Best Original Score: Ranking Every 96th Academy Award Nominee
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
This article is a part of the Academy Awards Project, where Andreas Babiolakis from Films Fatale ranks every Oscar nominee from worst to best, and goes through every category once a day five days a week.
We’ve entered the two music-based categories now, and I don’t feel ready to get into my least favourite Academy Award category of all time just yet (more on that tomorrow). Instead, I want to celebrate the Best Original Score category, which I treat far more seriously. In case you didn’t know, I am a huge music fan, and that was my first passion before film when I was a child. Music means a great deal to me, but I also understand that scores are to best serve the films they are associated with (so I’ll try to grade these scores based on how they stand alone as separate pieces of music, as well as how they accompany their respective films). Which films had great music last year? Quite a few, actually, and the Academy got a few of these examples nominated; while I also feel like a few noteworthy films are missing from here, I’d argue that the top three nominees were challenging to place in a specific order. It’s time to open our ears and assess these compositions.
Here are your nominees for Best Original Score ranked from worst to best.
Biggest Snub: The Zone of Interest-Mica Levi
It’s no secret that I think Mica Levi is one of the best score composers working today, and, basically, of all time (see here), so of course I’ll try and squeeze them in here. I understand that their music basically bookends The Zone of Interest and that most of their compositions made for the film were left out, but allow me to make this case. The film starts with pitch black while you hear Levi’s haunting score: it sets the tone for what you are going to see and creates this dread you cannot shake off. Throughout the film, the only other semblance of music you get is Levi’s drones and those retching “blurps” that ring out like sirens of the abominable. The film concludes as it begins: with a cacophony that will never leave your ears once you exit the cinema. Sure, Levi’s score is scarce in The Zone of Interest, but it’s still one of the best of 2023 which reinforces how damn good they are at making experimental music that both stands alone and serves the film they are composing for. Apologies that I don’t have a better example than the one above; at least you can hear a snippet of the closing credit’s choir from hell.
5. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny-John Williams
How dare I have John Williams last, right? Look. I think the best Williams scores are iconic and are untouchable. This includes Raiders of the Lost Arc, obviously. However, I don’t think a score that is “pretty good” at best that shines the most once that iconic theme returns means that Williams should get a nomination for The Dial of Destiny. I’m not surprised that he did get nominated, because it’s basically a guarantee that he will be nominated whenever he scores a film (it’s Academy tradition at this point). I don’t think this score is bad, but it’s a little typical and, again, it is at its best when it does the expected and allows for that Indiana Jones theme to bring things full circle. This is a legacy nomination. Nothing more. Next.
Cameron Geiser’s Review of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
4. American Fiction-Laura Karpman
Certainly the most surprising nominee of the group, Laura Karpman’s humble score for American Fiction kind of feels like the little soundtrack that could. The first time I watched the film, I actually found the score a little distracting, as if the score’s bouncy, optimistic tone misses the darkness of the film’s satire. I warmed up to the score the second time I got around to American Fiction as if it was its own character that was chirping throughout the film and displaying its own thoughts on the matter. Perhaps the jazziest part of the film (outside of the protagonist being essentially named Thelonious Monk, no relation), Karpman’s score is a quaint heartbeat that keeps the deeper parts moving and the sillier moments in check. I’ve come around. I’m actually happy that this got recognized, even though it didn’t win me over the preliminary watch: it’s grown on me and I think it’s a consoling, friendly score that recognizes the blurred line of the film (the one that separates us from full-on parody and deeply-felt revelations).
3. Killers of the Flower Moon-Robbie Robertson
It’s about time that The Band’s legendary Robbie Robertson got recognized by the Academy Awards; it’s too bad that this acknowledgement came after his unfortunate passing. His score in Killers of the Flower Moon is rooted in traditional sounds of the Americas, be they the callbacks to the Hollywood western, or the incorporations of indigenous tribal celebrations (all with hints of blues twang). While Robertson’s score doesn’t typically outshine any sequence in the film, his compositions serve as strong undertones of what we are experiencing; his presence is always felt. You don’t get tired of this music throughout the three-and-a-half hours of this film, which is a testament to the variations and calibre of Robertson’s music: in fact, his orchestrations could have gone on for an extra few hours.
2. Oppenheimer-Ludwig Göransson
Ludwig Göransson’s best score to date feels like a mixture of two of the most beloved composers in film history; his orchestrations for Oppenheimer blend the minimalist, mental calculations of Philip Glass with the booming heartbeats of Hans Zimmer. The end result is a score that erupts as much as it builds up, that gets curious as frequently as it hits us with the heavy weight of reality’s curses, and consoles us as often as it aims to warn us of what is to come. Any other year, this score would easily be in first place. It is an ambitious, memorable, impactful, titanic score that never lets up. When it isn’t stealing scenes, it is underscoring what we are seeing and providing the heart and emotion for what could have been ice-cold sequences otherwise. Göransson is the passion necessary to match Christopher Nolan’s overwhelming cinematic conquests, and, as a result, Oppenheimer has as much beauty as it does damnation.
1. Poor Things-Jerskin Fendrix
What can I say? I’m obsessed with unorthodoxy. Jerskin Fendrix’s peculiar, soul-crushing, starry-eyed score for Poor Things is so unique that I cannot ignore it. That would be a bit of a silly reason to rank a score first, especially above Oppenheimer’s, but Poor Things’ score is so much more than just out there. It creates sounds I never thought I needed to hear. It finds beauty in the abnormal, and complexity within the simple. If Oppenheimer is the best-sounding traditional score (a bit weird to say, considering that it would have been the sounds of the future only fifteen years ago), Poor Things’ score wins because it finds harmony in the kinds of orchestrations that we aren’t used to yet. This score has such personality, and it understands the film’s affinity for absurdity, fantasy-depicted satire, and the crushing weight of an imbalanced, hostile society. This very well could be the music that the always-developing Bella Baxter heard and was trying to make heads and tails of: finding comfort in the foreign noises of the unknown. I adore this score. To me, it just makes sense to have it first after much deliberation (picking between Oppenheimer and this was the toughest part of this year’s Oscar rankings thus far).
Who I Want To Win: I’d like the singular score for Poor Things to take the Oscar home, but I’m also heavily rooting for Oppenheimer in this department. Having said that, I’d love to see Robbie Robertson get some love for his great score for Killers of the Flower Moon, which was a very close third for me. I feel like the posthumous nod is fitting.
Who I Think Will Win: I don’t think anyone but Ludwig Göransson and Oppenheimer will win this award. It’s pretty much locked into place. It’s a well-deserved win, in my opinion.
The Academy Awards Project will continue tomorrow with another category. We’re going to rank every single nominee in every single category, Monday through Friday. You don’t want to miss it!
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.