FMS: Feature [79th Annual Academy Award Nominations

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FMS FEATURE...

January 23, 2007
79th Annual Academy Award Nominations
Diversity and international flair dominate 2006 score and song nominees by Marilee Bradford

Alexandre Desplat

Thomas Newman

Beverly Hills, Calif. – The 79th Annual Academy Award nominations are arguably the most diverse and multicultural in Oscar history, and the music categories are no exception.

Gustavo Santaolalla

Philip Glass

In the Original Score category are two first-time nominees – France's Alexandre Desplat for his graceful, expressive score in The Queen and Spain's Javier Navarrete for his otherworldly themes in Pan's Labyrinth.

Argentina-born Gustavo Santaolalla, who won the Oscar last year for his score to Brokeback Mountain, was nominated again this year for his oud (mid-Eastern lute)-based score from Babel.

Rounding out the list are two-time nominee Philip Glass' ambient score for Notes on a Scandal; and seven-time nominee Thomas Newman's homage to Golden Age orchestral scoring in The Good German.

Anika Noni Rose, Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls

Owen Wilson as the voice of Lightening McQueen in Cars

Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth

Though rap/hip hop music did not merit Academy song consideration this year (as with recent past winners "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from Hustle and Flow and "Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile), urban style still led the way: Dreamgirls' Broadway-gone-Motown sound topped the song category with three nominations ("Listen," "Love You I Do" and "Patience"), tying the record set by the Alan Menken-Howard Ashman songbook from Beauty and the Beast (1991) and the three nominated Elton John-Tim Rice tunes from The Lion King (1992).

Randy Newman, a veteran with 16 nominations and one win ("If I Didn't Have You from Monsters, Inc., 2001), joined this year's Best Song contenders with a touching folk lament about a changing world, "Our Town" from Cars. But in light of the current political climate, the Academy may favor Melissa Etheridge's rock call-to-arms "I Need to Wake Up," from Al Gore's environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

The Academy's choices in the Best Score and Best Song categories have little in common with this year's Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Golden Globe nominees and winners, matching only one nominee in each category (Santaolalla's score for Babel and the song "Listen" from Dreamgirls). This year's Globe winner for score was Desplat, not for The Queen but for The Painted Veil.

The full list of music nominees follows.

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures: Original Score

Babel – Gustavo Santaolalla
The Good German – Thomas Newman
Notes on a Scandal – Philip Glass
El Laberinto del Fauno (Pans Labyrinth) – Javier Navarrete
The Queen – Alexandre Desplat

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures: Original Song

"I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth – Melissa Etheridge (performed by Melissa Etheridge)
"Listen" from Dreamgirls – Henry Krieger, Scott Cutler and Anne Preven (performed by Beyonce– Knowles)
"Love You I Do" from Dreamgirls – Henry Krieger and Siedah Garrett (performed by Jennifer Hudson)
"Our Town" from Cars – Randy Newman (performed by James Taylor)
"Patience" from Dreamgirls – Henry Krieger and Willie Reale (performed by Eddie Murphy, Keith Robinson and Anika Noni Rose)