‘Emilia Pérez,’ ‘Challengers,’ ‘Wicked’ & More Shortlisted for Best Original Score at 2025 Oscars
Hans Zimmer made the shortlist but not for Dune: Part Two. Here's why.
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Two composing teams are on the Oscar shortlist for best original score, along with 18 individual composers.
Clément Ducol and Camille are shortlisted for their work on Emilia Pérez (Netflix); Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are shortlisted for Challengers. A second Reznor/Ross score, Queer, didn’t make the cut. The Nine Inch Nails members have won two Oscars in this category, for The Social Network and Soul, the latter a collaboration with Jon Batiste.
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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences released shortlists in 10 categories, including best original score, best original song, and best documentary feature on Tuesday (Dec. 17). The number of shortlisted scores jumped from 15 to 20 this year, on the grounds that there are so many entries in this category. This year, 145 scores were eligible in the category, compared to 89 songs in the best original song category. (The number of shortlisted songs remained at 15.)
Hans Zimmer in on the score shortlist for his work on Steve McQueen’s Blitz. Zimmer might have had two scores on the shortlist, but his score for Dune: Part Two was ruled ineligible due to exceeding the Academy’s limit on pre-existing music. Academy rules state: “In cases such as sequels and franchises from any media, the score must not use more than 20% of pre-existing themes and music borrowed from previous scores in the franchise.” Zimmer’s score for Dune: Part Two incorporates substantial elements from his Oscar-winning score for 2021’s Dune.
Dune: Part Two was nominated for both a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award for best original score. The other scores that are nominated for those two awards were all shortlisted for Oscars – Daniel Blumberg’s The Brutalist, Reznor & Ross’ Challengers, Volker Bertelmann’s Conclave, Ducol & Camille’s Emilia Pérez and Kris Bowers’ The Wild Robot.
John Powell’s score for Wicked made the shortlist. The film is closing in on Mamma Mia! as the top-grossing film ever adapted from a Broadway musical.
Andrea Datzman is shortlisted for Inside Out 2. With this release, Datzman became the first woman to score a Pixar feature film.
Here’s a complete list of this year’s 20 shortlisted scores for best original score:
Shortlisted
Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios) – Benjamin Wallfisch
Babygirl (A24) – Critobal Tapia de Veer
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros. Pictures) – Danny Elfman
Blink Twice (Amazon MGM Studios) – Chanda Dancy
Blitz (Apple Original Films) — Hans Zimmer
The Brutalist (A24) — Daniel Blumberg
Challengers (Amazon MGM) — Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Conclave (Focus Features) — Volker Bertelmann
Emilia Pérez (Netflix) — Clément Ducol, Camille
The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM) — Tamar-kali
Gladiator II (Paramount Pictures) — Harry Gregson-Williams
Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 (New Line Cinema) – John Debney
Inside Out 2 (Pixar) — Andrea Datzman
Nosferatu (Focus Features) – Robin Carolan
The Room Next Door (Sony Pictures Classics) — Alberto Iglesias
Sing Sing (A24) — Bryce Dessner
The Six Triple Eight (Netflix) – Aaron Zigman
Wicked (Universal Pictures) – John Powell
The Wild Robot (DreamWorks Animation) — Kris Bowers
Young Woman and the Sea (Walt Disney Pictures) — Amelia Warner
And here are some of the highly-touted scores that were passed over for the shortlist.
Not Shortlisted
Deadpool & Wolverine (Marvel Studios) — Rob Simonsen
Drive-Away Dolls (Focus Features) — Carter Burwell
Flow (Janus Films/Sideshow) — Gints Zilbalodis, Rihards Zalupe
Hard Truths (Bleecker Street) — Gary Yershon
Here (Sony Pictures) — Alan Silvestri
IF (Paramount Pictures) — Michael Giacchino
I’m Still Here (Sony Pictures Classics) — Warren Ellis
Memoir of a Snail (IFC Films) — Elena Kats-Chernin
Mufasa: The Lion King (Walt Disney Pictures) — Nicholas Britell, Dave Metzger, Pharrell Williams
Moana 2 (Walt Disney Pictures) — Mark Mancina, Opetaia Foaʻi
The Piano Lesson (Netflix) — Alexandre Desplat
Queer (A24) — Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Saturday Night (Sony Pictures) — Jon Batiste
September 5 (Paramount Pictures) — Lorenz Dangel
The Substance (Mubi) — Raffertie
Transformers One (Paramount Pictures) — Brian Tyler
We Live in Time (A24) — Bryce Dessner
Nominations-round voting runs from Jan. 8-12. Nominations will be announced Jan. 17. Final-round voting runs from Feb. 11-18. The 97th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 2 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide. The show will also stream live on Hulu for the first time.
