Oscars 2023: Best Original Score Predictions

We'll be updating all of our Oscar predictions throughout the season, so keep checking IndieWire for the latest news on the 2023 Oscar race. January 17, 2023, with official Oscar nominations announced on January 24, 2023. Final voting will take place between March 2 and March 7, 2023. Finally, the 95thOscars airs Sunday, March 12 and airs live on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET/ 5:00 PM PT.

Check out our early thoughts on what to expect at the 95th Academy Awards here.

The state of the race

Wednesday's shortlist of 15 original scores (including several of IndieWire's picks for Best of the Year) reflects the season's embrace of nostalgia and experimentation - often together - which is a good sign for bolder film music. A good example is Justin Hurwitz's jazzy score for "Babylon," with its wailing trumpets, screaming saxophones, undertones of rock 'n' roll riffs, and modern house beats. This perfectly captures director Damien Chazelle's Wild West Hollywood vibe of the late 20s.

Another example is how Alexandre Desplat experiments with his melodic score for Guillermo del Toro's stop-motion "Pinocchio" using only wooden instruments to evoke the physicality and emotion of the titular wooden boy . In this way, he transformed a limitation into a feeling of musical liberation.

The list is not without its share of rebuffs and surprises, with the inclusions of 'All Quiet on the Western Front', 'Everything Everywhere All at Once', 'Don't Worry Darling' and 'Devotion' and notable omissions like Michael Giacchino's operatic musical vision for "The Batman" and M.M. Keeravani's score for Tollywood audience enjoyment "RRR." Continuing its strong performance in the shortlists, "All Quiet" features director Edward Berger's go-to composer, Volker Bertelmann, musically filling the screen with a range of frequencies that don't rival explosions and gunfire, s' pressing an amplified harmonium to good effect. If Chandra Dancy is nominated for "Devotion," she would be the first black woman to receive a Best Original Score nod; his uplifting score for J.D. Dillard's biopic of the Black Navy's first pilot and Korean War hero, Jesse Brown (Jonathan Majors), offers a combination of orchestral and choral music for thrilling dogfights and emotional connections with his fellow airmen.

Dancy is one of three black composers and two female composers shortlisted, alongside Michael Abels ("Nope"), Terence Blanchard ("The Woman King") and Hildur Guðnadóttir ("Women Talking" - her bold score for " TÁR" was ruled ineligible.) Abels achieves a thrilling sense of chaos in Jordan Peele's subversive UFO film, "Nope," using instant bass pizzicato, Old West horns, percussive turns and a chorus. without words to convey an otherworldly feel. Blanchard introduced elements of West African culture in Gina Prince-Bythewood's "The Woman King", including West African drums, the Koto, the kalimba and the marimba. Guðnadóttir's lyrical and guitar score for Sarah Polley's "Women Talking" conveys a sense of hope for the traumatized Mennonite women at the center of the film, while also evoking its rural surroundings.

In terms of other highlights: there's John Williams' final score for directorial legend Steven Spielberg - 'The Fabelmans' - which caps off a unique 50-year partnership with this cinematic memoir. The 90-year-old master of sheet music was inspired to compose one of his finest piano themes around the strong connection between aspiri...