Oscar Predictions: Best Original Score

Oscar nominations are now less than a month away, it’s time to start looking at categories in detail to offer final predictions. Since the many of the categories will end up having finalists, it’s best to begin with those that have already been whittled down to those ultimately eligible. Therefore, categories may be presented in an unconventional order, but fear not, we’ll get to them all before Oscar nominations are announced on January 24th.

Last year’s nominees: How to Train Your Dragon, Inception, The King’s Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network

Likely contenders:
The Adventures of Tintin (John Williams)
The Artist (Ludovic Bource)
Coriolanus (Ilan Eshkeri)
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Alexandre Desplat)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)
Hanna (Tom Rowlands)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Alexandre Desplat)
The Help (Thomas Newman)
Hugo (Howard Shore)
The Ides of March (Alexandre Desplat)
The Iron Lady (Thomas Newman)
Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Patrick Doyle)
Shame (Harry Escott)
The Skin I Live In (Alberto Iglesias)
Super 8 (Michael Giacchino)
Take Shelter (David Wingo)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Alberto Iglesias)
W.E. (Abel Korzeniowski)
War Horse (John Williams)
Warrior (Mark Isham)
Water for Elephants (James Newton Howard)

The rundown: Last week, 97 scores were officially deemed eligible for this award. More than anything, keep an eye out for Alexandre Desplat. He has been nominated four times in the past five years and he is eligible for three of his scores this year, all of which have a great shot, not to mention three others that weren’t deemed eligible: “The Tree of Life,” “Carnage,” and “A Better Life.” His best shot is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which should get in here even if it’s snubbed elsewhere, Two Harry Potter scores, both by John Williams, have been nominated in the past, so Desplat could modify that statistic. Williams is eligible for two films, and he’s almost definitely getting in for Golden Globe nominee War Horse, and may also make it in for The Adventures of Tintin. Ludovic is going to earn his first Oscar nomination for his artful score for The Artist, and he’s likely to be joined by last year’s winners, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Three-time Oscar winner Howard Shore is a good bet to earn his first non-LOTR mention for Hugo, and that leaves one Golden Globe nominee unaccounted for. Abel Korzeniowski got a Golden Globe nod “A Single Man” in 2009 and then was snubbed come Oscar time, and I think the same will happen with W.E. I would personally include Shame and Take Shelter, but that may be an uphill battle given the fact that both Harry Escott and David Wingo have a very short awards history and their films will likely be looked at only for Best Actor, if that. I’d watch out for two recent winners to snatch up spots, Michael Giacchino for Super 8 and Dario Marinelli for Jane Eyre. If you’re interested in listening to the contenders yourself, your best bet is to head over to Amazon and preview the MP3 downloads soundtrack album for each film.

Current predictions:
The Artist
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
War Horse