The Book Thief Gravity Her Philomena Saving Mr. Banks In terms of nominations, the music branch tends to be very insular when comes to Best Original Score, which is why John Williams received his 49th nomination for his score for The Book Thief, but when it comes to picking the winner, the Academy at large can be a little bit more imaginative than the branch seems to be. In fact, two of the first-timers in this category, Steve Price, who did the excellent throbbing, almost sub-aural, score for Gravity, and the band Arcade Fire, who composed the melancholic score to Her (as well as borrowing from their terrific new album Reflecktor), seem the most likely to win. If the Academy decides they rather go the more traditional route though, I suspect they will go Alexandre Desplat's score for Philomena. Desplat is a terrific and ubiquitous composer who appears to be the heir apparent to John Williams in this category, although he has yet to win an Oscar, so if the Academy feels like it is time to give the man his due, they may vote for Philomena. For those that really were taken with the movie, this is probably the one category where they will be able to give it a win too, so the two-birds wit one stone effect could be tempting. However, I feel pretty confident that this is in the bag for Gravity. As great a band as Arcade Fire is and as wonderful as their work on Her turned out, the average age of a typical Academy member pretty much precludes them from appreciating the brilliance of Arcade Fire. Plus, the score for Gravity is so interwoven in the film itself, and plays such an important psychological role in the success of the film, I really can't see any other film than Gravity prevailing in this category. Will Win: GravityCould Win: PhilomenaShould Win: Gravity
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.
