Forty-one Songs Eligible for Oscar® Nomination

Forty-one songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures are in contention for nominations in the Original Song category for the 83rd Academy Awards®, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a couple of days ago.

The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are listed below in alphabetical order by film and song title:

• "Alice" from "Alice in Wonderland"
• "Forever One Love" from "Black Tulip"
• "Freedom Song" from "Black Tulip"
• "Bound to You" from "Burlesque"
• "Welcome to Burlesque" from "Burlesque"
• "You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me" from "Burlesque"
• "There’s a Place for Us" from "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"
• "Coming Home" from "Country Strong"
• "Me and Tennessee" from "Country Strong"
• "Despicable Me" from "Despicable Me"
• "Prettiest Girls" from "Despicable Me"
• "Dear Laughing Doubters" from "Dinner for Schmucks"
• "Better Days" from "Eat Pray Love"
• "If You Run" from "Going the Distance"
• "Darkness before the Dawn" from "Holy Rollers"
• "Sticks & Stones" from "How to Train Your Dragon"
• "Le Gris" from "Idiots and Angels"
• "Chanson Illusionist" from "The Illusionist"
• "Never Say Never" from "The Karate Kid"
• "To the Sky" from "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole"
• "What If" from "Letters to Juliet"
• "Life during Wartime" from "Life during Wartime"
• "Made in Dagenham" from "Made in Dagenham"
• "Little One" from "Mother and Child"
• "Be the One" from "The Next Three Days"
• "If I Rise" from "127 Hours"
• "When You See Forever" from "The Perfect Game"
• "I Remain" from "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time"
• "Dream Big" from "Pure Country 2: The Gift"
• "How I Love You" from "Ramona and Beezus"
• "Darling I Do" from "Shrek Forever After"
• "Noka Oi" from "Six Days in Paradise"
• "This Is a Low" from "Tamara Drewe"
• "I See the Light" from "Tangled"
• "Rise" from "3 Billion and Counting"
• "We Belong Together" from "Toy Story 3"
• "Eclipse: All Yours" from "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse"
• "Nothing" from "Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too"
• "A Better Life" from "Unbeaten"
• "Shine" from "Waiting for ‘Superman’"
• "The Reasons Why" from "Wretches and Jabberers"

On Thursday, January 6, the Academy will screen clips featuring each song, in random order, for voting members of the Music Branch in Los Angeles. Following the screenings, members will determine the nominees by an averaged point system vote. If no song receives an average score of 8.25 or more, there will be no nominees in the category. If only one song achieves that score, it and the song receiving the next highest score shall be the two nominees. If two or more songs (up to five) achieve that score, they shall be the nominees.

A DVD copy of the song clips will be made available to those branch members who are unable to attend the screening and who request it for home viewing. A mail-in ballot will be provided.

Under Academy rules, a maximum of two songs may be nominated from any one film. If more than two songs from a film are in contention, the two songs with the most votes will be the nominees.

    

The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

         

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood and Vine; Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Feature Films and Original Songs Eligible for Oscar® Race

(1) Michael B. Seligman has been named supervising producer of the 82nd Academy Awards telecast, marking his 33rd year of association with the Oscar® show, telecast producers Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic announced.

(2) Adam Shankman, also a judge on the So You Think You Can Dance (SUTYCD) TV show, announced that the top male and top female winners on the show, Russell Ferguson and Kathryn McCormick, will perform on the Oscar telecast.

Nomination Process for Best Feature Film:

Two hundred seventy-four feature films are eligible for the Academy Award® for Best Picture of 2009, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today. Sixty-three songs from eligible feature-length motion pictures are contending for nominations in the Original Song category.

To be eligible for 82nd Academy Awards® consideration, feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County by midnight, December 31, and begin a minimum run of seven consecutive days. The complete list if films will not be made available until all certifications of minimum run compliance have been received.

Under Academy rules, a feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and must have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format. Feature films that receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release are not eligible for Academy Awards in any category.

Nomination Process for Best Original Song:

The nomination process for Best Original Song is as follows: On Tuesday, January 12, the Academy will screen clips featuring each song, in random order, for voting members of the Music Branch in Los Angeles. Following the screenings, members will determine the nominees by an averaged point system vote. A song must receive an average score of 8.25 or more. Up the five songs may be nominated in the category.

A DVD copy of the song clips will be made available to those branch members who are unable to attend the screening and who request it for home viewing. A mail-in ballot will be provided.

