Academy Award for Best Original Score

Academy Award for Best Original Score
Presented by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Country United States
Currently held by The Social Network (2010)
Official website http://www.oscars.org

The Academy Award for Original Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer.[1]

Contents

Superlatives

These are only for nominations in the Scoring categories. Nominations in other categories, such as the Original Song category, are not included.

Category Name Superlative
Most Awards Alfred Newman 9 awards
Most Nominations Alfred Newman 43 nominations
Most Nominations without a win Alex North 14 nominations

Only one composer has won two Scoring Oscars the same year. In 1973, Marvin Hamlisch won Best Original Score for The Way We Were and Best Adaptation Score, for The Sting. Hamlisch also won Best Song that year, making him the only composer to win three music Oscars in the same year.

Eight composers have won Oscars two years in a row:

Only one composer has won Oscars three years in a row. Roger Edens won for Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949) and Annie Get Your Gun (1950)

Only three female composers have won an Oscar for scoring. Marilyn Bergman won for Yentl (1983), Rachel Portman won for Emma (1996), and Anne Dudley won for The Full Monty (1997).

Only one female composer has been nominated for multiple Scoring Oscars. Rachel Portman was nominated for Emma (1996), The Cider House Rules (1999), and Chocolat (2000).

Multiple nominations

The following is a list of composers nominated more than once and winning at least one Academy Award. The list is sorted by number of wins, with the number of total nominations listed in parentheses. These do not include nominations (or wins) in the Best Original Song category.

The following composers have been nominated for a Best Original Score Oscar more than once; but as of 2010, the eleven living composers have yet to garner one. The number of nominations is listed in parentheses. These do not include nominations (or wins) in the Best Original Song category.

Deceased:

Living:

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.

Note: From 1934-1937, the head of the music department (rather than the actual composer or composers, in most cases) received the nominations and/or award.

Note: From 1937-1945, any studio was guaranteed a nomination just by submitting a qualified entry.

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

Best Original Score

1990s

Note: From 1995 to 1998, songwriters and lyricists along with orchestral underscore composers were also eligible for nominations in the "Musical or Comedy Score" category.[3]

Year Winner
Composer
Nominees
1990 Dances with Wolves
John Barry
1991 Beauty and the Beast
Alan Menken
1992 Aladdin
Alan Menken
1993 Schindler's List
John Williams
1994 The Lion King
Hans Zimmer
1995 Dramatic Score:
The Postman (Il postino)
Luis Enríquez Bacalov
Musical or Comedy Score:
Pocahontas
– Music by Alan Menken; Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz; Orchestral Score by Alan Menken
1996 Dramatic Score:
The English Patient
Gabriel Yared
Musical or Comedy Score:
Emma
Rachel Portman
1997 Dramatic Score:
Titanic
James Horner
Musical or Comedy Score:
The Full Monty
Anne Dudley
1998 Dramatic Score:
Life Is Beautiful
Nicola Piovani
Musical or Comedy Score:
Shakespeare in Love
Stephen Warbeck
1999 The Red Violin
John Corigliano

2000s

Year Winner
Composer
Nominees
2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Tan Dun
2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Howard Shore
2002 Frida
Elliot Goldenthal
2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Howard Shore
2004 Finding Neverland
Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
2005 Brokeback Mountain
Gustavo Santaolalla
2006 Babel
Gustavo Santaolalla
2007 Atonement
Dario Marianelli
2008 Slumdog Millionaire
A. R. Rahman
2009 Up
Michael Giacchino

2010s

Year Winner
Composer
Nominees
2010 The Social Network
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

References

External links

References