Awards

Music played an outsize role in the nominations for the 97th annual Academy Awards, which were announced Jan. 23 (six days later than originally planned due to the Los Angeles wildfires). Emilia Pérez and Wicked are among the 10 films nominated for best picture — the first time that two musicals have been nominated in that category in the same year since the 1969 ceremony, when Oliver! and Funny Girl both vied for the award. Emilia Pérez received 13 nods (more than any other film this year), while Wicked amassed 10. This is the first time in 60 years that two musicals received 10 or more nominations in the same year. At the 1965 ceremony, Mary Poppins had 13 nods and My Fair Lady had 12.

Plus, three actors from the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown — Timothée Chalamet (who plays Dylan), Edward Norton (Pete Seeger) and Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez) — were nominated for acting honors. It’s the first time in Oscar history that three actors from a music biopic have been nominated.

The Oscar telecast is set for March 2. Here’s a closer look at the two music categories.

Best Original Song

Diane Warren is nominated for the eighth year in a row, which ties her with Sammy Cahn for the longest continuous streak of nominations in this category’s 91-year history. Cahn was nominated eight years running from 1955 to 1962. Clément Ducol and Camille are nominated for best original score for Emilia Pérez and have two songs in the running for best original song. They’re the first composers to land three nods in music categories in one year since Justin Hurwitz achieved the same feat with La La Land eight years ago.

“El Mal”
Emilia Pérez (Netflix)
Music by Clément Ducol and Camille; lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard

Zoe Saldaña takes the lead on this big production number in the film, with an assist from Karla Sofía Gascón. Both are nominated for their performances — Saldaña for best supporting actress and Gascón for best actress.

Audiard, who is nominated for directing Emilia Pérez and for co-writing the lyrics to this song, is only the third person in Oscar history to be nominated in both the directing and original song categories and the first to be so honored in the same year. Leo McCarey and Spike Jonze received their nominations in separate years.

Ducol and Camille are vying to become the sixth romantic couple to win in this category following Alan and Marilyn Bergman, Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager, Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, and Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez.

This is the fifth year in a row that one or more non-English-language songs has been nominated in this category. This streak started in 2021 with “Io Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se) and continued with “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto, “Naatu Naatu” from RRR (which won), “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon and now two songs from Emilia Pérez.

“The Journey”
The Six Triple Eight (Netflix)
Music and lyric by Diane Warren

This inspirational ballad gives Warren her 16th Oscar nomination for best original song — a total equaled by only three other songwriters. Sammy Cahn leads with 26 nods, followed by Johnny Mercer with 18 and Paul Francis Webster, also with 16. (This makes Warren the most-nominated woman in this category, topping the late lyricist Marilyn Bergman, who received 15.)

Making Warren’s tally all the more impressive is that she has rarely been part of an Oscar-magnet film that racked up multiple nominations. “The Journey” is her 11th nominated song from a film that received no other nominations besides hers.

“The Journey” is the 12th of Warren’s best original song contenders that she wrote herself. Only Randy Newman has been nominated with as many songs that he wrote himself. He has been the sole writer of all 13 of his best original song nominees to date.

H.E.R. sings “The Journey” over the end credits to the Tyler Perry film The Six Triple Eight, which stars Kerry Washington. H.E.R. and Warren squared off in this category four years ago, when the R&B star’s “Fight for You” from Judas and the Black Messiah beat Warren’s “Io Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se).

“Like a Bird”
Sing Sing (A24)
Music and lyric by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada

This soulful, midtempo ballad echoes the style of the late folk-rock musician Richie Havens. These are the first Oscar nominations for Alexander and Quesada, who wrote and performed “Like a Bird.”

Quesada has received seven Grammy nominations (but no wins as yet) as a member of Black Pumas. The psychedelic soul band has been nominated in three of the top general-field categories — album and record of the year and best new artist. Quesada previously received two Grammy nods as a member of the Latin funk orchestra Grupo Fantasma, winning best Latin rock, alternative or urban album in 2011 for El Existential.

