Sixty-eight songs and 135 scores have been included on checklists sent to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Music Branch who will vote in the Best Original Song and Best Original Score categories. That’s the smallest number of qualifying songs in 14 years and the fewest scores in 10 years.
From those lists, voters in the branch can choose as many as 15 songs and 20 scores in shortlist voting that will begin on Monday and run for five days. The shortlists from which the branch will choose the final nominees will be announced Dec. 16.
TheWrap has obtained the full lists in both categories. They can be seen below.
In the Best Original Song category, the list took a 20% dip from last year, when 86 songs qualified. The number of contenders in the category hit a high of 105 in 2020 and has averaged about 85 entries for the last 10 years. It hadn’t fallen below 70 qualifying songs since 2011, when only 39 were eligible.
Still, there are no glaring omissions on this year’s list, which has all of the presumed frontrunners: the Song of the Year Grammy nominee “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters”; two songs from “Sinners,” including the showpiece “I Lied to You”; the two new songs from “Wicked: For Good,” one sung by Cynthia Erivo and one by Ariana Grande; “Clothed by the Sun” from the audacious musical “The Testament of Ann Lee”; and the inevitable 16-time nominee Diane Warren with “Dear Me” from the documentary about her, “Diane Warren: Relentless.”
The range of contributors is large, from Nick Cave with the title track to “Train Dreams” to Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile collaborating with the late poet Andrea Gibson on “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” from “Come See Me in the Good Light,” and from the hip-hop of “Highest 2 Lowest” to the operatic “Sweet Dreams of Joy” from “Viva Verdi!”
Songs that were thought to be eligible but are not on the list – meaning they were either not submitted or they didn’t qualify – include ones from “The Long Walk,” “Lilo & Stitch,” “Hedda” and “Spinal Tap II,” as well as “Just Keep Watching” from “F1.”
But that last film does have two qualifying songs, including Ed Sheeran’s “Drive.” Other films with a pair of eligible songs including “Sinners,” “Wicked: For Good,” “The Testament of Ann Lee,” “Highest 2 Lowest,” “The Bad Guys 2” and “Paro (The Untold Story of Bride Slavery).” Two films have three qualifying songs, the Japanese animated movie “Scarlet” and the Chinese comedy-drama “Yolo.”
The 135 compositions that qualified in the Best Original Score category constitute less of a drop-off than in the song category, with eligible scores reaching a high of 170 in 2019 but staying between 136 and 148 since then.
Most of the expected contenders have qualified, among them Volker Bertelmann for “A House of Dynamite” and “Ballad of a Small Player,” Hildur Guðnadóttir for “Hedda,” Nicholas Britell for “Jay Kelly,” Bryce Dessner for “Train Dreams,” Daniel Blumberg for “The Testament of Ann Lee,” Ludwig Goransson for “Sinners,” Max Richter for “Hamnet,” Alexandre Desplat for “Frankenstein,” Jerskin Fendrix for “Bugonia,” Daniel Lopatin for “Marty Supreme,” Hans Zimmer for “F1” and John Powell and Stephen Schwartz for “Wicked: For Good.”
Among the scores that have been described as contenders at times but are missing from the list are Marcelo Zarvos’s music for “KPop Demon Hunters,” Graham Reynolds’ for “Blue Moon,” Zimmer’s for “Ella McKay,” Jim Jarmusch and Anika’s for “Father Mother Sister Brother,” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ for “After the Hunt,” Jo Yeong-wook’s for “No Other Choice” and Desplat’s for “The Phoenician Scheme.”
Here is the list of songs and scores taken from the reminder list sent to members of the Music Branch. When available, we’ve added the names of the performers on the recordings of those songs, which may or may not be the writers of the songs, and the names of the composers. Those names are not included on the checklists sent to voters.
