The largest numbers this year are, for the most part, split evenly between four composers, all of whom received four nominations: MYCHAEL DANNA, ALEXANDRE DESPLAT, FERNANDO VELÁZQUEZ and veteran composer JOHN WILLIAMS.
The nominations for Danna, Velázquez and Williams were each for a single score – director Ang Lee’s vivid shipwreck drama LIFE OF PI, director Juan Antonio Bayona’s harrowing tsunami drama THE IMPOSSIBLE [LO IMPOSIBLE] and director Steven Spielberg’s look at the last months of the life of Abraham LINCOLN, respectively.
Desplat’s nominations were for his body of work in 2012 which included writing IFMCA Award-nominated music for the quirky comedy MOONRISE KINGDOM, the storybook animation RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, and the contemporary war thriller ZERO DARK THIRTY, as well as for the 1970s espionage thriller ARGO, the realistic French romantic drama RUST AND BONE [DE ROUILLE ET D’OS], the Italian satirical comedy REALITY, and the French-language biopic CLOCLO.
2012 Film Categories
FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR
- CLOUD ATLAS, music by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil
- THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, music by Howard Shore
- THE IMPOSSIBLE, music by Fernando Velázquez
- LIFE OF PI, music by Mychael Danna
- LINCOLN, music by John Williams
FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR
- MYCHAEL DANNA
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT
- DANNY ELFMAN
- FERNANDO VELÁZQUEZ
- JOHN WILLIAMS
BREAKOUT COMPOSER OF THE YEAR
- NATHAN JOHNSON
- ZELTIA MONTES
- NIC RAINE
- DAN ROMER & BENH ZEITLIN
- JOSEPH TRAPANESE
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DRAMA FILM
- ANNA KARENINA, music by Dario Marianelli
- THE IMPOSSIBLE, music by Fernando Velázquez
- LIFE OF PI, music by Mychael Danna
- LINCOLN, music by John Williams
- THERE BE DRAGONS – SECRETOS DE PASIÓN, music by Robert Folk
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A COMEDY FILM
- MOONRISE KINGDOM, music by Alexandre Desplat
- SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN, music by Dario Marianelli
- THE SESSIONS, music by Marco Beltrami
- SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, music by Danny Elfman
- TED, music by Walter Murphy
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER FILM
- THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, music by James Horner
- DANS LA MAISON, music by Philippe Rombi
- THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, music by Hans Zimmer
- SKYFALL, music by Thomas Newman
- ZERO DARK THIRTY, music by Alexandre Desplat
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION/HORROR FILM
- CLOUD ATLAS, music by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil
- THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, music by Howard Shore
- JOHN CARTER, music by Michael Giacchino
- PROMETHEUS, music by Marc Streitenfeld, additional music by Harry Gregson-Williams
- SINISTER, music by Christopher Young
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ANIMATED FEATURE
- BRAVE, music by Patrick Doyle
- FRANKENWEENIE, music by Danny Elfman
- PARANORMAN, music by Jon Brion
- RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, music by Alexandre Desplat
- SECRET OF THE WINGS, music by Joel McNeely
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
- KINGDOM OF PLANTS, music by Joel Douek, Freddy Sheinfeld and Elik Alvarez
- LOS MUNDOS SUTILES, music by Pascal Gaigne
- METSÄN TARINA, music by Panu Aaltio
- SAMSARA, music by Lisa Gerrard and Michael Stearns
- SHAKESPEARE & US, music by Miguel d’Oliveira
FILM MUSIC COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR
- “The Cloud Atlas Sextet for Orchestra” from CLOUD ATLAS, music by Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek and Reinhold Heil
- “The Impossible Main Title” from THE IMPOSSIBLE, music by Fernando Velázquez
- “John Carter of Mars” from JOHN CARTER, music by Michael Giacchino
- “Pi’s Lullaby” from LIFE OF PI, music by Mychael Danna and Bombay Jayashri
- “The Peterson House and Finale” from LINCOLN, music by John Williams
Next Thursday, 21st.
This is great news, Jon! Can’t wait to “dig in” and I know many others will enjoy it, too.
When are your awards (or did I miss them in all the other warfare going on)?
A new development from the IFMCA. Poster steve50 – you had a hand in this!
http://filmmusiccritics.org/2013/02/ifmca-radio-episode-1-favourite-cues-of-2012/
*composed
I have to start proofreading before submitting
“Most magnificent film score ever – The Mission, by Ennio Morricone – loses the Oscar to Herbie Hancock’s ok ‘Round Midnight.”
Yes, Bette – one of the biggest injustices ever pulled on Oscar night. The Mission IS probably the best score ever compised. I don’t Morricone ever won a competitive Oscar, did he? Days of Heaven, Cinema Paradiso, Once Upon a Time in America – all should have won in their respective years. I don’t even remember if they were nominated.