Alexander is a Texas-based musician, songwriter and guitarist. His nod makes this the eighth year in a row that one or more Black songwriters has been nominated in this category. This represents the longest streak of nominations by Black songwriters in the category’s history.

This was one of three nominations for Greg Kwedar’s film Sing Sing, along with best actor for Colman Domingo and best adapted screenplay. Bryce Dessner of The National scored Sing Sing. He was shortlisted for best original score but not nominated.

“Mi Camino”
Emilia Pérez (Netflix)
Music and lyric by Camille and Clément Ducol

Selena Gomez sings this sensuous ballad in a sexy scene with co-star Édgar Ramírez. Camille and Ducol had composed several songs for Gomez’s character before the star was cast. Once she was, director Jacques Audiard told the composers he needed another song for the character. They watched the 2022 documentary Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me, which explored the singer’s mental health struggles and inspired them to write “Mi Camino.”

“We didn’t have the opportunity to meet her in person [before writing the song] but did meet her through her documentary,” Ducol told The Los Angeles Times. “Her sensitivity was so engaging and so strong that the song was created very quickly. We wrote it in the space of a few hours. For some songs, like ‘El Mal,’ we had dozens of different versions. ‘Mi Camino’ just came to the surface.”

Ducol and Camille have two of the five nominees in this category. This marks the first time that a songwriter or team of songwriters has had two nominated songs in the same year since 2017, when Justin Hurwitz and the EGOT-winning team of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul had two nominated songs from La La Land.

“Never Too Late”
Elton John: Never Too Late (Disney+)
Music and lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin

This is John’s fifth nomination in this category and Taupin’s second. They won five years ago for “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman. John first won in this category in 1995 with “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King, which he co-wrote with Tim Rice. If John wins this year, he’ll become just the 10th songwriter in Oscar history — and only the second non-American (following Rice) — to win three or more times in this category. (Fun fact: John has never gone home without an Oscar in the years he has been nominated.)

This is the first Oscar nod for both Carlile and Watt. Watt also earned a nod for song of the year at this year’s Grammys for co-writing the Bruno Mars-Lady Gaga ballad “Die With a Smile.”

John and Carlile perform “Never Too Late” in Elton John: Never Too Late, which was co-directed by R. J. Cutler and John’s husband, David Furnish. During production, Carlile saw an early cut of the film and wrote the first set of lyrics before sending to John to compose. Watt and Taupin later pitched in. This is vying to become the second song from a documentary to win in this category following Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth (2007).

Best Original Score

This category continues to be populated by composers from all over the world. Of this year’s nominees, only Stephen Schwartz and Kris Bowers are Americans. In the last 20 years, the only Americans to win in this category are Michael Giacchino (Up), Trent Reznor (The Social Network, Soul), Justin Hurwitz (La La Land) and Jon Batiste (Soul).

The Brutalist
Daniel Blumberg (A24)

This was one of 10 nominations for Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, which stars Adrien Brody as a Hungarian Jewish architect who survives the Holocaust and builds a new life in America. Brody is nominated for best actor; Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones are up for supporting actor and actress, respectively. The film is also nominated for best picture, cinematography, directing, film editing, production design and original screenplay.

The film is dedicated to the memory of Scott Walker, who scored Corbet’s films The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux (the latter also featured music by Sia).

Blumberg, 35, is an English artist, musician, songwriter and composer. In May 2022, he won an Ivor Novello Award for best original film score for The World To Come.

The Brutalist soundtrack opens with an overture in three parts, as Blumberg and Corbet wanted the first 10 minutes of the film to have continuous music. In addition to composing all the music, Blumberg served as producer and recording engineer and played piano, harmonica, keyboards and synthesizer. Pianist John Tilbury is featured on the 11-minute track “Intermission,” while a Brody speech from the film is featured on the track “Monologue.”

