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There was much hand-wringing in Quebec this week with folks grumbling that Denis Villeneuve was snubbed by Oscars voters.

That’s hogwash. Blade Runner 2049 did not receive Academy Award nominations for best picture or best director for the very simple reason that it didn’t deserve those honours. Villeneuve nabbed both those nominations last year for Arrival, but that’s because Arrival is a brilliant piece of filmmaking. Blade Runner not so much. The latest Villeneuve film is a deeply flawed work.

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I am a huge Villeneuve fan. He is one of the greatest directors to come out of Canada in the past 20 years and there’s a good reason he is one of the hottest filmmakers in Hollywood. Villeneuve is the real deal. I first met Villeneuve at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996 when he was there with the memorable film Cosmos, a Roger Frappier production featuring six separate segments directed by different filmmakers, including Arto Paragamian, Jennifer Alleyn, Manon Briand, Marie-Julie Dallaire, André Turpin and Villeneuve.