2020 Oscar Nomination Predictions: ORIGINAL SCORE and ORIGINAL SONG (December)

Two more categories the Oscar shortlists gave us, Original Score and Original Song, showed some possible directions the Academy as a whole might be going. While we knew ahead of time that some scores were disqualified (like The Irishman and A Hidden Life) or not submitted correctly (like Knives Out), some surprise additions to the Original Score shortlist (of 170 eligible scores) came from Bombshell and Frozen II. Not many pundits had them on their radar for making this round. Does Bombshell making it in here, along with huge batch of SAG noms it got speak to the film potentially being a major Oscar player across the board? One snub here that was a surprise was the score for Parasite. That seemed like a top 10 contender but didn’t make the cut. Interesting, if less surprising, that Motherless Brooklyn showed up in both the Score and Song shortlists since the film seems dead in the water elsewhere.

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Over in Original Song we got one of the wildest snubs, Taylor Swift and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Beautiful Ghosts” from Cats. That was easily a top 5 player for most of us and the last time director Tom Hooper took on a classic, long-running musical (Les Misérables), he got that extra nomination for his film with an added song. But alas, we will not be hearing Taylor sing at the Oscars in February. The two biggest surprise inclusions here ended up being “Da Bronx” from the HBO doc The Bronx USA and, more excitingly, “A Glass of Soju” from Parasite. Written by Bong Joon Ho, this could give him one of four individual nominations come Oscar morning, along with Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay.

Here are my 2020 Oscar Nomination Predictions in Original Score and Original Song for December 18, 2019.

ORIGINAL SCORE

Green – moves up Red – moves down Blue – new/re-entry

1. 1917 (Thomas Newman) – Universal

2. Joker (Hildur Guðnadóttir) – Warner Bros
3. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (John Williams) – Disney
4. Little Women (Alexandre Desplat) – Sony/Columbia
5. Marriage Story (Randy Newman) – Netflix

NEXT UP (alphabetical by film)

The Farewell (Alex Weston) – A24
Ford v. Ferrari (Marco Beltrami) – 20th Century Fox
Jojo Rabbit (Michael Giacchino) – Fox Searchlight

Motherless Brooklyn (Daniel Pemberton) – Warner Bros

Pain and Glory (Alberto Iglesias) – Sony Classics

OTHER CONTENDERS (alphabetical by film)


Avengers: Endgame (Alan Silvestri) – Disney
Bombshell (Theodore Shapiro) – Lionsgate

Frozen II (Christophe Beck) – Disney
The King (Nicholas Britell) – Netflix

Us (Michael Abed) – Universal

ORIGINAL SONG

Green – moves up Red – moves down Blue – new/re-entry

1. Frozen II – “Into the Unknown” (Disney)
2. Toy Story 4 – “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” (Disney/Pixar)
3. Rocketman – “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” (Paramount)
4. The Lion King – “Spirit” (Disney)
5. Harriet – “Stand Up” (Focus Features)

NEXT UP (alphabetical by film)

Aladdin – “Speechless” (Disney)
Breakthrough – “I’m Standing with You” (20th Century Fox)
The Lion King – “Never Too Late” (Disney)
The Black Godfather – “Letter to My Godfather” (Netflix)
Wild Rose – “Glasgow” (Neon)

OTHER CONTENDERS (alphabetical by film)

The Bronx USA – “Da Bronx” (HBO)
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part – “Catchy Song” (Warner Bros)
Motherless Brooklyn – “Daily Battles (Warner Bros)
Parasite – “A Glass of Soju” (Neon)
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am – “High Above the Water” (Magnolia Pictures)