The Academy Award for Best Original Score is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.[1] Some pre-existing music is allowed, though, but a contending film must include a minimum of original music. This minimum since 2021 is established as 35% of the music, which is raised to 80% for sequels and franchise films.[2] Fifteen scores are shortlisted before nominations are announced.
History
The Academy began awarding movies for their scores in 1935. The category was originally called Best Scoring. At the time, winners and nominees were a mix of original scores and adaptations of pre-existing material. Following the controversial win of Charles Previn for One Hundred Men and a Girl in 1938, a film without a credited composer that featured pre-existing classical music, the Academy added a Best Original Score category in 1939.[3] In 1942, the distinction between the two Scoring categories changed slightly as they were renamed to Best Music Score of a Dramatic Picture and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.[4] This marked the first time the category was split into separate genres, a distinction that technically still lasts today, although there haven't been enough submissions for the musical category to be activated since 1985. From 1942 to 1985, musical scores had their own category, with the exception of 1958, 1981, and 1982. During that time, both categories had many name changes:
Following the wins of four Walt Disney Feature Animation films in six years from 1990 to 1995 (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King) during a period called the Disney Renaissance, it was decided to once again split the Best Original Score category by genres, this time by combining comedies and musicals together. As Alan Bergman, the chairman of the Academy's music branch said, "People were voting for the songs, not the underscores. We felt that Academy members outside the music branch didn't distinguish between the two. So when a score like The Lion King is competing against a drama like Forrest Gump, it's apples and oranges – not in the quality of the score, but in the way it functions in the movie. There's a big difference."[5] The category was therefore split into Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score in 1996. This change proved unpopular in the other branches of the Academy as Charles Bernstein, chairman of the Academy's rules committee, noted that "no other Oscar category depended on a film's genre" and "the job of composing an underscore for a romantic comedy is not substantially different from working on a heavy drama."[5] This split was reverted in 2000.
In 2020, rules were changed to require that a film's score include a minimum of 60% original music. Franchise films and sequels must include a minimum of 80% new music.[6] In 2021, the rules were changed again, lowering the minimum percentage of original music from 60% to 35% of the total music in the film.[7]
Academy Award for Best Original Musical
The Academy Award for Best Original Musical is a category that was re-established in 2000 after the Best Original Musical or Comedy Score category was retired. It has never been awarded in its present form due to a prolonged drought of films meeting the sufficient eligibility requirements. The Music Branch Executive Committee of the Academy decides whether there are enough quality submissions to justify its activation.[8]
According to the rules, the Best Original Musical is defined as follows:
An original musical consists of not fewer than five original songs by the same writer or team of writers, either used as voiceovers or visually performed. Each of these songs must be substantively rendered, clearly audible, intelligible, and must further the storyline of the motion picture. An arbitrary group of songs unessential to the storyline will not be considered eligible.[8]
Winners and nominees
The following is the list of nominated composers organized by year, and listing both films and composers. The years shown in the following list of winners are the production years, thus a reference to 1967 means the Oscars presented in 1968 for films released in 1967.
^From 1934 until 1937, nominated films were represented by the head of the film studio's music department rather than the composer. Each film's actual composer(s) are listed in parentheses.
^Captain Blood was not officially nominated for this award, but appears in Academy records because it placed third in voting as a write-in candidate in 1935.
^From 1937 until 1945, film studios could submit one eligible film of their choosing, guaranteeing it a nomination.
^Blacklisted composer Larry Adler's name was removed from American prints of the British-made Genevieve. The film's arranger and orchestrator Muir Mathieson was credited instead and received an Oscar nomination. In 1986, the Academy's Board of Governors removed Mathieson's name from the nomination and gave it to Adler.
^In 1957, dramatic and comedy films competed with musicals in a combined category called Music – Scoring. Fifteen scores were shortlisted with ten from dramatic and comedy films and five from musicals. Voting resulted in no musical nominees.
^Limelight was originally released in 1952, but had never screened theatrically in Los Angeles until 1972, at which point it became eligible for Oscar consideration.
^From 1995 until 1998, Best Original Score was split into Original Dramatic Score and Original Musical or Comedy Score. For musicals and comedies, songwriters and lyricists along with orchestral underscore composers were eligible for nomination.
^Lisa Gerrard and Klaus Badelt also received screen credit for the Gladiator score, but only Zimmer was deemed eligible for the nomination.
^The eligibility period for the 93rd ceremony was exceptionally extended through to February 28, 2021, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
^The Academy nominated and awarded him as Volker Bertelmann.
Records
Superlatives
These are only for nominations in the Scoring categories. Nominations in other categories, such as the Original Song category, are not included.
Only one composer has won two Scoring Oscars the same year: in 1973, Marvin Hamlisch won Original Dramatic Score for The Way We Were and Best Adaptation Score, for The Sting. Hamlisch also won Best Song that year for The Way We Were, making him the only composer to win three music Oscars in the same year.
Four women have won in the scoring categories. Three are composers: Rachel Portman, who won for Emma (1996); Anne Dudley, who won for The Full Monty (1997); and Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won for Joker (2019). The fourth is lyricist Marilyn Bergman, who won for Yentl (1983) in the Original Song Score category, sharing the award with co-lyricist Alan Bergman (her husband) and composer Michel Legrand. Guðnadóttir is the only woman to win the award under no qualifications; Bergman won for Best Song Score while Portman and Dudley won for Best Musical or Comedy Score.
At the age of 87, Ennio Morricone became the oldest winner in Oscar history at the time for a competitive award.[13][14]
Multiple nominations
The following is a list of composers nominated more than once and winning at least one Academy Award (in this category). This list is sorted by number of awards, with the number of total nominations listed in parentheses. These do not include nominations (or awards) in the Best Original Song category.
5: John Williams (48) Also received 5 nominations for Best Original Song, which brings his total to 53 - the most nominated person in all of the music categories combined, and the most nominated living individual in any Oscars category.
The following composers have been nominated for a Best Original Score Oscar more than once but have yet to garner one. The number of nominations is listed in parentheses. These do not include nominations (or awards) in the Best Original Song category.
‡Dates and years listed for each ceremony were the eligibility period of film release in Los Angeles County. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period was done on a seasonal basis, from August to July. For the 6th ceremony, held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933. From the 7th ceremony, held in 1935, through the 92nd ceremony, held in 2020, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. For the 93rd ceremony, held in 2021, the eligibility period was from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021. For the 94th ceremony, held in 2022, the eligibility period was from March 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021.
