Best Original Score Predictions (October)

It’s been six years since one composer received two nominations for Best Original Score in the same year, but it seems highly plausible it could occur again this year. But which of the trio of composers with several film scores in the hunt for a nomination will it be?

Heading the pack are previous Oscar winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who find themselves scoring two wildly different contenders in the same year. A Pixar animated film hasn’t scored a Best Original Score nomination since Up in 2009, but Soul may be the film to break the curse and could walk away with the trophy too. If the score for Mank is equally terrific, we’d be looking at a vote-splitting nightmare for Reznor and Ross.

Elsewhere, Terence Blanchard has two scores in the race with Da 5 Bloods and One Night in Miami. While Kris Bowers is still to deliver two as-yet-unheard scores for music biopics Respect and The United States vs. Billie Holiday. Much like Reznor and Ross, Blanchard and Bowers could be essentially competing against themselves all season long.

If there’s a dark horse to keep your eye on, it’s Steven Price’s stirring, Asian-infused score for Over the Moon. The last time two animated films were nominated for Original Score in the same year was back in 2009 for Up and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and it could easily happen again this year.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE PREDICTIONS:
1. Soul (Disney)
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
2. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
Daniel Pemberton
3. Over the Moon (Netflix)
Steven Price
4. Mank (Netflix)
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
5. Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
Terence Blanchard

MAJOR CONTENDERS:
Ammonite (NEON)
Volker Bertelmann, Dustin O’Halloran
Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix)
David Fleming and Hans Zimmer
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Branford Marsalis
The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
Alexandre Desplat
Minari (A24)
Emile Mosseri
Mulan (Disney)
Henry Gregson-Williams
News of the World (Universal Picture)
James Newton Howard
One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
Terence Blanchard
Respect (United Artists Releasing)
Kris Bowers
The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Paramount Pictures)
Kris Bowers