2022 Oscar Predictions: ORIGINAL SCORE, ORIGINAL SONG and SOUND (November)
The original score and song categories have their first precursors already as the 2021 Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA) were handed out last week and Nicholas Britell’s score for the upcoming Adam McKay film Don’t Look Up, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep, was the top winner, took home the general field Best Score prize.
Siân Heder’s CODA was a double winner, taking Best Song – Independent Film for “Beyond the Shore” and for Best Onscreen Performance for Emilia Jones’s version of Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” Hans Zimmer scored for Dune, Marco Beltrami for A Quiet Place II and Rachel Portman for Julia in the genre categories. Previous winners here that went on to win the Oscar include Black Panther, Joker and most recently, Soul.
Van Morrison’s score for Belfast comes off the list as they are not pushing it for a nomination, presumably due to it not falling under the percentage rule of original score content. That number was lowered from 60% to just 35% beginning this season.
While some critics groups give out sound awards we won’t have the two top guilds’ nominations – the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) and the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) – until January 24 and 25, respectively. With the sound editing and sound mixing now combined into a single category once again, the fight for a nomination there is even tougher. Last year’s nominees were a mix of music-heavy animation, action, sound as a narrative device and the use of early film mono sound with Soul, Greyhound, News of the World, Sound of Metal and Mank earning nominations. Sound of Metal won.
Here are my ranked 2022 Oscar predictions in Original Score, Original Song and Sound for November 2021.
MUSIC – ORIGINAL SCORE
Green – moves up ↑ Red – moves down ↓ Blue – new/re-entry ♦ Black – no movement ↔
1. Dune – Hans Zimmer (Warner Bros/HBO Max) ↔
2. Spencer – Jonny Greenwood (NEON) ↔
3. The Power of the Dog – Jonny Greenwood (Netflix) ↔
4. Don’t Look Up – Nicholas Britell (Netflix)
5. The French Dispatch – Alexandre Desplat (Searchlight Pictures) ↔
6. Parallel Mothers – Alberto Iglesias (Sony Pictures Classics) ↑
7. The Tragedy of Macbeth – Carter Burwell (A24/Apple Original Films) ↑
8. Cyrano – Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner (MGM/UA) ↓
9. Nightmare Alley – Nathan Johnson (Searchlight Pictures) ↑
10. King Richard – Kris Bowers (Warner Bros/HBO Max) ↑
Other contenders:
A Chiara – Benh Zeitlin and Dan Romer (NEON)
Eternals – Ramin Djawadi (Walt Disney/Marvel)
House of Gucci – Harry Gregson-Williams (MGM/UA)
The Last Duel – Harry Gregson-Williams (20th Century Studios)
Luca – Dan Romer (Walt Disney/Pixar)
The Matrix Resurrections – Jonny Klimek and Tim Tykwer (Warner Bros/HBO Max)
No Time to Die – Hans Zimmer (MGM/UA)
MUSIC – ORIGINAL SONG
Green – moves up ↑ Red – moves down ↓ Blue – new/re-entry ♦ Black – no movement ↔
1. “Be Alive” from King Richard (Warner Bros/HBO Max) ↔
2. “No Time to Die” from No Time to Die (MGM/UA) ↔
3. “Colombia, Mi Encanto” from Encanto (Walt Disney) ↔
4. “Just Look Up” from Don’t Look Up (Netflix) ↑
5. “Down to Joy” from Belfast (Focus Features) ↔
6. “Beyond the Shore” from CODA (Apple Original Films) ↑
7. “Believe” from The Rescue (NatGeo) ↓
8. “Every Letter” from Cyrano (MGM/UA) ↓
9. “Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days (Vertical Entertainment) ↓
10. “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” from Respect (MGM/UA) ↔
Other contenders:
“So May We Start” from Annette (Amazon Studios) ↓
“At the Automat” from The Automat (TBA)
“The Anonymous Ones” from Dear Evan Hansen (Universal Pictures)
“Call Me Cruella” from Cruella (Walt Disney)
“This Was Me” from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (Amazon Studios)
“Blome Swete Lilie Flour” from The Green Knight (A24)
“Guns Go Bang” from The Harder They Fall (Netflix)
“The Harder They Fall” from The Harder They Fall (Netflix)
“Home All Summer” from In the Heights (Warner Bros/HBO Max)
“On My Way” from The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Netflix)
“Never Gonna Tame You” from The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses (Virgil Films)
“Lead the Way” from Raya and the Last Dragon (Walt Disney)
“Fire in the Sky” from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Walt Disney/Marvel)
“Fearless” from Spirit: Untamed (Dreamworks Animation)
“Keep That Beat” from Vivo (Netflix)
SOUND
Green – moves up ↑ Red – moves down ↓ Blue – new/re-entry ♦ Black – no movement ↔
1. Dune (Warner Bros/HBO Max) ↔
2. No Time to Die (MGM/UA) ↔
3. Belfast (Focus Features) ↔
4. The Matrix Resurrections (Warner Bros/HBO Max) ↔
5. West Side Story (20th Century Studios) ↔
6. The Power of the Dog (Netflix) ↔
7. tick, tick…BOOM! (Netflix) ↔
8. Nightmare Alley (Searchlight Pictures) ↔
9. The Last Duel (20th Century Studios) ↔
10. King Richard (Warner Bros/HBO Max) ↔
Other contenders:
Cyrano (MGM/UA)
Eternals (Walt Disney/Marvel)
A Quiet Place Part II (Paramount Pictures)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (A24/Apple)
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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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.
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