Eligible songs (film title/song title/credited performers):
“Arco”: “Clouds Away” (November Ultra & Arnaud Toulon) “Avatar: Fire and Ash”: “Dream as One” (Miley Cyrus) “The Bad Guys 2”: “Goodlife” (Rag’n’Bone Man) “The Bad Guys 2”: “Taking Everything” (Busta Rhymes) “The Ballad of Wallis Island”: “Our Love” (Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan) “Ballerina”: “Fight Like a Girl” (Evanescence) “Bau, Artist at War”: “However Long Forever Is” (Ryn Kid) “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey”: “The Risk” (Laufey) “Billy Idol Should Be Dead”: “Dying to Live” (Billy Idol) “Black Butterflies”: “Immigrantes” (Ruben Blades) “Brownsville Bred”: “Semilla De Fe” (Edwin Vazquez) “Caught Stealing”: “Rabbit Run” (Idles) “Chronicles of Disney”: “Rising Sun at the Edge of the Ocean” (Jeremy Renner and Yi Zhou) “Come See Me in the Good Light”: “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” (Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile) “David”: “Follow the Light” (Brandon Engman, Phil Wickham and Angel) “Death of a Unicorn”: “DOA” (St. Vincent) “Déjà vu: The Peril of Pauline”: “They Say That Nothing Dies” (Cybela Clare) “Diane Warren: Relentless”: “Dear Me” (Kesha) “F1”: “Drive” (Ed Sheeran) “F1”: “Lose My Mind” (Don Toliver featuring Doja Cat) “Freakier Friday”: “Baby” (Lindsay Lohan) “Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie”: “Kaleidoscope” (Gabby’s Dollhouse) “Goodbye June”: “Good Goodbye” “Highest 2 Lowest”: “Highest 2 Lowest” (Aiyana-Lee) “Highest 2 Lowest”: “Trunks” (A$AP Rocky) “Him”: “Him” (Denzel Curry) “How to Train Your Dragon”: “You Are My Homeward” (John Powell) “Hurry Up Tomorrow”: “Hurry Up Tomorrow” (The Weeknd) “I Know Catherine, the Log Lady”: “Some Believe” “In Your Dreams”: “The Holding on and the Letting Go” (Simu Liu & Cristin Milioti) “KPop Demon Hunters”: “Golden” (HUNTR/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami) “Lilly”: “I Will Not Take It Anymore” (Cassidy Daniels) “Long Shadows”: “Long Shadows” (Shockley & Fields) “Materialists”: “My Baby (Got Nothing at All)” (Japanese Breakfast) “A Minecraft Movie”: “I Feel Alive” (Jack Black) “My Dead Friend Zoe”: “Beautiful Ruin” (Dan Romer & Kaia Kater) “On Swift Horses”: “Song for Henry” (Loren Kramer) “Opus”: “Dina, Simone” (Moretti, Nile Rodgers & The Dream) “Paddington in Peru”: “Let’s Prepare for Paddington” (Olivia Coleman) “Paro (The Untold Story of Bride Slavery)”: “Bawragayi” “Paro (The Untold Story of Bride Slavery)”: “Lament” “Plainclothes”: “My San Francisco” (Emily Wells) “Roommates”: “A Wildflower” “The Rose: Come Back to Me”: “Trauma” (The Rose) “Rule Breakers”: “We Believe in Hope” (Aryana Sayeed, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Jeff Beal & Angel) “Sarah’s Oil”: “The Gift” (Tamar Braxton) “Scarlet”: “A Celebration Song” (Maya & Ayumu Matsuda) “Scarlet”: “Nostalgia” (Kumu Hula – Iokepa Lopaka Ka o onuku umu Igarta-De Vera) “Scarlet”: “Vastness” (Mana Ashida) “Sheepdog”: “Wait for Me” (Loryn Taggart) “Sinners”: “I Lied to You” (Miles Caton) “Sinners”: “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” (Alice Smith and Miles Caton) “Songs From the Hole”: “Steel Grave” (JJ’88) “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants”: “Big Guy” (Ice Spice) “Steve”: “Don’t Leave Too Soon” (Little Simz) “Superman”: “The Mighty Crabjoys Theme” (The Mighty Crabjoys featuring Foxy Shazam and Lou Lou Safran) “The Testament of Ann Lee”: “Clothed by the Sun” (Daniel Blumberg and Amanda Seyfried) “The Testament of Ann Lee”: “John’s Running Song” (cast of “The Testament of Ann Lee”) “Train Dreams”: “Train Dreams” (Nick Cave) “Tron: Ares”: “As Alive As You Need Me to Be” (Nine Inch Nails) “The Twits”: “Open the Door” (David Byrne & Hayley Williams) “Viva Verdi!”: “Sweet Dreams of Joy” (Nicholas Pike) “Wicked: For Good”: “The Girl in the Bubble” (Ariana Grande) “Wicked: For Good”: “No Place Like Home” (Cynthia Erivo) “Yolo”: “I’m From Ulundurpettai” (Adithya RK) “Yolo”: “Mudhal Mazhaithuli” (G.V. Prakash Kumar & Priyanka NK) “Yolo”: “Kangal Kaanum Oru Kanavo” (Sireesha Bhagavatula & Akash Premkumar) “Zootopia 2”: “Zoo” (Shakira)
Eligible scores (film title/composer):
“The Actor” (Richard Reed Perry) “All of You” (Ian Hultquist and Sofia degli Alessandri) “All Operators Are Currently Unavailable” (Marko Levanic) “The Alto Knights” (David Fleming) “Anemone” (Bobby Krlic) “Arco” (Arnaud Toulon) “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (Simon Franglen) “The Bad Guys 2” (Daniel Pemberton) “Ballad of a Small Player” (Volker Bertelmann) “The Ballad of Wallis Island” (Adem Ilhan) “Bau, Artist at War” (John Coda) “Belén” (Marilina Bertoldi) “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” (Joe Hisaishi) “Black Bag” (David Holmes) “Black Phone 2” (Atticus Derrickson) “Bring Her Back” (Cornel Wilczek) “Bugonia” (Jerskin Fendrix) “Captain America: Brave New World” (Laura Karpman) “Caught Stealing” (Rob Simonsen and Idles) “Christy” (Antony Partos) “Chronicles of Disney” (Yi Zhou) “Companion” (Hrishikesh Hirway) “The Conjuring: Last Rites” (Benjamin Wallfisch) “Dashavatar” (AV Prafullachandra) “David” (Joseph Trapanese) “Dead Man’s Wire” (Danny Elfman) “Death of a Unicorn” (Dan Romer and Giosue Greco) “Diane Warren: Relentless” (Lesley Barber) “Dog Man” (Tom Howe) “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” (Chris Letcher) “Dust Bunny” (Isabella Summers) “East of Wall” (Lukas Frank and Daniel Meyer-O’Keefe) “Echo Valley” (Jed Kurzel) “Eddington” (Daniel Pemberton and Bobby Krlic) “Eleanor the Great” (Dustin O’Halloran) “The Electric State” (Alan Silvestri) “Elio” (Rob Simonsen) “Eternity” (David Fleming) “F1” (Hans Zimmer) “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (Michael Giacchino) “Final Destination: Bloodlines” (Tim Wynn) “Frankenstein” (Alexandre Desplat) “Freakier Friday” (Amie Doherty) “The Friend” (Jay Wadley and Trevor Gureckis) “Friendship” (Keegan DeWitt) “Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie” (Stephanie Economou) “Gevi” (Bala Subramanian) “Good Fortune” (Carter Burwell) “Goodbye June” (Ben Harian) “H Is for Hawk” (Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch) “Hamnet” (Max Richter) “Hedda” (Hildur Gudnadottir) “Hello Beautiful” (Marco Werba) “Highest 2 Lowest” (Howard Drossin) “Him” (Bobby Krlic) “The History