A maximum of two songs may be nominated from any one film. If more than two songs from a film are in contention, the two songs with the most votes will be the nominees.

To be eligible, a song must consist of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the film. A clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition of both lyric and melody must be used in the body of the film or as the first music cue in the end credits.

The list of songs may be viewed by clicking the link "Original Songs Nominated for 82nd AA" on the right sidebar of this blog, and the page will remain throughout the nomination process.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, 2 February, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, 7 March, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Songs, Scores, Performers for Tonight's Oscar® Gala

SONGS and PERFORMERS

Beyoncé, Melissa Etheridge, Jennifer Hudson, Randy Newman, Keith Robinson, Anika Noni Rose, and James Taylor are set to perform this year’s Oscar®-nominated songs on the 79th Academy Awards® show tonight, telecast producer Laura Ziskin announced late last week. In case you haven't heard, the host is Ellen DeGeneres. To read my post about DeGeneres, click my Archive for September 2006 on the right sidebar.

Three nominated songs from DREAMGIRLS will be sung. Beyoncé will sing “Listen” (music by Henry Krieger and Scott Cutler, lyric by Anne Preven). “Love You I Do” (music by Henry Krieger and lyric by Siedah Garrett) will be song by Jennifer Hudson. “Patience” (music by Henry Krieger and lyric by Willie Reale) will be sung and performed by Anika Noni Rose, Keith Robinson, and other cast mates.

“I Need to Wake Up” from the documentary feature AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH will be sung by Melissa Etheridge, who also wrote the music and lyric for the nominated song.

Randy Newman wrote both the music and lyric for "Our Town," nominated from the animated feature CARS, and he will perform with singer-guitarist James Taylor. Newman also composed the score for CARS.

NOMINATED SCORES

First of all, you can read about, and listen to, excerpts from all five nominated scores from the features BABEL, THE GOOD GERMAN, NOTES ON A SCANDAL, PAN'S LABYRINTH, and THE QUEEN at NPR.org. There you can also read excellent evaluations by NPR's movie-music expert Andy Trudeau. So, go there first, but please come back.

When I attended film school, two things about film scores were drummed into our heads:

1. The score should not overpower the visuals, dialog, and story. If the viewer keeps noticing it, then it is not a good score.
2. The score should stand alone as a unique musical composition, allowing it to be performed in concerts.

Based the second criteria, Gustavo Santaolalla's score for BABEL should be disqualified. I noticed it more than a few times, too. Second strike. It is unique, so that may give it some extra points.

Thomas Newman's score for THE GOOD GERMAN captures the big orchestrations in the Hollywood scores of the golden age with enough variations to ward off the copycat label. It can definitely stand alone as a composition but since I haven't seen the film, I must wonder about it being intrusive. Yes, he is the son of Alfred, the famous film-score composer, but Thomas has his own track record, including the score for AMERICAN BEAUTY.

Composer Philip Glass's score for NOTES ON A SCANDAL? Well, Philip Glass is Philip Glass, is Philip Glass, is Philip Glass. Even a rank amateur listener can discern a Glass composition. To me his music gets monotonous but Trudeau says that in NOTES Glass actually reaches moments of crescendo when there should be a crescendo to match the action of the movie. I did notice more contrast. I'm not sure I would go all the way with Trudeau's statement, "The result is a soundtrack brimming with melodic writing and a moody oboe theme." With those crescendos and melodic moments, the score is not as boring as his earlier works. Nonetheless, it is still somewhat sedate.

As to Alexandre Desplat's score for THE QUEEN, Trudeau says it is a score with many levels, which manages the movie's transitions between pomp and lightheartedness. Since I haven't seen the film, or heard much of the score, there it rests.

Trudeau says that Javier Navarette's score for PAN'S LABYRINTH, is a "rich, intimate score that walks the delicate line between fantasy and horror." Navarette has been composing in Spain for 20 years. His work is well known there and in Europe, but this is his first exposure in the U.S.

Since I have some knowledge of Spanish music and scores for Spanish movies, I've listened to some of this score, and I think the musical references in the score are excellent, especially the overarching theme of the lullaby, a rich tradition in Spanish music. I may have a bias here, but I'm going to choose this score as my favorite. I think it has an excellent chance of winning.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2006 will be presented tonight, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®. The Oscars® will be televised live by the ABC Television Network at 5 p.m. PST (8 p.m. EST), beginning with a half-hour red carpet arrivals segment, “The Road to the Oscars.”