Four of this season’s biggest Academy Award favorites will not be eligible to compete for the Best Original Score Oscar, according to Variety. Clint Mansell’s Black Swan score has been deemed too reliant on Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and Carter Burwell’s music for the Coen brothers’ True Grit incorporates too many traditional 19th-century hymns to qualify as original. Scores for The Fighter and The Kids Are All Right are also expected to be disqualified since they are “diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs.”
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The Best Original Score category is one that always interests me. Not just because I enjoy music scores so much, but because the Academy has weird rules about it. Why disqualify? If a score isn’t as noticeable in the film as a playlist of songs, or if it relies too much on a previous composer’s work, no one will nominate it anyway. Why disqualify? Two years ago, they disqualified the score to The Dark Knight just because too many names attached themselves to the score.
Kickass deserves a nomination here. Best music in a movie all year bar none.
Kickass’s score was better when it was used in 28 Days Later.
You obviously know nothing about the use of music in film if you think that
This is about best musical scores, not best movie soundtracks.
Great music… NOT a score.
A few years ago when the Academy ruled that Jonny Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood was ineligible for some arcane reason, they proved that they are completely out of touch with modern score writing. Time’s have changed. I hope they get with the program soon.
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I’d love it if Never Let Me Go gets a score nomination; it was beautiful and moving.
I’d love to see Daft Punk win for their Tron Legacy score just to see them come up and accept the Oscar in their helmets and tuxs.
Oh, mother of God, yes. Never happen, but that would please me to no end.
Even if they just got nominated and performed during the telecast… that would make me watch!!
I almost got up and danced in the theater. They definitely deserve a nomination.
Interesting that they disqualified Black Swan for being derivative of Tchaikovsky, but not Inception despite the fact that decent chunks of it are (brilliantly) derivative of Edith Piaf. Regardless, I’ll be rooting for either Inception or 127 Hours for this one.
I imagine it’s a pipe dream, but I’d really hope the Academy would recognize Beck’s work on Scott Pilgrim when it comes to Best Song. Instead, I’m sure, they’ll go with treacle and something from Country Strong (which I’ve heard deserves it at least).
It’s too bad they can’t nominate Tchaikovsky himself for “Black Swan” since his Swan Lake score is brilliant and proved a key factor in establishing most of the tone of the film…
Once upon a time, there was an Oscar category for Best Adapted Score — mainly for nominating stage musicals turned into movies — but sometime in the 80′s (I think), it was dropped. Maybe it’s time they brought it back. Maybe you could start an e-mail campaign at the Oscar website to do that.
I’m not surprised at ‘Black Swan’ being disqualified, had read that could happen. It is disappointing though, that score is beautiful and is just as much a part of that film as Natalie Portman is. Mansell also does a great job of weaving in original music with the Tchaikovsky score. I may be a little biased due to my love for any Mansell score, I just wish the Academy would allow for scores regardless of “derivative” works or not. The Grammys have rap/hip-hop songs nominated all the time that largely use samples of other songs, what’s the difference here?
I guess this means I’ll be pulling for ‘Inception’ to get the win.
So upset that Black Swan got disqualified. I guess it makes some sense, but really that score was beautiful and it really made the movie great.
sad that Black Swan got disqualified but I had a feeling that was gonna happen. soooo- can we please get John Powell nominated for his brilliant score to How to Train Your Dragon g-dammit!
If Powell DOES get nominated, he owes you a thank you note for all the campaigning you’ve done on his behalf.
I thought 2 of the best scores last year were “The Ghostwriter” and “The Social Network”. Really enhanced the viewing experience and I’d love to see them both nominated!
I agree with the original score used in The Ghost Writer. It truly enhanced my viewing experience. However, I’m not sure if it should qualify for facts that the score was strategically relatively not much in use. (IMO only, the film itself is relatively overrated.)
That’s a huge shame. The score for Black Swan was brilliant. It was one of the best uses of a score in a film this year. I am sick of the Academy disqualifying the best scores year after year. They did it with There Will Be Blood and now they are doing it here.
And now that someone mentions it, why did they not disqualify Inception for the same reason?
Maybe now How To Train Your Dragon and The Ghostwriter can get in.
This is so stupid. That means that Inception shouldn’t be nominated because it relied to much on the Marion Cotillard song they used for the kicks to wake them up!!! And that was like the best score this year!!!!!
Agree with your top ten elpaciesly the top 3.Granted i have only seen like 5 of these (saw end of Winter’s Bone-seemed slow.) LOLI believe that THE FIGHTER is the best film I personally have seen this year and hoping it gets an Oscar nod.