2023 Oscar Predictions: ORIGINAL SCORE (December)

We have nominations from Critics Choice, Golden Globes and the winners from Hollywood Music in Media going into the shortlist of 15 original scores that will be announced on Tuesday, December 21. From that list, members of the Academy’s music branch will use a preferential ballot to come up with the five Oscar nominees unveiled on January 24, 2023.

Hildur Guõnadóttir’s score for TÁR was deemed ineligible by the Academy (Critics Choice nominated it anyway), and the score for Top Gun: Maverick appears to be as well, both for containing too much pre-existing material (likewise, the song “I Ain’t Worried was ineligible for original song due to its use of samples). That actually helps Guõnadóttir and her score for Women Talking, although we’ve seen composers earn double nominations here many times.

Here are my 2023 Oscar predictions in Original Score for December.

Green – moves up ↑ Red – moves down ↓ Blue – new entry ♦

1. The Fabelmans – John Williams (Universal Pictures) – CCA, GG
2. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – Alexandre Desplat (Netflix) – CCA, GG, HMMA
3. Women Talking – Hildur Guõnadóttir (UAR/Orion Pictures) ↑ – CCA, GG, HMMA
4. The Banshees of Inisherin – Carter Burwell (Searchlight Pictures) – GG, HMMA
5. Babylon – Justin Hurwitz (Paramount Pictures) ↑ – CCA, GG
6. The Batman – Michael Giacchino (Warner Bros) – CCA, HMMA
7. The Woman King – Terence Blanchard (Sony/TriStar Pictures) ↑ – HMMA
8. She Said – Nicholas Britell (Universal Pictures)  ↑– HMMA
9. Avatar: The Way of Water – Simon Franglen (20th Century Studios) ↑ – HMMA
10. A Man Called Otto – Thomas Newman (Sony Pictures)
11. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Ludwig Göransson (Walt Disney/Marvel Studios) – HMMA
12. Nope – Michael Abels (Universal Pictures) – HMMA
13. Empire of Light – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Searchlight Pictures) ↓ – HMMA
14. RRR – M.M. Keeravaani (Variance Films) ↑
15. Living – Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch (Sony Pictures Classics) ↑ – HMMA

Other contenders (alphabetical)

All Quiet on the Western Front – Volker Bertelmann (Netflix)
Bardo, or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths – Bryce Dessner and Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Netflix) ↓
Blonde – Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (Netflix)
Bones and All – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (MGM/UAR) ↓
Decision to Leave – Jo Yeong-wook (MUBI)
Emancipation – Marcelo Zarvos (Apple Original Films) – HMMA
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Son Lux (A24) – HMMA
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On – Disasterpiece (A24)
The Son – Hans Zimmer (Sony Pictures Classics)
Strange World – Henry Jackman (Walt Disney)
Till – Abel Korzeniowski (UAR/Orion Pictures) ↓ – HMMA
Turning Red – Ludwig Göransson (Walt Disney/Pixar) – HMMA
The Whale – Rob Simeonsen (A24)
White Noise – Danny Elfman (Netflix) – HMMA

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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.

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