Jump to content

Which film score will/should win the Academy Award in 2023? [POLL]


michael_grig

Which film score will/should win the Academy Award in 2023? [POLL]  

37 members have voted

  1. 1. You think, ... will win.

    • All Quiet on the Western Front (Volker Bertelmann)
    • Babylon (Justin Hurwitz)
    • The Banshees of Inisherin (Carter Burwell)
    • Everything Everywhere All at Once (Son Lux)
    • The Fabelmans (John Williams)
  2. 2. You think, ... should win.

    • All Quiet on the Western Front (Volker Bertelmann)
      0
    • Babylon (Justin Hurwitz)
    • The Banshees of Inisherin (Carter Burwell)
    • Everything Everywhere All at Once (Son Lux)
    • The Fabelmans (John Williams)

This poll is closed to new votes


Recommended Posts

Alas, BABYLON will win (I found the score annoying, and I think Hurwitz is one of the most overrated composers in the industry), but I obviously hope for THE FABELMANS. Just because of the excellence of the music; I'll have to wait until February 1st to see the film itself, and how the score works in context.

 

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT was an OK film, but the score was very sound designy. Haven't seen THE BANSHEES OF INSHERIN yet. It was screened at the festival I just came back from, but didn't find time for it. With its dialogue-heavy setting, I'm not sure it's for me. Again, the score is nothing more than OK. Burwell can do much better. 

 

I found EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE to be one of the most annoying films I've seen in years, and didn't care for the score either. Which was sad, because I really dig a lot of Son Lux's earlier work.

 

So yeah, except for THE FABELMANS, I'm not in tune with the Oscar academy....as usual.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Michael Grigorowitsch said:

Yes, it is excellent indeed, but the score is nothing special.

 

I have listened to it. If I remember correctly I think I kind of liked it.

Anyway, I think the Oscar nominations for best score for once more, show that the movie you have scored should be nominated in other big categories too, for you to be nominated. (an exception for Babylon)

When there are composers absent like Korzeniowski for Emily (and I'm sure others too), what can I say...

 

By the way, I just voted. I think I've heard enough from Everything Everywhere All at Once.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 years ago, Oscar nominated scores:

Aladdin Alan Menken

Basic Instinct Jerry Goldsmith

Chaplin John Barry

Howards End Richard Robbins

A River Runs Through It Mark Isham

 

How times change. I loved 5 out of 5.

Now, I hardly love one...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Jay said:

There are probably people who were your age now in early 1993 who thought those scores paled in comparison to the scores from 1962

So, are you saying that the quality of scores we perceive has to do with our age and there is NOT a considerable drop in quality comparing to older years?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

So, are you saying that the quality of scores we perceive has to do with our age and there is NOT a considerable drop in quality comparing to older years?


I’d say there’s more a considerable drop in quality of scores that get Oscar nominated, but the general drop in film music quality is far more negligible across the board. Much of the best film music written today just gets ignored (or is ineligible).

 

Yavar

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Yavar Moradi said:

I think I generally agree with you, but even while Hollywood film music has overall decreased in quality over the same period of time, Hollywood TV music I feel has overall gotten *better* since the 1990s IMO (to say nothing of video game music).

 

Giacchino's LOST is still probably his magnum opus. And Bear McCreary has even surpassed him as a TV composer, with his recent work on Outlander, Masters of the Universe, Foundation, and of course Lord of the Rings some of the best music written for media in the past three decades. Rivera (Godless, The Queen's Gambit, Hacks), Jusid (The English), Nazih (Moon Knight), Karpman (Ms. Marvel), and of course TV veteran Christophe Beck (WandaVision, Hawkeye) have just been knocking it out of the park when it comes to TV music. I think Ramin Djawadi did some of his best work for the recently-ended Westworld, on the level of the best stuff he ever did for Game of Thrones. Hell, even Lorne Balfe of all people has been doing career-best work for His Dark Materials.

 

Seth MacFarlane has always ensured great scores for both his film and TV projects, but The Orville is a high water mark even for him, with great music coming from Bruce Broughton, Joel McNeely, John Debney, Andrew Cottee, and Kevin Kaska. Chris Westlake's music for Star Trek: Lower Decks is also amazing (though the album is sadly a jumbled mess).

 

And Zach Robinson and Leo Birenberg's work for Cobra Kai keeps reaching new heights every season.

 

When it comes to Hollywood, anyway, I feel like there have been more (and greater) highlights among TV scoring over the past decade or so, than there were among blockbuster films (though there is the occasional gem to still be found there, like Beck's Ant-Man scores).

 

Yavar

 

I absolutely agree with pretty much everything you wrote. And Beck's Ant-Man theme is easily one of the best, if not the very best theme in the MCU canon

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read the following book the past couple weeks and it's really interesting. It gkes through all the areas of film scores. From the silent era to today. It's talks about it's evolution, different genres, influemces of composers and also the influence that producers etc have these days over scores.

I thought it was an incredibly insightful and fun book to read. And touches on some kf the thing that are being said in this thread right now.

 

'The Sound Of Cinema by Sean Wilson'

 

https://www.amazon.nl/dp/1476687579

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you worded the poll differently, I'd vote against him too.

 

Who will win, probably Babylon or All Quiet. The former seems to have a very 'out there' sound, but the latter has a lot going for it (foreign composer, admired film, respected storyline, modern 'gritty' score). I reckon that if I saw All Quiet and then heard the score, I might like it because I usually do like the style he's gone for.

