Jump to content

93rd Academy Awards (2021 ceremony for 2020 films)


Jay

Recommended Posts

Oscar Music Eligibility Lists Revealed: ‘Soul’ In, ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ Out

Voters from the Academy's music branch will choose 15 songs and 15 scores for the shortlists, to be announced Feb. 9

 

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/oscar-music-shortlist-soul-ma-raineys-black-bottom-1234897434/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Geez, if ever there was a year Williams would've been in with a real shot for his 6th Oscar, that was it.

 

It feels like every time he's come close, there's always been some infuriating alternative prospect for various political/non-musical reasons. I don't see anything like that in last year's offerings.

 

Oh well. Maybe Newman will finally get his long overdue recognition instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The nominees for the 2nd SCL (Society of Composers and lyricists) Awards came out yesterday.

 

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE
FOR A STUDIO FILM

 

James Newton Howard
News of the World

 

Ludwig Göransson
Tenet

 

Terence Blanchard
Da 5 Bloods

 

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
Mank

 

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste
Soul

 

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE
FOR AN INDEPENDENT FILM

 

Emile Mosseri
Minari

 

Lolita Ritmanis
Blizzard of Souls (Dvēseļu Putenis)

 

Sherri Chung
The Lost Husband

 

Steven Price
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet

 

Tamar-Kali
Shirley

 

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE
FOR A TELEVISION PRODUCTION

 

Blake Neely
The Flight Attendant

 

Carlos Rafael Rivera
The Queen’s Gambit

 

Laura Karpman, Raphael Saadiq
Lovecraft Country

 

Ludwig Göransson
Star Wars: The Mandalorian

 

Martin Phipps
The Crown

 

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG
FOR VISUAL MEDIA

 

Diane Warren
“Free”

The One and Only Ivan

 

Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus, Rickard Goransson
“Husavik”
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

 

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
“(If You Could) Only Save Me”
Mank

 

Laura Karpman, Raphael Saadiq, Sonia Sanchez
“Tulsa 1921, Catch the Fire”
Lovecraft Country

 

Erran Baron Cohen, Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines
“Wuhan Flu”

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

 

OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE
FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA

 

Gordy Haab
Star Wars: Squadrons

 

Garry Schyman, Mikolai Stroinski
Metamorphosis

 

Ilan Eshkeri, Shigeru Umebayashi
Ghost of Tsushima

 

SPIRIT OF COLLABORATION AWARD
Terence Blanchard and Spike Lee

 

https://thescl.com/news/nominees-announced-for-2nd-annual-scl-awards/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, KK said:

Reznor is going home with his second Oscar.

 

The Music Branch, The Academy and Disney are certainly making sure of this by bending the rules for them and them only. If I was a composer and my score had been DQ'd in the past I would be PISSED.  Why go to bat for R&R and not for anyone else? What a bunch of hypocrites. The Music Branch and the Academy have no integrity or principles whatsoever.  Soul is a mediocre score at best.

I'm done with the Oscars. 

 

-Erik-

 

5 hours ago, Edmilson said:

The nominees for the 2nd SCL (Society of Composers and lyricists) Awards came out yesterday.

 

:sleep1:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This might be an unpopular thing to say but Baptiste was ruled eligible for Soul for politically correct reason.

 

Honest to god he should have been disqualified.

 

One the rules states that 2 composers can only be nominated if they worked together to write the score.

 

Now that is true for Ross and Reznor, but there is no indication that all 3 worked together on the Jazz portions and on the regular score.

 

Also 3 composers couldn't be nominated in the past.

 

Also, the jazz portions on their own amount to some source cues and are not substantial enough in volume to merit consideration.

 

Also, the score itself is entirely unremarkable, on album and in the movie.

 

Also, this will set a bad precedent for Pixar. One of the few holdouts of orchestral scores, if they win an oscar they will think, we can get away with this texture soundscape shit and might abandon their orchestral sound.

