Best Film Editing
Chance of a nomination =
6/10 Chance of a win =
5/10 Lee Smith has edited Christopher Nolan's last five films, though has only been nominated in this category once, for The Dark Knight. His snub for Inception remains one of the Academy's most notable recent mistakes, given how well his work ensured the labyrinthine narrative managed to clip along coherently rather than become mired in confusion. Inconsistent editing has nevertheless been a frequent criticism of Nolan's films - specifically Batman Begins, which featured frustratingly choppy action scenes - even if by this point the editing does, for a film running in at 2 hours, 45 minutes, feel tight and considered. That said, its length also opens it up to easy criticisms from its detractors, and so it will depend on the performance of films like Life of Pi, Lincoln,
Zero Dark Thirty,
The Master and Django Unchained.
Best Original Score
Chance of a nomination =
5/10 Chance of a win =
3/10 One of the less predictable categories for the film is the score; after all, neither Batman Begins nor The Dark Knight has been nominated in this category, the latter famously occurring after its score was disqualified because - ludicrously enough - the music cue sheet had too many composers listed on it. It is a category that continues to baffle, yet a branch that is obviously rather fond of Hans Zimmer, nominating him for Inception's score in 2010 (and giving him 8 previous nods, winning the gong for
The Lion King). However, they might be motivated to nominate Zimmer here for his overall contributions to the franchise, as well as the fact that this third score takes a divergent trajectory, focusing more on haunting themes as keeping in line with the picture's more sombre, downbeat tone. It is unlikely to win as the Academy has shown notable prejudice towards synth and electronic-based scores, though they did demonstrate surprising open-mindedness in awarding Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Oscars for their
The Social Network score in 2011. The main obstacle is whether the score will be deemed ineligible because it borrows many motifs from the previous films, which I fear is a strong possibility.