2024 Oscar Predictions: ORIGINAL SCORE (November)

As in Original Song, the Barbie soundtrack blew up at the Grammy nominations this week but even though it nabbed a nod for its score there, the sheer volume of songs in the film is probably going to keep it out of this category, even the shortlist. But its massive popularity could get it in (as long as its eligible) so I’m not counting it out entirely.

The HMMA nominations announced earlier this month, which reward songs and scores, nominated compositions from American Fiction, Elemental, Oppenheimer, Rustin and The Zone of Interest among 40+ titles across seven categories.

The Golden Globe nominations will be announced on December 11. The Oscar shortlists will be revealed on December 21, 2023. Oscar nominations will be announced on January 23, 2024 and the 96th Academy Awards will be held on March 10.

Here are my 2024 Oscar predictions for the 15-film shortlist in Original Score for November 2023.

1. Oppenheimer – Ludwig Göransson (Universal Pictures)
2. Killers of the Flower Moon – Robbie Robertson (Apple Original Films)
3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – Daniel Pemberton (Sony Pictures)
4. Elemental – Thomas Newman (Walt Disney/Pixar)
5. The Zone of Interest – Mica Levi (A24)
6. Poor Things – Jerkin Hendrix (Searchlight Pictures)
7. Asteroid City – Alexandre Desplat (Focus Features)
8. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – John Williams (Walt Disney)
9. The Society of the Snow – Michael Giacchino (Netflix)
10. The Boy and the Heron – Joe Hisaishi (GKIDS)
11.  Past Lives – Christopher Bear and Daniel Rosen (A24)
12.  NYAD – Alexandre Desplat (Netflix)
13.  The Creator – Hans Zimmer (20th Century Studios)
14.  American Fiction – Laura Karpman (Amazon MGM Studios)
15.  Wish – David Metzger (Walt Disney)

Next up:

All of Us Strangers – Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch (Searchlight Pictures), Barbie – Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt (Warner Bros), Carmen – Nicholas Britell (Sony Pictures Classics), May December – Marcelo Zarvos (Netflix), Origin – Kris Bowers (NEON), Priscilla – Phoenix (A24), Rustin – Branford Marsalis (Netflix), Saltburn – Anthony Willis (Amazon MGM Studios)

Other contenders:

The Color Purple – Kris Bowers (Warner Bros), Ferrari – Daniel Pemberton (NEON), Flora and Son – John Carney and Gary Clark (Apple Original Films), The Holdovers – Mark Orton (Focus Features), The Killer – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Netflix), Napoleon – Martin Phipps (Apple Original Films/Sony Pictures), Wonka – Joby Talbot (Warner Bros)

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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), 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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