Of all the below-the-line categories at the Oscars, Best Original Score is the most difficult to predict early on due to the finicky nature of the music branch of the academy. Scores that sound like frontrunners are disqualified for a variety of reasons, from the number of credited composers to the amount of previously recorded music used. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Original Score.)
Starting with the 2019 Oscars, the academy released a shortlist of 15 contenders. We got this year’s roster of semi-finalists on December 17, 2024. A second round of voting by the members of the music branch, again using preferential voting, will cut these 15 down to the final five nominees. These will be announced, along with the final contenders in all of the other competitive categories on January 17. The entire voting membership of the academy will then vote for the winners, which will be revealed during the 97th Academy Awards ceremony on March 2.
As with many of the creative arts categories at the Oscars, most usually equals best when it comes to Best Original Score. So, the more music in your movie, the better your chances. Is it any wonder Justin Hurwitz (“La La Land”) took home a trophy for composing an original movie musical in 2018, or that Ludovic Bource (“The Artist”) triumphed for penning wall-to-wall score for a silent film in 2013?
Last year, Ludwig Göransson won his second Academy Award for Best Original Score for the epic biopic “Oppenheimer.” He’d picked up his first Oscar five years earlier for Marvel’s superhero extravaganza, “Black Panther.” That he won his awards for those two deeply contrasting movies sums this category up.
Best Original Score doesn’t have a favorite genre. “Oppenheimer” is a period biopic; “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Volker Bertelmann) is a war movie; “Dune” (Hans Zimmer) is sci-fi; “Soul” (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Jon Batiste) is animated; “Joker” and “Black Panther” are both comic book adaptations; “The Shape of Water” (Alexandre Desplat) is a romance; “La La Land” (Justin Hurwitz) is a musical; “The Hateful Eight” (Ennio Morricone) is a western; and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (Desplat) is a period comedy. Ten winners, nine different genres. Only comic book movies have won this award more than once in the last 10 years.
Please note: To read full descriptions of each film, check out our 2025 Oscars Best Picture predictions.
UPDATED: July 25, 2024
LEADING CONTENDERS
“Blitz” (Apple Original Films) — Hans Zimmer
“Challengers” (Amazon MGM Studios/Warner Bros.) — Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
“Conclave” (Focus Features) — Volker Bertelman
“Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures) — Harry Gregson-Williams
“Here” (Sony Pictures) — Alan Silvestri
“Joker: Folie à Deux” (Warner Bros.) — Hildur Guðnadóttir
“Sing Sing” (A24) — Bryce Dessner
STRONG CONTENDERS
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.) — Hans Zimmer
“Emilia Pérez” (Pathé) — Clément Ducol
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (Warner Bros.) — Junkie XL
“Inside Out 2” (Disney) — Andrea Datzman
“Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios) — Alex Somers
“Queer” (TBC) — Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
“The Piano Lesson” (Netflix) — Alexandre Desplat
POSSIBLE CONTENDERS
“Anora” (Neon) — Matthew Hearon-Smith
“Horizon: An American Saga” (Warner Bros.) — John Debney
“I Saw the TV Glow” (A24) — Alex G
“In the Blink of an Eye” (Searchlight) — Thomas Newman
“Nosferatu” (Focus Features/Universal) — Robin Carolan
“Megalopolis” (Lionsgate) — Osvaldo Golijov
“The Room Next Door” (Warner Bros.) — Alberto Iglesias
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