 

And lastly, even the movie isn't that good.

 

So I think the score shouldn't be nominated at all.

 

But this is such a shit hopeless year that it will win - and the win will also be very political reasons.

 

I can see the headline - First time in history 2 black composers nominated between Soul and Da 5 bloods etc.

 

There is also the controversy of white people appropriating jazz. That is the reason Baptiste was hired and why he will win.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, TheUlyssesian said:

Also 3 composers couldn't be nominated in the past.

 

As long as the composers work on the score equally AND as collaborators then you can have as many composers nominated that you want.  However, they would only hand out one trophy if the score won.  But in this case, Batiste didn't work with R&R, which is why adding Batiste to the ballot was going to get the score DQ'd.  But it looks like the Music Branch doesn't care about THEIR OWN RULES and have gone to bat for this score but not for Thomas Newman and his score to Let Them All Talk. There was no hope in hell that Newman's score would ever get nominated but they DQ'd that score because of their rules yet decided to bend them for Disney. BULL-SHIT!!!!

 

-Erik-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If nominating Soul means changing the rules, then I can see the frustration, but I'd consider it a good change. This music deserves consideration. The way composing duties were split was an inspired choice. And Batiste provided plenty of score, as well as source music, plus the source music played an unusually important role in this film, and often blurred the lines between source and score. For Soul to be disqualified would, to me, feel like a score that deserved recognition was being overlooked on a technicality. If they do allow it, I would hope it's a rule change and not a single exception, first of all because it's only fair, and secondly because I think this type of outside-the-box thinking should be encouraged when it comes to film scores.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Soul's case, some of the Batiste cues are not original from him, and instead are jazz standards, right? He just arranged them for the movie. In that case, shouldn't this be enough to disqualify at least Batiste's part of the score?

 

1 hour ago, Erik Woods said:

:sleep1:

 

I was happy that JNH got a nomination. I'm really hoping for him at the Oscar, it'd be his first nom since Defiance in 2009.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, crumbs said:

Geez, if ever there was a year Williams would've been in with a real shot for his 6th Oscar, that was it.

 

It feels like every time he's come close, there's always been some infuriating alternative prospect for various political/non-musical reasons. I don't see anything like that in last year's offerings.

 

Oh well. Maybe Newman will finally get his long overdue recognition instead.

Don't worry. Williams would have lost to the political intrigue of the year, as he always does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

25 minutes ago, Smeltington said:

If nominating Soul means changing the rules, then I can see the frustration, but I'd consider it a good change. 

 

I'm all for changing the rules because I honestly thinks they are stupid to begin with but if they are the rules NOW then you DO NOT make exceptions, especially if you AREN'T going to make exceptions for others.  That's the point.

 

-Erik-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Academy have been hypocrites with this category since the dawn of time. For the most part, it's an industry token award. Why would this year be any different?

 

I do hope Mosseri gets nominated though. He's had a great freaking year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Every year I say I don't care about the Oscars. And I don't really.

 

But, Alex, I agree. I'd love to see any of those non-winners snag the prize, JNH in particular.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Smeltington said:

If nominating Soul means changing the rules, then I can see the frustration, but I'd consider it a good change. This music deserves consideration. The way composing duties were split was an inspired choice. And Batiste provided plenty of score, as well as source music, plus the source music played an unusually important role in this film, and often blurred the lines between source and score. For Soul to be disqualified would, to me, feel like a score that deserved recognition was being overlooked on a technicality. If they do allow it, I would hope it's a rule change and not a single exception, first of all because it's only fair, and secondly because I think this type of outside-the-box thinking should be encouraged when it comes to film scores.


It is a fraudulent con by the academy. Baptiste missing a nomination wouldn't be a soul shattering catastrophe.

 

When 4 months 3 weeks missed the nomination, they changed the rules next year so that it does not happen again.

 

With Baptiste, they are making a special exception THIS year.

