Some categories just go together. Best Costume Design and Best Production Design are often paired up while Best Sound and Best Visual Effects have often gone to the same film, too. But how about the two musical categories — Best Original Score and Best Original Song?
You might think that these two would have a considerable overlap over the years due to their musical qualities. Often, films get nominated in both categories. Disney’s animated films have often done well in both musical races with “Beauty and the Beast” winning both in 1992 (for the song “Beauty and the Beast”), “Aladdin” taking home both gongs in 1993 (for the song “A Whole New World”), and “The Lion King” triumphing twice in 1995 (“Can You Feel the Love Tonight?”).
However, those three examples were back in the 90s. More recent Academy Awards history — say, the last 20 ceremonies — paint a very different picture of the marriage between these two categories. Here’s the breakdown of the last 20 winners in each category. The ones highlighted in green won both awards.
As you can see, there have only been three instances in the last two decades when a movie has taken home both Best Original Score and Best Original Song: “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” in 2004, “Slumdog Millionaire” in 2009, and “La La Land” in 2017. The profile of all three of these films is also telling. “The Return of the King” won a joint-record of 11 Oscars as well as Best Picture; “Slumdog Millionaire” won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture; and “La La Land” took home six Oscars and came so close to winning Best Picture (it was widely expected to do so and is something of a shock that “Moonlight” won instead).
So, all three instances of a film winning both of these awards came when the movie pulled off a sweep and became the film to win the most Oscars overall in their respective years. For a film to actually win both Score and Song, it needs to have an overwhelming amount of love across the board (not just in the musical categories) and have such a standing that voters just tick off the movie’s name in multiple categories.
“Life of Pi” won Best Original Score in 2013 and was also nominated for Best Original Song for “Pi’s Lullaby.” But the film lost Best Picture to “Argo” and, while it took home Best Director for Ang Lee and four Oscars in total, it didn’t quite have the sweep effect needed.
So, could anyone pull off this rare double feat? Well, yes, but only one film has the chance to do it. Here’s the breakdown.
The Best Original Score nominees are “American Fiction” (Laura Karpman), “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (John Williams), “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Robbie Robertson), “Oppenheimer” (Ludwig Göransson), and “Poor Things” (Jerskin Fendrix).
Meanwhile, the Best Original Song contenders are “American Symphony” for “It Never Went Away” (Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson), “Barbie” for “I’m Just Ken” (Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt), “Barbie” again for “What Was I Made For?” (Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell), “Flamin’ Hot” for “The Fire Inside” (Diane Warren), and “Killers of the Flower Moon” for “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” (Scott George).
“Killers of the Flower Moon,” then, is the only film that could theoretically win both awards this year. However, we think this will remain theory only. We predict that composer Robertson, whose nomination is sadly posthumous after he died in August 2023, will miss out on turning his first and only Oscar bid into a victory. We expect “Oppenheimer” to win this category. He is in second place, however, so if an upset is going to happen, it will be Robertson to do so. Meanwhile, George, whose nomination is also his first, is expected to lose to the might of “Barbie.” We think “What Was I Made for?” will win Best Original Song. “I’m Just Ken” is in a close second place while George ranks joint fifth. Even if Robertson does win, it is highly unlikely “Killers of the Flower Moon” will become the fourth film in 21 years to win both musical awards.
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