Best Original Score
James Horner, The Amazing Spider-Man
Howard Shore, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Michael Sterns and Lisa Gerrard, Samsara
Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, and Reinhold Heil, Cloud Atlas
Hans Zimmer, The Dark Knight Rises
I wrote an entire article on the best scores of 2012, so I will not go into great depth here beyond reiterating that the beautiful compositions for Cloud Atlas are central to its success, hat Zimmer and Horner composed two of the all-time great blockbuster scores in The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-Man, and that Shore easily matched his legendary work on Lord of the Rings with The Hobbit. The one new addition here to my personal list is Michael Sterns and Lisa Gerrard’s incredible score to Ron Fricke’s Samsara, which is just as gorgeous, evocative, and haunting as the film’s masterful cinematography.
Dream Winner: Howard Shore, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Tough Omissions: Thomas Newman, Skyfall; Marc Streitenfeld, The Grey; John Williams, Lincoln; Alexandre Desplat, Zero Dark Thirty; Henry Jackman, Wreck-It Ralph
Best Original Song
Adele Adkins, “Skyfall” from Skyfall
Elayna Boynton, Kelvin Wooten, and Anthony Hamilton, “Freedom” from Django Unchained
Neil Finn, “Song of the Lonely Mountain” from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Ennio Morricone and Elisa Toffoli, “Ancora Qui” from Django Unchained
Katy Perry, “Wide Awake” from Katy Perry: Part of Me
A category that seemed all-but dead and buried a year ago has an unusually strong set of contenders this year, with Adele delivering one of the all-time great Bond themes in “Skyfall” and Django Unchained featuring four outstanding original pieces. Of those, I have limited myself to nominating “Freedom” – a wonderful, stirring song used beautifully in the film – and “Ancora Qui,” which marks the first original Morricone piece writing for a Quentin Tarantino film. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films each featured fantastic original songs in the end credits, and Neil Finn’s “Song of the Lonely Mountain” more than lives up to that legacy. Finally, I have included Katy Perry’s “Wide Awake,” written for her concert documentary Part of Me. You may scoff, but I want to give Ms. Perry props for challenging herself on this one – it is far and away the best song she has ever recorded, and in the ways the lyrics relate to the themes of the surprisingly excellent film, “Wide Awake” more than lives up to the spirit of this category.
Dream Winner: “Freedom” from Django Unchained
Tough Omissions: “Who Did That To You?” from Django Unchained; “100 Black Coffins” from Django Unchained; “Suddenly” from Les Miserables
Who would be YOUR dream Oscar nominees? Sound off in the comments, and come back soon for PART TWO of this feature, focusing on the big awards like Best Screenplay, Actor and Actress, and Picture!
