2021 Oscar Predictions: ORIGINAL SCORE (October)

With delayed tentpoles like Dune from Warner Bros and MGM/UA’s No Time to Die, Emile Mosseri’s elegant score from A24’s Minari pushes him all the way into the top 5 this month.

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

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

1. Soul (Pixar)
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (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

Other Contenders

Ammonite (Neon)
Volker Bertelmann and Dustin O’Halloran

Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix)

David Fleming and Hans Zimmer

The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
Alexandre Desplat

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
Branford Marsalis

Mulan (Disney+)
Henry Gregson-Williams

News of the World (Universal Pictures)
James Newton Howard

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

Tenet (Warner Bros)

Ludwig Göransson

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)

• 76th Berlin Film Festival Awards: ‘Yellow Letters’ Wins Golden Bear for Best Film; ‘Queen at Sea’ Nabs Two Among Festival Unrest Over Politics - February 21, 2026
• Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) Awards: ‘Hamnet’ Tops Wins, ‘Christy’ Nabs Best Irish Film - February 20, 2026
• 8th Kodak Film Awards Recipients: Kristen Stewart, Joachim Trier, Autumn Durald Arkapaw and More - February 20, 2026