FINAL 2023 Oscar Nomination Predictions: ORIGINAL SCORE
It’s a real battle of the previous winners just for a spot in the final five for Original Score as Justin Hurwitz (Babylon), Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), John Williams (The Fabelmans), Alexandre Desplat (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio) and Hildur Guðnadóttir (Women Talking) are all major players this season.
Desplat and Guðnadóttir are the only to hit all of the score precursors: the BAFTA longlist, Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice and Hollywood Music in Media Awards, the last of which Desplat won in the animated category. Guðnadóttir was also nominated by Critics Choice for TÁR and won (beating herself), a score that was deemed ineligible by the Academy and cannot be nominated.
Not to just have themselves as competition, there are also several previous nominees, including two-timers Carter Burwell (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Nicholas Britell (She Said) trying to nudge their way to the top with up and comers looking for their first.
Despite Hurwitz going from winning for 2016’s La La Land to one of the biggest snubs in this category in years with his follow-up, 2018’s First Man, it feels like the branch can’t possibly ignore the bombastic, over the top nature of Babylon and the very similar hooks of LLL (albeit this time high on coke) that enamored them the first time. Even though Williams missed the BAFTA longlist (as did Steven Spielberg in director), betting against the 52-time nominee (!!!) and 5-time winner is not one I’m going to take.
The Music Branch has 388 voting members and after 147 eligible scores made it through the first round, we have the shortlist of 15. The number of votes needed to secure a nomination in Original Score is 65.
Oscar nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 24. Here are my final 2023 Oscar nomination predictions for Original Score.
| 1. Babylon (Paramount Pictures) – BAFTA, GG, CCA |
| 2. Women Talking (UAR/Orion) – GG, CCA, HMMA |
| 3. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix) – BAFTA, GG, CCA, HMMA |
| 4. The Fabelmans (Universal Pictures) – GG, CCA, HMMA |
| 5. The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight Pictures) – BAFTA, GG, HMMA |
| 6. All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix) – BAFTA |
| 7. The Woman King (Sony/TriStar) – HMMA |
| 8. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Walt Disney/Marvel Studios) – HMMA |
| 9. Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24) – BAFTA, HMMA |
| 10. She Said (Universal Pictures) – HMMA |
| 11. Nope (Universal Pictures) – HMMA |
| 12. Avatar: The Way of Water (20the Century Studios) – HMMA |
| 13. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix) |
| 14. Don’t Worry Darling (Warner Bros) |
| 15. Devotion (Sony Pictures) |
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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