FINAL 2022 Oscar Nomination Predictions: ORIGINAL SCORE, ORIGINAL SONG and SOUND

With all precursors in for Original Score, The Power of the Dog is the only one to earn nominations from every group and guild. Don’t Look Up, Dune and The French Dispatch are right behind and all have BAFTA nods.

In Original Song, only “No Time to Die” from No Time to Die has earned all precursors, already winning two of them. “Just Look Up” from Don’t Look Up, “Be Alive” from King Richard, “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” from Respect and “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto are next in line. But I’m preparing for a big snub here and I think it’s headed towards Beyoncé’s way with 12-time nominee Diane Warren taking the last spot with “Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days. Warren is currently on her second four-year-in-a-row streak of nominations (already an Oscar record) and this would be her fifth.

Three films have hit all three Sound precursors: Dune, No Time to Die and West Story. None of those are missing but the next two slots will be made up of a combination of Last Night in Soho, The Power of the Dog, A Quiet Place Part II and Spider-Man: No Way Home with Belfast and The Matrix Resurrections as outliers.

Here are my final 2022 Oscar nominations predictions for Original Score, Original Song and Sound.

ORIGINAL SCORE

15 scores advanced in the Original Score category for the 94th Academy Awards. 136 scores were eligible in the category. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

1. Dune (Warner Bros/HBO Max) – GG, CCA, SCL, BAFTA
2. The Power of the Dog (Netflix) – GG, CCA, HMMA, SCL, BAFTA
3. Don’t Look Up (Netflix) – CCA, HMMA, SCL, BAFTA
4. The French Dispatch (Searchlight Pictures) – GG, HMMA, SCL, BAFTA
5.  Encanto (Walt Disney) – GG, SCL

——————–

6. Spencer (NEON) – CCA, SCL
7. Parallel Mothers (Sony Pictures Classics) – GG, SCL
8. No Time to Die (MGM/UAR) – HMMA
9. King Richard (Warner Bros/HBO Max) – HMMA
10. Being the Ricardos (Amazon Studios) – BAFTA

ORIGINAL SONG

15 songs advanced in the Original Song category for the 94th Academy Awards. 84 songs were eligible in the category. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

1. “No Time to Die” from No Time to Die (MGM/UAR) – GG, CCA, HMMA, SCL 
2. “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto (Walt Disney) – GG, CCA, HMMA 
3. “Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” from Respect (MGM/UAR) – GG, HMMA, SCL 
4. “Just Look Up” from Don’t Look Up (Netflix) – CCA, HMMA, SCL
5. “Somehow You Do” from Four Good Days (Vertical Entertainment) – HMMA (Indie), SCL

——————–

6. “Be Alive” from “King Richard (Warner Bros/HBO Max) – GG, CCA, HMMA 
7. “Guns Go Bang” from The Harder They Fall (Netflix) – CCA, HMMA, SCL
8. “Down to Joy” from Belfast (Focus Features) – GG, HMMA (Indie)
9. “Beyond the Shore” from CODA (Apple Original Films) – HMMA (Indie)
10. “So May We Start” from Annette (Amazon Studios)

SOUND

10 films advanced in the Sound category for the 94th Academy Awards. Members of the Sound Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees. All members of the Sound Branch were invited to view eight-minute excerpts and interviews with the artists from each of the shortlisted films beginning Friday, January 28, 2022. Branch members voted to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

1. Dune (Warner Bros/HBO Max) – BAFTA, MPSE (3x), CAS   
2. No Time to Die (MGM/UAR) – BAFTA, MPSE (2x), CAS   
3. West Side Story (20th Century Studios) – BAFTA, MPSE, CAS  
4. The Power of the Dog (Netflix) – MPSE, CAS     
5. Last Night in Soho (Focus Features) – BAFTA, MPSE 

——————–

6. A Quiet Place Part II (Paramount Pictures) – MPSE (3x), BAFTA
7. Spider–Man: No Way Home (Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios) – MPSE, CAS
8. Belfast (Focus Features) – MPSE
9. The Matrix Resurrections (Warner Bros/HBO Max) – MPSE (3x)
10. tick, tick…BOOM! (Netflix) – MPSE

• Author
• Recent Posts

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.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• 2024 New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) Winners - December 3, 2024
• 2025 Golden Globes: Ted Danson Named Carol Burnett Award Honoree - December 2, 2024
• Predictions for the 2024 Gotham Awards and New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) - December 2, 2024