of Sound” (Oliver Coates) “Honey Don’t” (Carter Burwell) “A House of Dynamite” (Volker Bertelmann) “The Housemaid” (Theodore Shapiro) “Hurry Up Tomorrow” (Abel Testaye and Daniel Lopatin) “In Your Dreams” (John Debney) “Is This Thing On?” (James Newberry) “Jay Kelly” (Nicholas Britell) “Joachim and the Apocalypse” (Michele Josia) “Jurassic World Rebirth” (Alexandre Desplat) “Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1” (B. Ajaneesh Loknath) “Last Breath” (Paul Leonard-Morgan) “The Legend of Ochi” (David Longstreth) “The Life of Chuck” (The Newton Brothers) “Lilo & Stitch” (Dan Romer) “Long Shadows” (Tommy Fields) “The Long Walk” (Jeremiah Fraites) “Lost & Found in Cleveland” (Sven Faulconer) “The Lost Bus” (James Newton Howard) “A Magnificent Life” (Stefano Bollani) “Marty Supreme” (Daniel Lopatin) “The Mastermind” (Rob Mazurek) “Materialists” (Daniel Pemberton) “Mickey 17” (Jung Jae-il) “A Minecraft Movie” (Mark Mothersbaugh) “The Naked Gun” (Lorne Balfe) “No Other Choice” (Jo Yeong-wook) “Nobody 2” (Dominic Lewis) “Nuremberg” (Brian Tyler) “Oh, Hi!” (Steven Price) “On Swift Horses” (Mark Orton) “One Battle After Another” (Jonny Greenwood) “Opus” (Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans) “Paddington in Peru” (Dario Marianelli) “Paro (The Untold Story of Bride Slavery)” (Satish Chakravatrhy) “Pillion” (Oliver Coates) “The Plague” (Johan Lenox) “Plainclothes” (Emily Wells) “Predator: Badlands” (Sarah Schachner and Benjamin Wallfisch) “Preparation for the Next Life” (Emile Mosseri) “Prime Minister” (Sofia degli Alessandri) “A Private Life” (Robin Rob Coudert) “Rebuilding” (Jake Xerxes Fussell and James Elkington) “Rental Family” (Jonsi and Alex Somers) “Roofman” (Christopher Bear) “Rosemead” (Will Bates) “Rule Breakers” (Jeff Beal) “The Running Man” (Steven Price) “Sarah’s Oil” (Kathryn Bostic) “Scarlet” (Taisei Iwasaki) “Schindler Space Architect” (Mark Tschanz) “Sentimental Value” (Hania Rani) “The Shrouds” (Howard Shore) “Sinners” (Ludwig Goransson) “Sirat” (Kangding Ray) “Sisu: Road to Revenge” (Juri Seppa and Tuomas Wainola) “The Smashing Machine” (Nala Sinephro) “Sorry, Baby” (Lia Ouyang Rusli) “Soul of a Nation” (Mikel Hurwitz) “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” (John Debney) “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” (Jeremiah Fraites) “Steve” (Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow) “Stitch Head” (Nick Urata) “The Testament of Ann Lee” (Daniel Blumberg) “Thunderbolts*” (Son Lux) “Train Dreams” (Bryce Dessner) “Tron: Ares” (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) “Truth & Treason” (Aaron Zigman) “28 Years Later” (Young Fathers) “Twinless” (Jung Jae-il) “The Twits” (Oli Julian) “2000 Meters to Andriivka” (Sam Slater)= “The Voice of Hind Rajab” (Amine Bouhafa) “The Vortex” (Asdru Sierra) “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” (Nathan Johnson) “Weapons” (Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay, Zach Cregger) “Wicked: For Good” (John Powell and Stephen Schwartz) “Wolf Man” (Benjamin Wallfisch) “Yolo” (Fei Peng) “Zootopia 2” (Michael Giacchino)
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