 

Why? Because the headlines write themselves.
 

RACIST ACADEMY DISQUALIFIES BLACK COMPOSER WHILE QUALIFYING 2 WHITE MALE COMPOSERS FOR A FILM ABOUT A BLACK MAN'S LIFE
 

 

TWO WHITE COMPOSERS NOMINATED FOR A FILM ABOUT SOUL MUSIC - A GENRE INVENTED BY BLACK MUSICIANS
 

3 YEARS AFTER OSCARS SO WHITE CONTROVERSY, ACADEMY AGAIN SNUBS BLACK ARTISTS
 

These hypothetical headlines are why Baptiste was allowed.
 

The woke academy can now win points with the media.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why. Why do people still care about the Oscars and what the Academy does? I've been done with them for years.

 

Quite frankly, I'm not remotely outraged about this. The rule is silly anyway and has always been silly. The Academy always picks and chooses and gives passes based on how they feel to whoever. The awards barely mean anything anymore. I think Hans Zimmer should be disqualified for every score he gets nominated for, because you know there's anywhere from 4-8 other people writing cues for those projects, but it's Hans Zimmer. Whatever, it happens. I've heard FYCs that go on to WIN the whole thing that did not follow the rules about submitting the film versions of the score. They will sidestep the rules whenever the want for whatever reason.

 

Sure, I can get it's frustrating to have other scores disqualified throughout the years and not this one, but eh, it is pointless for me to spend any time fretting about this. What is a bit disappointing to me to read here though: If you are going to be mad about this, there's no reason to drag the music and the composers through the mud. This isn't their doing. Reznor, Ross, and Batiste are great musicians and the score is fine. I enjoyed it. Do I think it's best of the year? No, but I find the Academy ignores plenty of scores and films alike that I think deserve recognition for being best of the year. I'm used to it. Been happening for years. 

 

It's just a big press event for the movies the Academy deems relevant. I bet the voters still don't watch half the things they vote for. Moving on. This doesn't bother me in the slightest. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, TSMefford said:

Why. Why do people still care about the Oscars and what the Academy does? I've been done with them for years.

Totally agree. What kind of ceremony does not give the best score to Williams' Superman? This is still sticking in my throat! :kaboom:

The only things good that come from this are the FYC's soundtrack that contains unreleased materials the rest is pointless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Someone may create a new thread for this , but personally I think this should be a catch-all thread for all the year-end major awards for scores.

 

The Golden Globe nominees were announced this morning, and here are the score noms:

 

Alexandre Desplat - The Midnight Sky

Ludwig Goransson - Tenet

James Newton Howard - News of the World

Reznor/Ross - Mank

Batiste/Reznor/Ross - Soul

 

image.png

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Boring choices, really.

THE MIDNIGHT SKY had one great theme, the rest is completely forgettable. TENET is the worst score I heard in all of 2020. MANK and SOUL are fine, but more in a "runner up" category to me. Same goes for NEWS OF THE WORLD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think I'm the biggest defender of Tenet around here and even I'm, on the high end, basically just like "there are some cool ideas/cues in there but overall it's not a great listening experience."  I certainly don't think it's the worst thing ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

This argument gets dredged up every year and to me, it just stands that the Oscars are interesting. They're interesting! I don't know why anyone who likes Hollywood, Hollywood movies, Hollywood history, pop culture in general would say otherwise. It's the largest industry award voted by people who make movies and it's going for almost 100 years.

 

Marlon Brando, Bette Davis, Irving Berlin, George Bernard Shaw, Aaron Copland, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Cher, Stevie Wonder, Eminem, Mo'Nique, Tom Stoppard, Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, Kobe Bryant. Oscar winners. Weird! 

 

The Oscars are a big collage of stuff. It's like a big net that Tinseltown casts out every year and you see what made it in. And you've usually got some big and little fish and some buried treasure and tin cans and old shoes and they're just like, well, throw it all on the shitpile to hang out together. That's Hollywood, baby. It's crazy.

