As the 2025 Academy Awards approach, a behind-the-scenes look at the voting process has revealed a surprising detail—several Oscar voters admitted they did not watch Dune: Part Two and chose to leave it off their Best Picture ballots.

Entertainment Weekly’s annual Secret Ballot survey gave insight into how some anonymous Academy members made their choices. Out of the four voters interviewed—a director, a writer, a publicist, and a casting director—all of them revealed they did not see Dune: Part Two and therefore abstained from ranking it.

The reasons for skipping the film varied. One voter, a director, admitted struggling with the first Dune movie and was not eager to sit through another three-hour installment.

The first Dune, I couldn’t get through; I’m not rushing for another three hours of Dune. There’s still time to re-evaluate, but I really struggled.

Another, a writer, simply had...