This year the academy nominated the ubiquitous earworm “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters” for the best original song Oscar, along with the blues-inflected “I Lied to You,” from “Sinners,” as well as Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner’s plaintive title track from “Train Dreams.” Diane Warren also scored her 17th nomination, for “Dear Me,” from a documentary about her own life.
Rounding out the category is an unusual addition: “Sweet Dreams of Joy,” composed by Nicholas Pike, is an operatic track from “Viva Verdi!” — a documentary few had heard of before nominations were announced last week. To make matters stranger, a 2017 post on the documentary’s Facebook page confirmed the song’s vocals were recorded nearly 10 years ago. How did this happen? Let us explain.
What is ‘Viva Verdi!’?
Directed by Yvonne Russo, “Viva Verdi!” focuses on Casa Verdi, a home for aging musicians founded by the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. The film offers heartwarming portraits of the residents, who discuss why living in the mansion allowed them to pursue their passions long after retirement, through performance and instruction.
Russo said in a video interview that she became aware of Casa Verdi in 2011 while working for National Geographic. The following year she contacted the producer Christine La Monte. Their independently financed production went to Italy three times to shoot over seven years starting around 2013.
How does ‘Sweet Dreams of Joy’ figure into the movie?
The song is first heard when the Casa Verdi residents take a field trip to see a Verdi opera. It also appears at the end when Russo memorializes interviewees who died after production. Sung in English by the soprano Ana María Martínez, it features lyrics about “finding the road to salvation.”
La Monte met Pike, a fellow academy member, in 2016 and sent him a proof of concept Russo had made. “It was sort of an assembly of some scenes and it was so amazing and so profound, it was so deeply emotional,” Pike said in a separate interview. “I literally went over to the piano and wrote the piece of music just like that.” In 2017, he recorded Martínez’s vocals, and added the strings about a year later.
While “Sweet Dreams of Joy” is an aria, Pike isn’t known for opera. Rather, his varied career includes an Emmy for his music for the HBO documentary “In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution.” He also scored the 1994 comedy “Blank Check” and worked on Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West” music video.
How can a 2017 song be nominated for an Oscar?
Academy rules state that an eligible song “consists of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the motion picture.” Although “Sweet Dreams of Joy” may stem from 2017, the Facebook post and the filmmakers confirm that it was written specifically for “Viva Verdi!”
“Viva Verdi!” premiered in 2024 at the Woodstock Film Festival, but secured its eligibility with a brief commercial run in October at a Santa Monica, Calif., theater. According to the Oscars bylaws, a film must be exhibited for paid admission for seven consecutive days in a theater in Los Angeles County, New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth or Atlanta.
Pike has been an academy member for more than two decades, and decided to mount a campaign for “Sweet Dreams of Joy,” hiring public relations professionals to support his quest. “I feel that what I wrote was special. I feel like the film is special,” he said. “I don’t want to just let this go out into the ether and not be heard from again.”
He received encouragement from Warren, a friend, who he said thought it was “amazing” when he played it for her a few years ago. And though the song seemed to outsiders like a long shot for contention, Pike had confidence. Of the music branch, he said, “They’re a pretty sophisticated bunch, musically. So I also think when they heard it they were like, ‘Oh my goodness. This is special,’ and could get behind it.”
La Monte also said that Pike was “beloved” among music-branch members. “I think they were rooting for us,” she said.
What else has happened in the music branch?
If you are interested in unusual Oscar situations, this is a key place to look. At this point, Diane Warren’s nomination seems predetermined: She’s been nominated every year since 2018. Meanwhile, in 2014, the category was embroiled in controversy when another song from a virtually unheard-of movie was nominated. That was “Alone Yet Not Alone” from a film of the same title, which was recognized alongside “Let It Go” from “Frozen” and “Happy” from “Despicable Me 2.” The nomination was ultimately rescinded after it was determined that the composer, Bruce Broughton, a former academy governor who was on the music branch’s executive committee, had emailed fellow members of the branch to let them know about his submission. In a statement, Broughton said he had “indulged in the simplest grass-roots campaign and it went against me when the song started getting attention.”
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