An eclectic range of films have been nominated for Best Original Score in this year’s Oscars: Randy Newman’s Marriage Story, Hildur Guðnadóttir’s Joker, Alexandre Desplat’s Little Women, Thomas Newman’s 1917 and John Williams’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the latter four of which also received nominations this month in the BAFTA Awards.
Hildur Guðnadóttir has had an incredibly successful season, recently winning a Golden Globe for her score to Joker. The film swept the board, with a total of 11 Oscar nominations. This is her first nomination, making her the seventh woman in the Academy Awards’ history to be nominated for Best Original Score. Comparatively, John Williams is the most nominated composer in the awards’ history, with 52 nominations to his name.
This is the first time Randy Newman has been nominated in this particular category, having previously won for Best Original Song with Monsters. Inc and Toy Story 3. He is also nominated in the category this year, for ‘I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away’, a song he wrote for Toy Story 4.
Alexandre Desplat enjoys a second year as an Oscar-nominated composer. He made the list last year for his score to Isle of Dogs, but lost out to Ludwig Göransson for Black Panther.
The top five beat off stiff competition in the shortlist, which was released at the end of last year and is listed below:
Alan Silvestri – Avengers: Endgame Theodore Shapiro – Bombshell Alex Weston – The Farewell Marco Beltrami – Ford v Ferrari Michael Giacchino – Jojo Rabbit Nicholas Britell – The King Daniel Pemberton – Motherless Brooklyn Alberto Iglesias – Pain and Glory Michael Abels – Us
