrs Miniver.
“Adrien Brody literally stopping the music from being played while the Dune part two winners getting cut off 10 seconds in,” said one person on X, formerly Twitter.
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Another said: “You know what, I’m still pissed that Dune 2’s sound engineers got their mics MUTED when they were making their speech but Adrien Brody got to just tell the academy to stop playing him off and he got to continue saying nothing of value??”
Find the full list of the 2025 Oscar winners here.
Salcombe, who is Welsh-Canadian, also talked about how his childhood and where he grew up had a massive effect on his love for film.
“Being in the countryside, being able to experience nature in that way. It really instils that love of capturing the beauty in the camera as much as possible,” he said.
On the award, Salcombe said it had been a “bit of a blur” but it was “special” to have the opportunity to represent his entire team of “close to 2,000” on stage.
“We’re up there representing the work of our fellow co-workers. Recognition of their work in this way is pretty special,” he said.
Salcombe is currently “holding out hope” for Dune 3, but has no illusions of Villeneuve filming in Wales.
“I don’t know if the Dune universe would work in Aberystwyth. Never say never. We’d need to chuck in a lot of sand from somewhere else,” he said.
