2021 Oscar Predictions: ORIGINAL SCORE (November)

It’s weird that my top 5 in Original Score is the same as last month, right? It’s a pretty tough category, full of previous winners like Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (Soul and Mank), Ludwig Göransson (Tenet) and Alexandre Desplat (The Midnight Sky) and nominees like Terence Blanchard (Da 5 Bloods and One Night in Miami…) and News of the World‘s James Newton Howard (8!) going up against first-timers trying to break in like Emile Mosseri (Minari), Daniel Pemberton (The Trial of the Chicago 7) and Branford Marsalis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).

What to do, what to do…

Here are my ranked 2021 Oscar predictions in Original Score for November.

Green – moves up; Red – moves down; Blue – new entry this month

1. Soul (Pixar)
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (and John Batiste, if eligible)

2. Mank (Netflix)
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

3. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
Daniel Pemberton

4. Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
Terence Blanchard

5. Minari (A24)
Emile Mosseri

6. The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
Alexandre Desplat

7. News of the World (Universal Pictures)
James Newton Howard

8. Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix)

David Fleming and Hans Zimmer

9. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
Branford Marsalis

10. Tenet (Warner Bros)

Ludwig Göransson

Other Contenders

Ammonite (Neon)
Volker Bertelmann and Dustin O’Halloran

Let Them All Talk (HBO Max)
Thomas Newman

The Life Ahead (Netflix)
Gabriel Yared

Mulan (Disney+)
Henry Gregson-Williams

One Night in Miami… (Amazon Studios)

Terence Blanchard

Over the Moon (Netflix)
Steven Price

Respect (MGM/UA)

Kris Bowers

Sound of Metal (Amazon Studios)

Abraham Marder and Nicolas Becker

The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Paramount Pictures)
Kris Bowers

• Author
• Recent Posts

Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2026 Critics Choice Awards Land Early January 2026 Date - April 25, 2025
• Adam Sandler in ‘Happy Gilmore 2,’ ‘KPop Demon Hunters,’ Double Tyler Perry Headed to Netflix This Summer - April 25, 2025
• 2025 Outer Critics Circle Award Nominations: ‘Death Becomes Her’ Leads with 12 - April 25, 2025