After picking up wins from the critics groups of Los Angeles, Boston Online, Chicago, and Florida, Soul is solidifying its place as the frontrunner for Best Original Score. But we mustn’t get ahead of ourselves. The winner of Best Music from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association has matched the winner of the Oscar just once (La La Land in 2016) in the past ten years.
If there’s a dark-horse to keep an eye on, it’s James Newton Howard’s classic Western score from News of the World. Howard is a perennial Oscar favourite with eight nominations over the last three decades. But he’s still without a win, and this could be his moment, especially if the Academy swoon over Paul Greengrass’ Western epic.
While Reznor and Ross seem like double locks and Howard is safe, the other two spots are wide open. Emile Mosseri’s gorgeous score for Minari might be too subtle for the Academy, and it’s still anyone’s guess if it will be this year’s version of The Farewell (i.e. a lot of pre-season buzz, but zero Oscar nominations). And a newcomer like Daniel Pemberton could miss out in favour of more-seasoned contenders like Alexandre Desplat, Terence Blanchard, or Ludwig Göransson.
15-time nominee Thomas Newman has joined the conversation for his work on Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk. We all thought his win was finally on the cards last year for 1917, but it wasn’t to be. The film itself is unlikely to be a major contender elsewhere, but Newman has shown a penchant for still nabbing a nomination for films not in contention in the big categories (Passengers, Saving Mr Banks, The Good German).
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE PREDICTIONS:
1. Soul (Disney)
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
2. News of the World (Universal Pictures)
James Newton Howard
3. Mank (Netflix)
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
4. Minari (A24)
Emile Mosseri
5. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
Daniel Pemberton
MAJOR CONTENDERS:
Ammonite (NEON)
Volker Bertelmann, Dustin O’Halloran
Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
Terence Blanchard
Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix)
David Fleming and Hans Zimmer
Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros.)
Mark Isham and Craig Harris
Let Them All Talk (HBO Max)
Thomas Newman
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
Branford Marsalis
The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
Alexandre Desplat
Mulan (Disney)
Henry Gregson-Williams
One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
Terence Blanchard
Over the Moon (Netflix)
Steven Price
Tenet (Warner Bros.)
Ludwig Göransson
The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Paramount Pictures)
Kris Bowers