 

Now, out of those nominated, I think Williams should win, but only because I don't like any of the others. Burwell's score could've been my main contender but I found it surprisingly uneventful to the extent that you could've scored the entire thing using library music.

 

But if the question were who should win out of the year's scores, probably Avatar. JW is the best amongst these nominees by the smallest of margins, but just somewhere in the pile of 'it's nice, I suppose' amongst the year's music.

 

1 hour ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

My goodness!!!

Five people voted against JW!!!!! :o

Who, here, does not belong?

 

But the only reason to make the second poll on a John Williams fan forum is to rat out those non-believers!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

If you worded the poll differently, I'd vote against him too.

 

Who will win, probably Babylon or All Quiet. The former seems to have a very 'out there' sound, but the latter has a lot going for it (foreign composer, admired film, respected storyline, modern 'gritty' score). I reckon that if I saw All Quiet and then heard the score, I might like it because I usually do like the style he's gone for.

 

Now, out of those nominated, I think Williams should win, but only because I don't like any of the others. Burwell's score could've been my main contender but I found it surprisingly uneventful to the extent that you could've scored the entire thing using library music.

 

But if the question were who should win out of the year's scores, probably Avatar. JW is the best amongst these nominees by the smallest of margins, but just somewhere in the pile of 'it's nice, I suppose' amongst the year's music.

 

 

But the only reason to make the second poll on a John Williams fan forum is to rat out those non-believers!

Avatar should definitively have won best score this year but of the nominated scores I hope JW does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Probably the weakest list of nominees.... ever? Williams is probably the lead there

 

Burwell's score is great in the film but is the definition of incidental music (30 second tracks to accompany someone walking from one place to next).

 

Son Lux stuff made no impression in the film.

 

I love Hurwitz' First Man but know that I will hate this score - until I see the film, which is when I probably will love it.

 

Bertelmann's - Hauschka! - nonsense is best left unsaid here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, the picks this year are from okay to mediocre, with the big exception for me being Hurwitz's score, which I wasn't a fan of until I saw the movie, and after that I must say I really like it.

 

Apart from that, Williams' score is nice but nothing especially groundbreaking, and something similar happens with Burwell's score. I haven't listened to EEAAO in quite some time, and I remember enjoying parts of it when watching the movie, but I don't know if it's nomination worthy. As for Vertelmann's score, in context it felt abrasive and anachronic, and in some places felt a bit out of place but in other places it oddly elevated the images, so it's kind of a mixed bag.

 

What is truly unforgivable is that some far bettet scores where left out, not even entering the shortlist, like The Batman or The Way of Water, which for me are better scores than all the nominated ones.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 01/02/2023 at 1:47 PM, Knight of Ren said:

Yeah, the picks this year are from okay to mediocre, with the big exception for me being Hurwitz's score, which I wasn't a fan of until I saw the movie, and after that I must say I really like it.

 

Apart from that, Williams' score is nice but nothing especially groundbreaking, and something similar happens with Burwell's score. I haven't listened to EEAAO in quite some time, and I remember enjoying parts of it when watching the movie, but I don't know if it's nomination worthy. As for Vertelmann's score, in context it felt abrasive and anachronic, and in some places felt a bit out of place but in other places it oddly elevated the images, so it's kind of a mixed bag.

 

What is truly unforgivable is that some far bettet scores where left out, not even entering the shortlist, like The Batman or The Way of Water, which for me are better scores than all the nominated ones.

 

I disagree with this. The Way of Water shouldn't be anywhere near the Oscars. It is not close to the quality of the first score. The Batman I can go either way. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Mephariel said:

 

I disagree with this. The Way of Water shouldn't be anywhere near the Oscars. It is not close to the quality of the first score. The Batman I can go either way. 

I agree with you in that it isn't better than Horner's score, which is one of my favorite works from the composer from his later years. But I definitely think is superior to, say, Bertelman or Burwell's score, at least for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the Fabelmans main theme enough to make it my favorite of the nominees, length issues no withstanding.  All Quiet is actually a pretty effective and textured ambient score apart from the industrial stuff.  Banshees is an effective score in film. Watching Everything Everywhere right now and the score is really really bad, like the movie itself.

 

Haven't heard Babylon yet 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Knight of Ren said:

I agree with you in that it isn't better than Horner's score, which is one of my favorite works from the composer from his later years. But I definitely think is superior to, say, Bertelman or Burwell's score, at least for me.

 

You are right. But I think Babylon is clearly the stronger score (on album at least). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was pretty anti-Babylon, saw the film which did change my mind somewhat. But in general growing very tired of Hurwitz quickly. Just as well he only seems to work on Chazelle's stuff. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Babylon? The strongest score? Hurwitz used the exact same little melody/pattern he used in La La Land! That's so lame!

 

Each time I hear this little ballad in Babylon, it makes me think of La La Land. How to get into a movie, when everytime a theme plays, you think about another movie?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having seen The Fabelmans at the weekend, while I enjoyed the film and music, the tracked music used for the movies within the movie made far more of an impression. JW's music is lovely, of course, but its appearances are so fleeting across the length of the film that it has a fairly modest impact overall. If there was nothing but source/tracked music, I'm not sure the film would be appreciably different or any less good. Not saying the score is a failure, it's just not a film that craved a high impact score and if it weren't by JW I expect it would have flown under the radar completely. It might sound heretical, but I couldn't help but feel the main theme in context was almost a little too nostalgic and could have benefitted from a touch more melancholy at times. Much though I'll take any JW I can, if Randy Newman had been down to score this, I'd have been more than thrilled, his brand of slightly melancholy nostalgic Americana seems perfect...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

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.