Oscars 2014 Nominations: 10 Things We Learned About This Year's Picks

3. John Williams Will Be Nominated For Best Score As Long As He's Alive

John Williams's latest score, for The Book Thief, is like one dark, monotonous night of the soul. So dull it scarcely registers as a sound, its only redemption is in how excessively maudlin it is - when it's not being schizophrenically saccharine - making it perfect company for a film about a young girl trying to survive Nazi Germany (key track: 'I Hate Hitler!'). While it's now clear that we're just going to have to accept that Williams will be nominated as long as he's active, the shame of it this year is that some worthy contenders are missing out as a result. None of us should have expected a Best Score nom for Cliff Martinez and Skrillex for Spring Breakers (though it would've been deserved), but Alex Ebert produced one of the best scores in recent memory for All Is Lost, only last week receiving a Golden Globe for his trouble. Oscar didn't reciprocate, and instead gave Ebert's place to the man behind some of the most famous movie cues in history, who's now picking up annual noms despite having become totally uninteresting.