Oscars 2023: Who will win the Best Original Score and Best Original Song?

Oscars 2023 Best Original Score and Original Song contenders, respectively (Clockwise, from top, left): Volker Bertelmann; Justin Hurwitz; John Williams; Carter Burwell; Son Lux; Lady Gaga & BloodPop; Ryan Coogler, Ludwig Göransson & Rihanna; Ryan Lott, David Byrne & Mitski; MM Keeravaani & Chandrabose; Diane Warren.

It’s almost time for the 95th Academy Awards, and third-time host Jimmy Kimmel has already warned potential Will Smith copy-cats that he’s well prepared for any attempted slaps. “If somebody comes up on the stage and slaps me? Well, I size them up, and, if I’m bigger than they are, I beat the s*** out of them on television,” Kimmel told The Hollywood Reporter. “And if it’s the Rock, I run.”

Smith may be chilling at home in his pyjamas on Sunday, but the actor-rapper’s shadow looms large over the Oscars. Which is a shame, because this year’s field is set up for a number of upsets or paradigm-shifting wins, in categories ranging from Best Picture to Best Original Song. Film critics have already spent the last month talking about the motion picture categories. But, for those of us who appreciate sound as much as cinematography, here’s our preview of the award’s two music categories:

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Volker Bertelmann, All Quiet on the Western Front

Justin Hurwitz, Babylon

John Williams, The Fabelmans

Carter Burwell, The Banshees of Inisherin

Son Lux, Everything Everywhere All at Once

A good music score can be the emotional heartbeat of a film, and this year’s nominees all tick the box on that front. The 2023 list of nominees for Best Original Score includes a couple of returning veterans alongside more experimental newcomers, and it’s a tight race. In the mix is 53-time nominee, five-time winner John Williams, whose understated, piano-led elegance perfectly complements Steven Speilberg’s love letter to cinema. Carter Burwell’s score for Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Insherin is playful and inventive, but always underpinned by a thread of darkness. Justin Hurwitz won this award back in 2016 for La La Land and is a strong contender once again with his score for Babylon, which goes from barn-rousing stomp to mournful piano-blues over the course of its 45 tracks.

Any of them could take home the award, but our money is on one of Volker Bertelmann or Son Lux. The former’s score for All Quiet On The Western Front is as maximalist as you’d expect a war-film score to be, throbbing with tension, menace, and the otherworldly sounds of war machines and modern combat. Bertelmann already won a BAFTA for it, so an Oscar win would be unsurprising. But our predicted winner is Son Lux. The American experimental band had a nearly impossible task keeping up with the wide-ranging craziness of Everything Everywhere All At Once, but they stepped up to the challenge with a score that’s always fresh and exquisitely strange, and with star turns from guests like Mitski, David Byrne and Randy Newman.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

MM Keeravaani & Chandrabose, Naatu Naatu, RRR

Ryan Coogler, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna & Tems, Lift Me Up, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Lady Gaga & BloodPop, Hold My Hand, Top Gun: Maverick

Diane Warren, Applause, Tell It Like a Woman

Ryan Lott, David Byrne & Mitski, This Is a Life, Everything Everywhere All at Once

The category everyone in India will be waiting for. This is a strong list without clear favourites, although one is perplexed by the decision to nominate category-veteran Diane Warren’s Applause, a thoroughly forgettable ditty from an eminently forgettable film. Pop icons Rihanna and Lady Gaga go up against each other, though neither contribution really holds up as their best songwriting work.

Then there’s This Is A Life, the Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski number from Everything Everywhere All At Once. This grand, sweeping ballad synthesises many of the philosophical themes of this remarkable film into one beautiful, sparsely orchestral track. It goes up against RRR’s Telugu smash hit Naatu Naatu, an explosive, internet-friendly masala film song that has captured the world’s attention with its vitality and choreography. That exotic melodrama, as well as the Academy’s push for diversity, is likely to push this Keeravani and Chandrabose composition over the line. A win for Naatu Naatu will also dampen disappointment that the film wasn’t nominated in the Best International Film category. Add in the fact that the song is also set to be performed at the awards show, and it seems like it’s written in the stars.