Conclave
Volker Bertelmann (Focus Features)

This is the third nomination for the German composer, who performs and records under the name Hauschka. He was first nominated at the 2017 ceremony for Lion, which he scored in tandem with Dustin O’Halloran. He won two years ago for his score to All Quiet on the Western Front. If Bertelmann wins for Conclave, it would mark the quickest return to the podium in this category since Gustavo Santaolalla won back-to-back Oscars in 2006-07 for scoring Brokeback Mountain and Babel.

Conclave director Edward Berger also directed All Quiet on the Western Front. The director and composer are collaborating again on The Ballad of a Small Player, an upcoming psychological thriller drama starring Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton.

This was one of eight nominations for Conclave. The film’s other nods are for actors Ralph Fiennes and Isabella Rossellini, best picture, costume design, film editing, production design and adapted screenplay. Berger was passed over for a nod for best director.

“The collaboration with Edward Berger is for me a big gift,” Bertelmann, 58, said in a statement, “and allows me to search and discover a lot of possibilities.”

Emilia Pérez
Clément Ducol and Camille (Netflix)

Emilia Pérez is one of only four musicals in Oscar history to land as many as 13 nods. La La Land leads the pack with 14. Chicago and Mary Poppins matched Emilia Pérez’s total of 13.

Ducol and Camille, 43 and 46, respectively, are vying to become the second couple to win in a scoring category following lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman, who won in 1984 for their original song score for Yentl, on which they collaborated with Michel Legrand.

Ducol and Camille are also vying to become the first French composers to win in this category since Alexandre Desplat triumphed seven years ago for The Shape of Water. Five other French composers have won in scoring categories: Legrand, Maurice Jarre, Francis Lai, Georges Delerue and Ludovic Bource.

“We are overwhelmed by these nominations,” Ducol and Camille said in a joint statement. “Music and community is our life, and to be nominated in two music categories by our film​ ​music community surpasses anything we could have possibly imagined.”

Wicked
John Powell and Stephen Schwartz (Universal)

This is Schwartz’s fourth nomination in a scoring category following three nods in the defunct best original musical or comedy score category for Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Prince of Egypt. (The film academy last presented that award in 1999.) Schwartz, 76, is a two-time winner for best original song, for “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas (which he co-wrote with Alan Menken) and “When You Believe” from The Prince of Egypt (which he wrote himself).

This is Powell’s second nod in this category following one for the 2010 film How To Train Your Dragon. The Englishman has also composed scores for films such as Face/Off, Drumline and Bolt.

This was one of 10 nominations for Wicked, which has become the top-grossing film ever adapted from a Broadway musical. A sequel, Wicked: For Good, is due in November. Jon M. Chu directed both films.

The Wicked soundtrack album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 2, the highest debut in history for a soundtrack based on a stage musical. Highlights include “Popular” (sung by Ariana Grande, a best supporting actress nominee for her role as Glinda) and “Defying Gravity” (sung by Cynthia Erivo, a best actress nominee for her role as Elphaba, with an assist from Grande).

The Wild Robot
Kris Bowers (Universal)

This is Bowers’ first scoring nomination. He has been nominated twice in documentary categories — as a director of A Concerto Is a Conversation and as a director-producer of The Last Repair Shop (both collaborations with Ben Proudfoot). The latter film won last year for documentary short film. Bowers, 35, is the first Black composer to be nominated for best original score in four years. At the 2021 ceremony, both Terence Blanchard (Da 5 Bloods) and Jon Batiste (Soul, a collaboration with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) were nominated.

This was one of three nominations for Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot, which is also competing for best animated feature and best sound. The Wild Robot is the first animated film to receive a nod for best original score since Encanto three years ago.

The Wild Robot soundtrack includes “Kiss the Sky,” which was co-written and performed by Maren Morris. It was shortlisted for best original song but wasn’t nominated.

This is Bowers’ first score for a fully animated film. His previous scoring assignments include the live-action dramas Green Book, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Respect, King Richard, The Color Purple and Bob Marley: One Love.

This story appears in the Feb. 8, 2025, issue of Billboard.