As someone who loves, and I mean loves, film scores, I can’t wrap my head around this.
According to the good folks at Soundtrack Geek, Brian Tyler, one of Hollywood’s hottest composers, has had no less than 6 scores disqualified from Oscar contention by the academy. Also disqualified, Marcel Barsotti’s great Pope Joan score, Nicholas Hooper’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Carter Burwell’s Where The Wild Things. That’s a few big contenders out of the running which brings up the question, what’s left? Quite a bit actually.
SG has a complete list of the eligible scores and there are some great ones left on the list. Michael Giacchino’s Star Trek score is epic, Danny Elfman’s Terminator Salvation score has some pretty impressive pieces but I must admit one of my favourites of the year is Alexandre Desplat’s score for The Twilight Saga: New Moon which is full of both romance and suspense.
Sadly, my favourite score of the year is no where to be seen. The one in question: The Countess. The film written, directed and starring Julie Delpy also features something else: a gorgeous score composed by Delpy herself. It’s pretty impressive and you can get a taste of it here. Not sure if this is an just an oversight or if the score simply wasn’t entered. Either way, not long to wait for the final list.
Wow. Delpy is awesome. Had no idea she could compose music as well – and it sounds great! Maybe it was overlooked for its lack of showiness. If it doesn’t stand out academy voters will likely miss it. Dumbshits.
Memorable scores from this year: The Road and Sherlock Holmes are really the only two that come to mind.
Oh, and Ink! Man, Ink’s score rocked.
I keep waiting for Brian Tyler to eclipse his magnificent Children of Dune score. Wish he would be attached to more interesting projects.
That Children of Dune score is one of my all time favorites – it really is the high of his career so far. Completely agree he should be working on better films but alas, I sometimes find my favourite scores come from films I’m not particularly fond of.
And just a taste for those who may not know what the heck we’re referring to:
The Children of Dune soundtrack is very nice. It’s just too bad it had to be marred by the lie about the origin of the “Inama Nushif” Fremen lyrics.