It’s Awards Season

The Academy announced their nominees this week, so now seems the time to wrap up the major awards and nominations for best score…and give you my (not so) bold Oscar prediction.

Golden Globes:  The nominess for “Best Original Score” were: Marvin Hamlisch – The Informant!, James Horner – Avatar, Abel Korzeniowski – A Single Man, Carter Burwell and Karen O – Where The Wild Things Are, and the eventual winner, Michael Giacchino for Up.

Grammys:  The Grammys don’t have a “best original score” catagory, but what the equivilant is “Best Score Soundtrack Album.”  This year, the nominees were: Alexandre Desplat – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Nicholas Hooper – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (yeah, I know, really?), Danny Elfman – Milk, Michael Giacchino for Star Trek but winning the catagory for Up.

The Academy Awards:  Just a reminder, my prediciton for the nominees were: Moon (Clint Mansell), Up, AvatarSherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer), and Coco Before Chanel (Desplat).  For my first time guessing, I think 3 out of 5 isn’t bad becuase I got Up, Avatar, and Sherlock Holmes, but missed with Desplat’s Fantastic Mr. Fox and Marco Beltrami/Beck Sanders for The Hurt Locker, neither of which I have seen the film or heard the score.

So let’s do some analysis and make some predictions.  First, the Grammy nominees seem weird since two of the scores came out in 2008, but the eligability period for them was Oct. 1, 2008 to Aug. 31, 2009, hence no Avatar, but even if it had been eligable for this year’s Grammy, I’m guessing it wouldn’t have won becuase it seems like 2009 will be the year of Giacchino.  While I think his Star Trek score was somewhat better that Up, I can understand why the Pixar score is the one to be nominated.  Though seriously, if Jerry can be nominated for Star Trek: The Motion Picture why can’t Giacchino be nominated for Star Trek?

And may I also lament the complete lack of love for Moon?  I still feel it was 2009’s best score, but Sony Pictures but no effort in promoting the score or film come award season!  The film should have been nominated for Best Picture and Best Actor (Sam Rockwell), along with Best Original Score.  Seriously, District 9 gets nominated in the newly expanded Best Picture, but Moon gets shut out.  Don’t get me wrong, District 9 was a pretty good movie, but if you’re going to nominate a sci-fi film for Best Picture of 2009, it should have been Moon.

Anyway, the signs all seem to be pointing towards Up winning for Best Original Score, which I really don’t have any major problems with.  I feel Giacchino is one of the best young composers working in Hollywood, and it’ll be nice to see him win. 

So I’ve got $5 on Up to win Best Score.  Who’s your horse?

One thought on “It’s Awards Season

  1. My money is on Up as well. Though I wouldn’t count little Jimmy Horner out, either. I mentioned on another blog that the Academy does seem to be in to the pity Oscar for composers. Example: James Horner won for Titanic. Personally I think that it basically rode the film’s coattails. He should have won in 1995 for Braveheart but lost to Luis Bacalov’s Il Postino score (see my Facebook note from last year about how to win the Oscar for best original score). If this is true, then there is the distinct possibility that Alexandre Desplat could win. Both times he’s been nominated he’s lost scores that weren’t as good.

    To sum up:

    Winner: Up
    Darkhorse: The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

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