Category: Film Music News

BAFTA Nominations announced

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the five nominations in the ‘original music’ category for this year’s ceremony.

The nominations are:

  • 127 Hours (A.R. Rahman)
  • Alice in Wonderland (Danny Elfman)
  • How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)
  • Inception (Hans Zimmer)
  • The King’s Speech (Alexandre Desplat)

The BAFTA Awards show will take place on Sunday, February 13 at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden.

Reznor and Ross win Golden Globe for ‘Best Score’

Trent Reznor’s and Atticus Ross’ score for David Fincher’s The Social Network won the Golden Globe Award for ‘Best Original Score’ at today’s 68th Golden Globes ceremony. Reznor and Ross beat out the other four nominees Alexandre Desplat for The King’s Speech, Hans Zimmer for Inception, Danny Elfman for Alice in Wonderland and A.R. Rahman for 127 Hours. The Award marks the first nomination and win for both Reznor and Ross.

In the ‘Best Original Song’, Dianne Warren won the Golden Globe Award for the song You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me from Burlesque (performed by Cher). Songwriter Warren was nominated five times before, but this marks her first Golden Globe win.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross win Critic’s Choice Award

Last night, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won the Critic’s Choice Award for their score for David Fincher’s The Social Network. The movie was also awarded the best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay prize. The score beat out the scores for Black Swan (Clint Mansell), Inception (Hans Zimmer), The King’s Speech (Alexandre Desplat) and True Grit (Carter Burwell). The ‘Best Song’ award went to A.R. Rahman, Dido Armstrong and Rollo Armstrong for the song If I Rise for Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours.

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Weekly Film Music Roundup (January 14, 2011)

Two new movies open wide this weekend:

The comic book adaptation The Green Hornet is directed by Michel Gondry and stars Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Christoph Waltz and Cameron Diaz. The film’s score is composed by James Newton Howard. While no soundtrack release has been announced, an album is reportedly in the works. In the movie, Britt Reid, heir to his father’s large company, teams up with his late dad’s assistant Kato to become a masked crime fighting team. Visit the official movie webpage to watch trailers and learn more about the film. Also check out an interview with James Newton Howard on Spectrasonics where he talks about the synthesized instruments and sounds he used to create the score and his collaboration with director Michel Gondry.

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BAFTA longlist for ‘Best Music’ announced

The British Academy of Television and Film Arts has announced the longlists for this year’s British Academy Film Awards, with 15 entries per category. Here are the contenders for the ‘Best Music’ category:

  • 127 Hours (A.R. Rahman)
  • Alice in Wonderland (Danny Elfman)
  • Biutiful (Gustavo Santaollala)
  • Brighton Rock (Martin Phipps)
  • Despicable Me (Pharrell Williams & Heitor Pereira)
  • The Ghost Writer (Alexandre Desplat)
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Jacob Groth)
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Alexandre Desplat)

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Weekly Film Music Roundup (January 7, 2011)

Only one new movie opens this weekend in wide release:

The fantasy adventure Season of the Witch directed by Dominic Sena and starring Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman and Christopher Lee features a score by Atli Örvarsson. As reported last year, a soundtrack album including about 50 minutes of Örvarsson’s score was released digitally by Relativity Media in March of 2010 when the movie was originally set to open but has since disappeared from music stores (or is currently not available to purchase as on Amazon). The film has been going through some reshoots since and is now being released by Relativity Media Group directly (Lionsgate was the original distributor). No word yet on if the soundtrack will be made available again with the opening of the movie. Visit the official movie webpage to watch the trailer and learn more about the movie.

Weekly Film Music Roundup (December 31, 2010)

While no new movies open wide this weekend, four movies are receiving a limited release to qualify for Acadmy Awards consideration. All movies are expected to expand over the next couple of weeks.

Peter Weir’s The Way Back starring Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell and Ed Harris opened in a single location on Wednesday. The movie is scored by Burkhard Dallwitz. Check out our article announcing the soundtrack release on Varese Sarabande Records to get more information.

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Oscar-eligible scores announced

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ music branch has sent out a list of all 77 Oscar-eligible scores for 2011’s Academy Awards ceremony. As previously reported, a number of scores has been ruled ineligible (Black Swan, The Fighter, True Grit, The Kids Are All Right) by the music branch and Randy Newman hasn’t submitted his score for Toy Story 3. The list also doesn’t include Alan Menken’s score for Tangled, which apparently also hasn’t been submitted, while a song from the movie written by Alan Menken is among the frontrunners for getting a song nomination. As Variety notes, James Newton Howard has four scores in contention (The Last Airbender, Love and Other Drugs, Salt, The Tourist), while Alexandre Desplat (The King’s Speech, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow: Part 1, The Ghost Writer) and David Arnold (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Made in Dagenham, Morning Glory) have three scores each on the list.

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Weekly Film Music Roundup (December 25, 2010)

Two new movies opened wide earlier this week on Wednesday:

The Coen Brothers-directed western True Grit starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin was scored by Carter Burwell. Check out our news article announcing the soundtrack album on Nonesuch Records.

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‘Black Swan’ and ‘True Grit’ scores disqualified from Oscar consideration

According to Variety, the scores for Black Swan by composer Clint Mansell and True Grit by Carter Burwell have been disqualified from Oscar consideration by  the Academy music branch. Both scores were deemed ineligible because they are “diluted by the use of tracked themes or other pre-existing music”. The Black Swan score was heavily adapted by Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” and much of the True Grit score was based on 19th century hymns.

Also disqualified are the scores for The Fighter composed by Michael Brook and The Kids Are All Right by Carter Burwell, because they are being considered “diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs”. Alexandre Desplat’s score for The King’s Speech, which has been discussed as being potentially disqualified for its use of classical music in some key scenes was ruled eligible for Oscar consideration by the music branch committee.

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