 

Who cares if they make the right calls? Sight & Sound's coming out with its list in 3 years again, enjoy. Rank your Bluray and CD collections. And why pretend like they're not this huge deal? It's old as fuck and they're all rich, famous freaks. It's fascinating. Big ol hot mess, makes no sense. Hilarious! They're gonna do it their way.


I still watch the Oscars every year! It’s fun, even when they’re being hypocrites :p

 

2 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I think I'm the biggest defender of Tenet around here and even I'm, on the high end, basically just like "there are some cool ideas/cues in there but overall it's not a great listening experience."  I certainly don't think it's the worst thing ever.


It’s not terrible. It is boring though. And like the film, for all it’s technical detail (on a sound design front), it’s pretty unimaginative. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

Who cares if they make the right calls? Sight & Sound's coming out with its list in 3 years again, enjoy. Rank your Bluray and CD collections. And why pretend like they're not this huge deal? It's old as fuck and they're all rich, famous freaks. It's fascinating. Big ol hot mess, makes no sense. Hilarious! They're gonna do it their way.

 

This is pretty much how I feel.  I find the Oscars fascinating because I'm a weirdo who's interested Hollywood history and its evolving self-conception.  The dissonance between that self-conception and the reality of the experiences of the actual people is the part that's interesting, not irritating!

 

I will admit though that on some level finding this fun has to involve buying into that self-conception somewhat, or maybe wanting to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm reminded of a little quote from my favourite actor, Cary Grant, that I read in Scott Eyman's superb biography. 

 

Quote

Grant's attitude towards the Oscars favoured the way it used to be. "It was a private affair, you see- no television, of course, no radio even- just a group of friends giving each other a party. Because, you know, there is something a little embarrassing about all these wealthy people publicly congratulating each other."

 

It's a silly and strange event matched every year by even sillier and stranger fussiness. In short, bananas! To expect anything different is to expect too much. Just watch it all play out and enjoy it for what it really is. Who knows, it may prove more popcorn-worthy than most 2020 pictures were! :lurk:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, AC1 said:

Tenet's score worked in the movie. At least I noticed that I was often paying attention to it.

I would say that it's quite normal as you can only here the music during the whole movie. Damn some of the dialogue were hidden by this noise!

 

I would never understand this nomination, to me this probably the worst score that I've discovered this year apart from the Mandalorian season 2 (Yeah I know I don't really like Göransson ;))

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@mrbellamy I can understand that, being interested in the culture of it and what a hot mess it's going to be. None of that appeals to me, personally. I haven't even watched the last few years. I just check out social media to see what silly decisions were made that year. I guess my point is, why do people still take it seriously enough to be annoyed / angry about the nominations? They do whatever they want. It's a hot mess. We should be used to this by now.

 

At this point it doesn't affect me who gets nominated, who wins, etc. It doesn't really matter. When you bend the rules (and make up ridiculous rules) and don't even watch the things you're voting for then the award means nothing to me. It's just a line of text. I have no energy to be as angry as some people in this thread have been about the potential nominations and disqualifications. They do this kind of stuff every year, I'm used to it at this point. It's the Oscars.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, TheUlyssesian said:

 You were because it was blaring from the speakers.

 

If you played selections from the "score", I wouldn't be able to tell what part of the movie they are from. It was all just a sound wallpaper applied to the entire movie at high volume. I saw no art there.

It seems to me they're trying to imitate Balfe's work on Fallout badly. There were also musical sequences but not throughout whole movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah. I was too very surprised by this score.

I'd personally never heard of Balfe before and I find he perfectly managed to bring to the movie more emotion exactly like Zimmer did on the Nolan's Batmans. I find there were some MoS' ideas in Fallout specially in the track The Exchange.

Wish Nolan had prefered Balfe to Göransson if he really wanted to change of composer....

