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.