2026 Oscar Predictions: ORIGINAL SCORE, ORIGINAL SONG, SOUND (December)
The Oscar shortlists are here, giving us 20 eligible scores, 15 eligible songs and 10 eligible for sound. As usual, the music branch gave us some very strange inclusions, in particular Truth & Treason in score (although it did receive an HMMA nomination) and “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from something apparently called Viva Verdi!, a film with seemingly no distributor or qualifying release date in the U.S., only a few festivals. Oh, it’s also available to stream for free on AARP tomorrow, go figure. I’m not saying we have another “Alone Yet Not Alone” on our hands, but something seems…off.
Here are my 2026 Oscar nomination predictions in Original Score, Original Song and Sound for December.
ORIGINAL SCORE
| 1. Sinners — Ludwig Göransson (Warner Bros) | CCA, HMMA (main) |
| 2. One Battle After Another — Jonny Greenwood (Warner Bros) | CCA, HMMA (main) |
| 3. Hamnet — Max Richter (Focus Features) | CCA, HMMA (main) |
| 4. Frankenstein — Alexandre Desplat (Netflix) | CCA, HMMA (main) |
| 5. Sirāt — Kangding Ray (NEON) ↑ | |
| 6. Marty Supreme — Daniel Lopatin (A24) | CCA, HMMA (main) |
| 7. Jay Kelly — Nicholas Britell (Netflix) ↓ | |
| 8. Train Dreams — Bryce Dessner (Netflix) | |
| 9. Bugonia — Jerskin Fendrix (Focus Features) ↓ | HMMA (main) |
| 10. F1 — Hans Zimmer (Apple Original Films/Warner Bros) | HMMA (main) |
| 11. A House of Dynamite — Volker Bertelmann (Netflix) | HMMA (main) |
| 12. Hedda — Hildur Guðnadóttir (Amazon MGM) | |
| 13. Wicked: For Good — Stephen Schwartz, John Powell (Universal Pictures) | HMMA (main) |
| 14. Avatar: Fire and Ash — Simon Franglen (20th Century Studios) | HMMA (sc-fi) |
| 15. Tron: Ares — Nine Inch Nails (Walt Disney) ↑ | |
| 16. Nuremberg — Brian Tyler (Sony Pictures Classics) NEW | |
| 17. Diane Warren: Relentless — Lesley Barber (Greenwich Entertainment) NEW | |
| 18. Wake Up Dead Man — Nathan Johnson (Netflix) NEW | |
| 19. Captain America: Brave New World — Laura Karpman (Walt Disney/Marvel) NEW | |
| 20. Truth & Treason — Aaron Zigman (Angel Studios) NEW | HMMA (independent) |
ORIGINAL SONG
| 1. “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix) | CCA, HMMA (animated) |
| 2. “I Lied to You” from Sinners (Warner Bros) | CCA, HMMA (main) |
| 3. “Dear Me” from Relentless (Greenwich Entertainment) | HMMA (documentary) |
| 4. “The Girl in the Bubble” from Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures) | CCA, HMMA (main) |
| 5. “Last Time (I Seen The Sun)” from Sinners (Warner Bros) | HMMA (main) |
| 6. “Drive” from F1 (Apple Original Films/Warner Bros) ↑ | CCA, HMMA (main) |
| 7. “Lose My Mind” from F1 (Apple Original Films/Warner Bros) ↓ | HMMA (main) |
| 8. “Train Dreams” from Train Dreams (Netflix) | |
| 9. “No Place Like Home” from Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures) | HMMA (main) |
| 10. “Highest 2 Lowest” from Highest 2 Lowest (A24/Apple Original Films) | HMMA (independent) |
| 11. “Dream as One from Avatar: Fire and Ash (20th Century Studios) ↑ | HMMA (sci-fi) |
| 12. “Our Love” from “The Ballad of Wallis Island” (Focus Features) ↑ | |
| 13. “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” from “Come See Me in the Good Light” (Apple Original Films) ↑ | HMMA (documentary) |
| 14. Dying To Live” from “Billy Idol Should Be Dead” (Fremantle) ↑ | HMMA (documentary) |
| 15. “Sweet Dreams Of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!” (TBD) NEW |
SOUND
| 1. F1 (Warner Bros/Apple Original Films) | CCA |
| 2. One Battle After Another (Warner Bros) | CCA |
| 3. Sinners (Warner Bros) | CCA |
| 4. Frankenstein (Netflix) ↑ | |
| 5. Wicked: For Good (Universal Pictures) ↓ | |
| 6. Sirāt (NEON) ↑ | CCA |
| 7. Avatar: Fire and Ash (20th Century Studios) ↓ | CCA |
| 8. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning (Paramount Pictures) | |
| 9. Superman (Warner Bros) | |
| 10. Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (20th Century Studios) |
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.
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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