Henry Jackman for “WRECK-IT RALPH” was SNUBBED!!!
Are you KIDDING? Did no one involved see THE MASTER? Howard Shore cuts and pastes his LOTR score (well, except for reusing the “Misty Mountains” cue about 1,000 times) and gets on the list, but Jonny Greenwood writes a great score and gets absolutely nothing?
“Argo”‘s story demanded Roman Polanski’s claustrophobic manners, would have been a masterpiece. But instead we have a couple of extremely embarrassing, unbelievable sequences that never happened SPOILER (the bazaar and the runway chase, which is actually IMPOSSIBLE as just one order and the pilot would have aborted the take off).
On why Spaniards massively supported The Impossible… it’s a spanish film, produced by one of our main TV private corporations, which started heavily advertising it for more than 3 months before the release. Huge promotion, but its success it is quite deserved.
Oddly enough, it isn’t the most nominated film at the spanish Goyas, that honor goes to the 18 noms (Impossible has “only” 14) of “Blancanieves” (Snow White), a mute black and white version of the tale, which looks amazing and stars the always great Maribel Verdú (Y tu mamá también, Pan’s Labyrinth). The Goyas looks beforehand an extreme face-off between Verdú, Penélope Cruz, Aida Folch and Naomi Watts. I’d say Verdú takes her second, Folch is 2nd option, and Cruz may upset. Watts, is extremely unlikely, the Goyas have a strong tradition of snubbing Hollywood stars (Ryan Reynolds, Nicole Kidman) that they nominate.
FYI, if you want to see who we are and what we do, and read the full list of nominations and the full press release, go to http://www.filmmusiccritics.org
I was referring to “Argo”, which add a lot of Hollywood cliches to actual events, just to make the film more b.o. appealing. I haven’t seen “Lincoln” yet.
i agree about the lovely, fitting score for THE IMPOSSIBLE that could easily have exchanged places in the BEST PICTURE category with DJANGO or PLAYBOOK. so good and so ignored…except for in Spain. there it has made over $55 million. what’s with Spaniards who took so completely to this film? that’s great.
also…it’s a pity that music adaptation has been passed over for the last 20 plus year with the academy. the Best Music Adaptation Oscar was a standard forever. so, for the films whose main focus is music, the Academy has ignored the men and women who adapt, conduct and reconfigure the music to fit the film. not only musicals like CHICAGO, EVITA, SWEENEY, and LES MIZ but AMADEUS was left out as well.
Interesting you say that keifer — Newman said in his KUSC interview that it was his favorite score of any that he’s every composed.
My favorite film score of the year was Thomas Newman’s score for “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”. I listen to it all the time. It was a sensational marriage of Indian and Western music styles.
Too bad it didn’t make it.
I liked the recognition for Marc Streitenfeld’s score for “Prometheus” as well. He’s become one of my favorite composers.
The Impossible should totes have been nominated for Visual Effects over Snow White and the Huntsman. That said, I wasn’t a big fan of the film. Did like the music for Cloud Atlas, though.
I like how this lot are able to identify worthy aspects of filmmaking in unworthy films. I didn’t mind John Carter, but many did, and it has been roundly shut out of the awards race as a result, when it surely ought to have been considered for many technical awards. Glad to see Michael Giacchino nominated twice.
Alexandre Desplat is gonna put the rest of these guys out of jobs.
I don’t think Kusher was trying to manipulate the audience Jesus Alonso? Didn’t he say before film EVER CAME OUT that he changed the names of the “No” votes because he didn’t want their families to be shamed 150 years later? Somehow it’s a controversy now, even though this was known in November.
How could I forget… My favorite among with Beasts. Both were not nominated. That’s why I’m roting for John Williams. He’s been robbed so many times… Now his score is not the best but a win would compensaste lots of losses.
The Impossible was my favorite score from 2012. Ridiculous how the film was snubbed there and specially in Visual Effects.
Further proof that The Impossible has been robbed in several cathegories… I find it, such as irony, that they’re championing to the final victory a film that comits the crimes they unfairly blame The Impossible for (manipulating the truth, to manipulate the audience).
KUSC (the radio station of the University of Southern California for those that aren’t aware) has been having its yearly series of talks with the nominated film composers. The shows generally last about an hour because they play large swaths of the scores involved, but the podcasts only record the interviews because of copyright issues.
Anyways, they have Mychael Danna (Life of Pi) and Thomas Newman (Skyfall) already up on the site. John Williams was last night (I listened to it), so I expect that interview to go up here in the next day or so.
Anyhow, if you’re at all interested, here is the link to the KUSC interviews.
http://www.kusc.org/Episodes.aspx?PID=2141
Cloud Atlas Sextet for Film Composition of the Year – about fucking time.
What a great list of nominees. It’s a virtual Who’s Who of film scoring – too bad this group doesn’t put out a box set or compilatioon like the Grammys.