Music from “No Time to Die,” “King Richard” and “Don’t Look Up” have advanced in the Oscars race and landed on both shortlists for the Best Original Score and Best Original Song races.
A plethora of pop and rock stars were among the contenders for this year’s Best Original Songs, and of the 15 songs to advance out of an eligible 84 original submissions, tracks by Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, U2, Sparks, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jennifer Hudson and Carole King, Jay-Z, H.E.R., Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi, Brian Wilson and more have all made the cut and have a chance to be nominated for Oscars.
Meanwhile in the Best Original Score category, 15 musical film scores have advanced in the race from an eligible 136, with two entries each from composers Jonny Greenwood (“The Power of the Dog” and “Spencer”) and Hans Zimmer (“Dune” and “No Time to Die”).
Among some of the other song highlights on the shortlist is the original song “The Anonymous Ones” from the adaptation of the Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” which star Amandla Stenberg co-wrote with the show’s creators, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Diane Warren is in the race again with the song “Somehow You Do” from “Four Good Days,” and she’ll be vying for her 13th nomination without having won yet. And Brian Wilson, who wrote a song for his own documentary, is also among the shortlist.
With her song “Automatic Woman” from Halle Berry’s “Bruised,” H.E.R. has a chance to become the category’s first back-to-back winner since Alan Menken in 1991 and 1992; she won last year for “Fight for You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah.”
Some notable omissions however were a song written by Mary J. Blige for her own biographical music documentary, as well as several original songs written by the indie rock band The National for the musical “Cyrano.” Lin-Manuel Miranda landed on the short list for his Spanish-language song from “Encanto” titled “Dos Oruguitas,” but his original work for other films such as “Vivo” and “In the Heights” missed out.
The original score race has some familiar faces, including Nicholas Britell (“Don’t Look Up”), Carter Burwell (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”), Alexandre Desplat (“The French Dispatch”) and Alberto Iglesias (“Parallel Mothers”), as well as some more adventurous choices for movies like “Candyman” by Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe and the indie “The Green Knight” by Daniel Hart.
On Tuesday, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences released shortlists in 10 of this year’s Oscars categories, whittling down the races in categories including documentaries, visual effects, hair and makeup, sound and the shorts categories.
Next up, voting in all categories for Oscars nominations will begin Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022, and will conclude Feb. 1. Nominations will be announced Tuesday, Feb. 8, and the 94th Academy Awards will air March 27.
See the complete shortlists for Best Original Score and Song below.
Best Original Score Shortlist
“Being the Ricardos”
“Candyman”
“Don’t Look Up”
“Dune”
“Encanto”
“The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun”
“The Green Knight”
“The Harder They Fall”
“King Richard”
“The Last Duel”
“No Time to Die”
“Parallel Mothers”
“The Power of the Dog”
“Spencer”
“The Tragedy of Macbeth”
Best Original Song Shortlist
“So May We Start?” from “Annette”
“Down To Joy” from “Belfast”
“Right Where I Belong” from “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road”
“Automatic Woman” from “Bruised”
“Dream Girl” from “Cinderella”
“Beyond The Shore” from “CODA”
“The Anonymous Ones” from “Dear Evan Hansen”
“Just Look Up” from “Don’t Look Up”
“Dos Oruguitas” from “Encanto”
“Somehow You Do” from “Four Good Days”
“Guns Go Bang” from “The Harder They Fall”
“Be Alive” from “King Richard”
“No Time To Die” from “No Time to Die”
“Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” from “Respect”
“Your Song Saved My Life” from “Sing 2”
