Oscars announce shortlist for 2021 Best Original Score

The Oscars have released the first shortlists for the 2021 Academy Awards, including Best Original Score.

So far, the shortlists for only nine categories of the upcoming Oscars have been announced, with many of the main categories such as Best Film and Best Director still yet to be shared with the public. The shortlist voting was completed on 5 February, and from the below shortlist, the nominations will be chosen and announced on 15 March before the ceremony on 25 April.

Just one female composer makes the shortlist this year after Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir's Oscars success with her work on Joker in 2020. Lolita Ritmanis receives her first Academy Award shortlist entry for her score to Blizzard of Souls, the Latvian drama set during World War One.

Five of the list of nominated scores were predicted by BBC Music Magazine to appear in the shortlist.

Critics will be surprised not to see Howard Shore's score for Pieces of a Woman in the line-up, considering its positive reception when the film launched on Netflix earlier this year.

The nominated scores are as follows:

Ammonite (Neon) – Dustin O’Halloran, Volker Bertelmann
Blizzard of Souls (Film Movement) – Lolita Ritmanis
Da 5 Bloods (Netflix) – Terence Blanchard
The Invisible Man (Universal Pictures) – Benjamin Wallfisch
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (Netflix) – John Debney
The Life Ahead (Netflix) – Gabriel Yared
The Little Things (Warner Bros) – Thomas Newman
Mank (Netflix) – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
The Midnight Sky (Netflix) – Alexandre Desplat
Minari (A24) – Emile Mosseri
Mulan (Walt Disney Pictures) – Henry Gregson-Williams
News of the World (Universal Pictures) – James Newton Howard
Soul (Pixar) – Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Tenet (Warner Bros) – Ludwig Göransson
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix) – Daniel Pemberton