2023 Oscar Predictions: ORIGINAL SCORE (November)

The Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA), the first music-centered guild of the season, has revealed its winners for scores and songs where Terence Blanchard’s score for The Woman King came out on top of the main feature category.

While not an apples to apples precursor for the Oscar original score category, winners here (and in the group’s genre categories) are something to keep note of. Genre score winners included Danny Elfman for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (SciFi), Simon Franglen for Avatar: The Way of Water (Fantasy), Micheal Abels for Nope (Horror) and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch for Living (Independent).

I’ve swapped out Hildur Guõnadóttir’s score for TÁR for Women Talking this month and The Woman King enters the top 10. Justin Hurwitz’s score for Babylon, which screened in Los Angeles and New York this week, was one of the most glowing sections of positive comments on the film, putting the La La Land Oscar winner back in the race after his shocking First Man snub in 2018.

On December 21 we’ll have the 15 finalists in this category when the Oscar shortlists drop (we’ll have a full eligibility list before that) and then the very next day the Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) will announce their nominations.

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

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

1. The Fabelmans – John Williams (Universal Pictures)
2. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – Alexandre Desplat (Netflix) – HMMA
3. Empire of Light – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Searchlight Pictures) – HMMA
4. Women Talking – Hildur Guõnadóttir (UAR/Orion Pictures) ↑ – HMMA
5. The Banshees of Inisherin – Carter Burwell (Searchlight Pictures) – HMMA

6. The Batman – Michael Giacchino (Warner Bros) ↑ – HMMA
7. Babylon – Justin Hurwitz (Paramount Pictures) ↑
8. The Woman King – Terence Blanchard (Sony/TriStar Pictures) ↑ – HMMA
9. Till – Abel Korzeniowski (UAR/Orion Pictures) ↓ – 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. Bardo, or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths – Bryce Dessner and Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Netflix) ↓
14. White Noise – Danny Elfman (Netflix) – HMMA
15. Bones and All – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (MGM/UAR)

Other contenders (alphabetical)

All Quiet on the Western Front – Volker Bertelmann (Netflix) ↓
Avatar: The Way of Water – Simon Franglen (20th Century Studios) – HMMA
Blonde – Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (Netflix)
Decision to Leave – Jo Yeong-wook (MUBI)
Emancipation – Marcelo Zarvos (Apple Original Films) ♦ – HMMA
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Son Lux (A24) – HMMA
Living – Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch (Sony Pictures Classics) ♦ – HMMA
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On – Disasterpiece (A24)
RRR – M.M. Keeravaani (Raftar Creations)
She Said – Nicholas Britell (Universal Pictures) – HMMA
The Son – Hans Zimmer (Sony Pictures Classics)
Strange World – Henry Jackman (Walt Disney)
TÁR – Hildur Guõnadóttir (Focus Features) ↓
Top Gun: Maverick – Lorne Balfe, Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga and Hans Zimmer (Paramount Pictures) – if eligible
Turning Red – Ludwig Göransson (Walt Disney/Pixar) – HMMA
The Whale – Rob Simeonsen (A24)