The nominees for the two music categories at the 98th Academy Awards feature a juggernaut, two rock legends, a huge sentimental favorite, and at least a knock-me-over-with-a-feather surprise. Now, we have to wait until March 15th to learn which musicians will take home the coveted statuettes.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences recognizes two categories for music: Best Original Song and Best Original Score. The song award was introduced a few years after the Oscars themselves were born, in 1934. The first winner was “The Continental,” a sensational dance number from the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical The Gay Divorcee.
The scoring award has a more complicated history, as rules and titles have changed based on how “original” the film’s music was or wasn’t. Suffice to say that it has also been around since 1934, when One Night of Love took the prize.
This year, nine different movies are nominated for the ten awards.
Best Original Song at the 98th annual Oscars
This category can be a little bit tricky. It is a bit of a moving target. If you are voting, are you choosing your favorite song, or the song that you think is used to the greatest effect in a particular film? Those are not always the same. Last year, “El Mal” from the movie Emilia Perez claimed the prize.
“Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless
If there is a sentimental favorite, it has to be this. Diane Warren is among the most successful and accomplished songwriters of the last fifty years. She has been nominated in this category 16 times without a win. (She did receive an Honorary Award in 2022.) With this nomination, she has made it to the finals in eleven of the last 12 years.
How fitting would it be for her first win to come for a song in a documentary about… Diane Warren. The song “Dear Me,” sung by Kesha, is structured around a letter to her younger self.
“Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters
Diane Warren is a long shot to win because “Golden” is an overwhelming favorite. It has already won multiple awards from the likes of Critics’ Choice and the Golden Globes.
“I Lied to You” from Sinners
If any song is going to upset “Golden,” it is likely to be this bluesy lament from Miles Caton in Sinners, which broke the record for most total nominations ever with 16. The chances for “I Lied to You” may have been helped by the omission of “Last Time (I Seen the Sun),” another presumed contender from Sinners.
“Sweet Dreams of Joy” from Viva Verdi
A classical composition performed by operatic voices doesn’t exactly scream 2025. When Variety handicapped the 15 songs on the shortlist last month, this one was 15th. I imagine it would have been the 16th if they could have justified it. But here it is, still standing when contenders from Miley Cyrus, John Mayer, Brandi Carlile, and Wicked are not.
“Train Dreams” from Train Dreams
Nick Cave brings his singular vision to a lovely piano/bass ballad that captures Clint Bailey’s intricately balanced austerity to a tee.
Best Original Score
Next time you have a few hours free, you can read up on the convoluted history of this award. In the past, it has often gone to a small circle of noted film composers, but as with the films themselves, the Academy has been branching out over the past decade or so. Last year’s winner was British composer Daniel Blumberg, who won on his first nominated score, for The Brutalist.
Jerskin Fendrix for Bugonia
No, that is not his real name. Fendrix has become director Yorgos Lanthimos’ go-to composer. He scored Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness before getting his second Oscar nomination (Poor Things received two years ago) for Bugonia.
Alexandre Desplat for Frankenstein
Desplat is a giant amongst modern film composers. Frankenstein marks his 12th nomination. And he has won the award twice, for The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Shape of Water (also helmed by Frankenstein director Guillermo del Toro). But this does mark a return to glory, as Desplat’s last nomination came in 2020.
Max Richter for Hamnet
The eclectic Richter has been honored in a wide range of genres and media over the years, but this marks his first Oscar nomination.
Jonny Greenwood for One Batlle After Another
Greenwood, founder of Radiohead, has a strong history of scoring films. This is his third Oscar nomination, after receiving recognition for Phantom Thread in 2017 and The Power of the Dog in 2021. He is one of the co-favorites for the Oscar this year.
Ludwig Goransson for Sinners
But Greenwood will have to beat out Goransson, the Swedish composer who has claimed two Oscars in the past seven years. He won for Black Panther and for Oppenheimer, which hints at the broad scope of his talent. He is also nominated this year as the co-composer of “I Lied to You.”
FYI, in case you care about such things, this year's nominated score composers consist of three Brits, a Swede and a Frenchman. I don't know much about international trade deficits, but I think this bears some investigation.