1. Gravity2. 12 Years a Slave3. Captain Phillips4. The Book Thief5. Philomena(Alt: Saving Mr. Banks) The Composer's branch tends to be a pretty insular branch, rewarding a select few veterans and not venturing too far outside this realm (which is part of the reason why, along with his massive talent, John Williams has been nominated so many times). It is also typical for a few Best Picture candidates to be among the competitors, although the filed is rarely made up exclusively of Best Picture nominees. For this year's race, I think we can count Steven Price's work for Gravity and Hans Zimmer's work for 12 Years a Slave as nominees. Price's throbbing, piercing work is such a vital and integral part of what Gravity accomplishes as a film, it's hard to imagine the film's score not getting nominated, and Zimmer's relatively understated score for 12 Years a Slave also plays a crucial role in setting the tone for that film. I also feel fairly confident Henry Jackman's score for the action-oriented drama Captain Philips is the type of work the branch will likely nominate. John Williams, who wrote the score for the awards season pretender The Book Thief, will also probably get a nomination, simply for being John Williams. This leaves one spot open and a myriad of different choices. If it was up to critics and hipsters, the final spot would almost surely go to Arcade Fire's score for Her, but given this branch's prejudice against flashy newcomers, this is the one score that will absolutely not be nominated. Hans Zimmer could be a double nominee, which isn't uncommon in this category, for his hi-octane score for the racing drama Rush, or 11-time nominee Thomas Newman could get his 12th nomination for his typically schmaltzy Disney score for Saving Mr. Banks. For my final spot though, I'm going to go with my gut and say the branch will go with the hottest composer at the moment, Alexander Desplat, and his bouncy score for the dramedy, Philomena.
A film fanatic at a very young age, starting with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movies and gradually moving up to more sophisticated fare, at around the age of ten he became inexplicably obsessed with all things Oscar. With the incredibly trivial power of being able to chronologically name every Best Picture winner from memory, his lifelong goal is to see every Oscar nominated film, in every major category, in the history of the Academy Awards.
