Oscars 2020: Best Original Score Predictions
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At the top of the just announced shortlist of lauded composers vying for Oscars this year are the four who landed both Critics’ Choice and Golden Globe Best Score nominations. Challenging never-nominated frontrunner Hildur Guðnadóttir (“Joker”) are two-time Oscar winners Alexandre Desplat (“Little Women”) and Randy Newman (“Marriage Story”), who is dueling with his cousin Thomas Newman, long overdue with 14 nominations (World War I epic “1917”).
Icelandic cellist/composer Guðnadóttir’s unique experimental orchestral score for “Joker” tunes into the inner emotional struggles of the lead character, Arthur Fleck. The composer has been praised not only for inspiring Joaquin Phoenix’s performance, but recently took home an Emmy for her avant-garde score for HBO hit series “Chernobyl.” She would be the sixth woman to be nominated for Original Score (Rachel Portman has two nominations, one win), and the fourth to win.
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But even these masters are not locks for nominations. The Globes, but not the CCA, went for Daniel Pemberton’s sumptuous jazz score for Edward Norton’s “Motherless Brooklyn,” while the CCA nominated the haunting strings for “Us,” Michael Abels’ return to collaborating with “Get Out” director Jordan Peele.
2018’s “Black Panther” marked the first superhero movie to win the Oscar for Best Original Score, for first-time nominee, composer Ludwig Goransson. This year could cement that sea-change, as Marvel has developed an appetite for Oscars; the test will be twice-nominated Alan Silvestri, whose score for “Avengers: Endgame” was submitted by Disney over “Captain Marvel.”
The sentimental vote could go for another Disney entry, John Williams’ score for late-breaking “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” This could mark Williams’ last chance for another Oscar nomination; he may be hanging up his hat at age 87 (at least as far as “Star Wars” is concerned) after five wins and a record 51 Oscar nominations for a living person.
And don’t count out Oscar-winner Michael Giacchino (“Up”), whose score for Taika Waititi’s popular awards contender “Jojo Rabbit” helps moviegoers to navigate the film’s delicate dance between light and dark.
The music branch could also reward thrice-nominated Alberto Iglesias for his sensitive score for Pedro Almodóvar’s auto-fiction, “Pain and Glory.”
Netflix successfully pushed the lush orchestral score for twice-nominated composer Nicholas Britell (“Moonlight,” “If Beale Street Could Talk”) for Henry V Shakespeare drama “The King.”
Showing signs of strength are “Bombshell” (Theodore Shapiro, “The Farewell” (Alex Weston), and “Ford v Ferrari” (Marco Beltrami).
While Disney’s “Frozen II” returning composer Christophe Beck landed on the shortlist, not landing slots were two other animated films, Carter Burwell’s “Missing Link” (Laika) and Newman’s other score, “Toy Story 4.”
The music branch also denied “Harriet” composer Terence Blanchard a chance to land back-to-back nominations following last year’s “BlackKklansman.”
While the CCA named Robbie Robertson’s score for “The Irishman,” it was deemed ineligible by the Academy, which also took out of the Oscar running — for not having enough original music — “Knives Out” and “The Two Popes.” (Par for the course, submission and credit issues plagued “A Hidden Life” and “Ad Astra.”)
The shortlisted fifteen contenders are listed below in alphabetical order; only ones that we have screened will be deemed frontrunners.
Frontrunners:
Alexandre Desplat (“Little Women”)
Michael Giacchino (“Jojo Rabbit”)
Hildur Guðnadóttir (“Joker”)
Randy Newman (“Marriage Story”)
Thomas Newman (“1917”)
Contenders
Michael Abels (“Us”)
Christophe Beck (“Frozen II”)
Marco Beltrami (“Ford v Ferrari”)
Nicholas Britell (“The King”)
Alberto Iglesias (“Pain and Glory”)
Daniel Pemberton (“Motherless Brooklyn”)
Theodore Shapiro (“Bombshell”)
Alan Silvestri (“Avengers: Endgame”)
Alex Weston (“The Farewell”)
John Williams (“Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker”)
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