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TheUlyssesian said:

It was all just a sound wallpaper applied to the entire movie at high volume. I saw no art there.

 

 

You just described every action score of the last 3 decades but this one had some nice synth riffs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, AC1 said:

 

 

You just described every action score of the last 3 decades but this one had some nice synth riffs. 

Most of action movie soundtrack don't cover the dialogues.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TSMefford said:

@mrbellamy I can understand that, being interested in the culture of it and what a hot mess it's going to be. None of that appeals to me, personally. I haven't even watched the last few years. I just check out social media to see what silly decisions were made that year. I guess my point is, why do people still take it seriously enough to be annoyed / angry about the nominations? They do whatever they want. It's a hot mess. We should be used to this by now.

 

At this point it doesn't affect me who gets nominated, who wins, etc. It doesn't really matter. When you bend the rules (and make up ridiculous rules) and don't even watch the things you're voting for then the award means nothing to me. It's just a line of text. I have no energy to be as angry as some people in this thread have been about the potential nominations and disqualifications. They do this kind of stuff every year, I'm used to it at this point. It's the Oscars.

 

I think people care because there is a legacy aspect to it, it's fun to think about Katharine Hepburn and Meryl Streep having the same statue, Olivier and Day-Lewis, Capra and Spielberg, John Williams has 5, Disney had ???, it's a feather in the cap and something that will get thrown around after they're gone. JWFans would like Williams to have a 6th because he's continued to be so consistently great since 1993 and they want to see it shouted with a megaphone but the nominations at this point can say the same thing. And in general sometimes these selections do hold up and people just wanna see their faves recognized and join the club.

 

Plus it does still mean something to industry people. In a business that's so ephemeral, box office and awards are among the few metrics they have. There is usually some spike in interest after the Oscars, whatever actually becomes of it (does Eddie Redmayne get cast in Fantastic Beasts in 2015 without the Oscars? Does it mean shit now in 2021? "Probably not" to both questions.) But it's the time for critics and other award campaigns to buzz and push their faves of the year in front and go "Look, THESE people are good right now" or "These people are STILL good" and depending how you feel about the winners and nominees, it can be exciting or frustrating to know their work is recognized by the very people who have the ability to give them opportunities. 

 

And of course, people often get ignored or acknowledged in the business regardless of awards results, but Oscar winner or nominee remains useful shorthand and movie fans obviously know this. Where does Bong Joon-ho's career go now after winning the Oscar as opposed to if he had just won the Palme, even though it's arguably more prestigious? Reznor, Ludwig and Hildur win Oscars, now they have ears on them, for better or worse. Then again, where is Justin Hurwitz hiding? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Raiders of the SoundtrArk said:

 

I'd personally never heard of Balfe before and I find he perfectly managed to bring to the movie more emotion exactly like Zimmer did on the Nolan's Batmans

Wish Nolan had prefered Balfe to Göransson if he really wanted to change of composer....

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Erik Woods said:

 

The Music Branch, The Academy and Disney are certainly making sure of this by bending the rules for them and them only. If I was a composer and my score had been DQ'd in the past I would be PISSED.  Why go to bat for R&R and not for anyone else? What a bunch of hypocrites. The Music Branch and the Academy have no integrity or principles whatsoever.  Soul is a mediocre score at best.

I'm done with the Oscars. 

 

-Erik-

 

 

:sleep1:

 

This is surprising, given how you were keen to sing the praises of contemporary film music just the other day. Surely the Academy Awards are the ultimate recognition of this rich pool of mainstream talent? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Quintus said:

Surely the Academy Awards are the ultimate recognition of this rich pool of mainstream talent? 

 

Nobody thinks that

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, so why do so many here frequent the annual thread and clearly feel so passionately about the Oscars to the extent that they'll follow the outcome of the ceremony and debate its merits and faults in the thread? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Guidelines.