FEATURE:
The Digital Mixtape
IN THIS PHOTO: Halle is nominated alongside Phylicia Pearl Mpasi for Original Song for Keep It Movin’ from The Color Purple/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images for IMDb
The Oscars’ Original Score and Original Song Nominees
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I might not be able to include…
IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa’s Dance the Night featured in Barbie and has been nominated in the Original Song category/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
every song and piece of music that has just been shortlisted for the Oscars next year. Other categories are going to be revealed closer to the ceremony date (10th March). They have announced the nominees for the Original Score and Original Song categories. I wanted to put together a playlist featuring those wonderful songs scores. Before I get to the playlist. Pitchfork reported on the runner and riders in two important and hotly-contested Oscar categories:
“The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled the shortlists for several categories at the 2024 Academy Awards. Vying for nominations for Best Original Song are Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish for Barbie songs, as well as Olivia Rodrigo for “Can’t Catch Me Now,” Sharon Van Etten for “Quiet Eyes,” Jarvis Cocker for Asteroid City’s “Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven),” and more.
Composers on the Best Original Score shortlist include Mica Levi, Mark Ronson, Ludwig Göransson, Joe Hisaishi, John Williams, the late Robbie Robertson, and Daniel Pemberton, among others. Find the full shortlists for Best Original Score and Best Original Song below. All of the nominees will be revealed on January 23.
The Oscars shortlists have some overlap with the 2024 Golden Globe Awards nominations. The Barbie songs “Dance the Night,” “What Was I Made For?,” and “I’m Just Ken” are nominated at the Golden Globes, as is Lenny Kravitz’s Rustin track “Road to Freedom.” And all six Original Score nominees at the Golden Globes are on the Oscars shortlist.
The 2023 Academy Award for Best Original Score went to Volker Bertelmann (aka Hauschka) for his work on All Quiet on the Western Front. And the Oscar for Best Original Song went to “Naatu Naatu” creators M.M. Keeravani and Chandrabose, who beat out Lady Gaga, Rihanna, David Byrne, and others.
In 2022, Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas, won Best Original Song at the Academy Awards for “No Time to Die.” The musicians also played the James Bond song at the ceremony.
Music (Original Score)
Anthony Willis - Saltburn
Daniel Pemberton - Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Jerskin Fendrix - Poor Things
Joe Hisaishi - The Boy and the Heron
John Williams - Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Jon Batiste - American Symphony
Kris Bowers - The Color Purple
Laura Karpman - American Fiction
Ludwig Göransson - Oppenheimer
Mark Ronson & Andrew Wyatt - Barbie
Mark Orton - The Holdovers
Mica Levi - The Zone of Interest
Michael Giacchino - Society of the Snow
Robbie Robertson - Killers of the Flower Moon
Thomas Newman - Elemental
Music (Original Song)
Asteroid City Cast - Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven) (Asteroid City)
Becky G - The Fire Inside (Flamin’ Hot)
Billie Eilish - What Was I Made For? (Barbie)
Dua Lipa - Dance the Night (Barbie)
Eve Hewson & Oren Kinlan - High Life (Flora and Son)
Fantasia - Superpower (I) (The Color Purple)
Halle & Phylicia Pearl Mpasi - Keep It Movin’ (The Color Purple)
Jon Batiste - It Never Went Away (American Symphony)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Eve Hewson - Meet in the Middle (Flora and Son)
Lenny Kravitz - Road to Freedom (Rustin)
Metro Boomin, A$AP Rocky & Roisee - Am I Dreaming (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse)
Olivia Rodrigo - Can’t Catch Me Now (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes)
Osage Tribal Singers - Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People) (Killers of the Flower Moon)
Ryan Gosling - I’m Just Ken (Barbie)
Sharon Van Etten - Quiet Eyes (Past Lives)”.
I have a particular interest when it comes to music in films. From songs that arrive at crucial moments that are original and might not necessarily have been included on an artist’s album – those they will be on the film’s soundtrack -, to these magnificent, rich and diverse scores that have a different more extensive role in a film, it is wonderful to see the nominees line up against one another! The composers and artists above are all really strong. They have added something unique and stunning to cinema. Whereas most will take more interest in the major categories at next year’s Oscars (Academy Awards), I think Original Score and Original Song are categories that we…
SHOULD highlight and respect.