Any opinions on the Oscars?
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I don’t have much for any of these scores, if I’m honest. A disappointing bunch of nonsense.
I have a small candle for Ludwig Goransson, just because he fairly consistently pushes into a musical language based on experimentation. And there is far too little of that these days. Also, I’m a guitarist đ
Alexandre Desplat is such an uneven composer. His big budget movie scores might be his worst. To have recently scored the reboot of Jurassic Park, and this Frankenstein is nice for the wallet, but give me The Piano Teacher any day. I miss his more measured scores like Birth, L’Odyssey and the Isle of Dogs, Operation Finale etc. There was a moment when it seemed he might become the new John Williams, but I think he has already failed that test.
I agree, Mark. I’ve never been able to warm to Desplat when he does those big’n’busy Hollywood genre blockbusters (well, I’ve never really warmed to him in the first place, but that’s a different story), with the possible exception of LARGO WINCH, which I thought was pretty good.
Göransson’s third academy award for original score! And he is just getting started. In ten years I guess he will have surpassed John Williams with Oscar wins.
I am glad, that I was young when film music still was a thing. That I could watch Oscar ceremonies live on television where still stars like Cary Grant or Katherine Hepburn appeared. Where composers like Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, Elmer Bernstein and even Bernard Herrmann competed for the awards.
I didn’t stay up for it. Although I could have, because I didn’t fall asleep until 4 or so (I have sleep issues). And I do have access to Disney+. Will be watching the rerun today instead, and fastforward through sections.
Norwegian headlines are predictably full of SENTIMENTAL VALUE taking home the Oscar for Best International Film this morning. It was nominated for an impressive nine, but one is something, at least. The other two Norwegian nominations didn’t win. So one out of 11. But it’s the first Norwegian feature film to win an Oscar — our previous two wins have been for a documentary and an animated short (we’ve had seven nominations in total, before this year).
I’m not surprised Göransson wins AGAIN. The Academy and the industry have a hard-on for him, for some reason. Of course, it’s completely incomprehensible to me. SINNERS sounded like Ry Cooder on a bad day. He continues to vie for the position of most overrated composer in the world, alongside Michael Giacchino. Emperor’s New Clothes in all its glory. BUGONIA should have won the score category, although even that didn’t make my top 20 of last year.
Alright, skipped through the show now.
Good that Lalo Schifrin got a brief mention in the “In Memoriam” section. The Reiner tribute was fine, but the rest of the “In Memoriam” was rather too sentimental, I thought. But hey — it’s quintessential Hollywood.
Good that Lalo Schifrin got a brief mention in the âIn Memoriamâ section.
It would have been really bad if notâŠ
I remember when I was young and used to get very upset when my favourites didn’t win the Oscars, but my ambivalence is near-total these days.
Congratulations to Ludwig G – I thought Sinners was OK but the real magic seemed to come from getting very talented musicians to just do their thing, and the use of songs was unusually good. He’s really not my cup of tea – which is fine, things move on and he’s clearly very highly regarded by most people.
The ambivalence comes because I didn’t really have a horse in the race. I do love Desplat and I thought Frankenstein was fine, but it’s not exactly one of his best (not even his best of 2025 in my mind). I also like Max Richter a lot and Hamnet has a lot going for it, but (a bit like Sinners perhaps) it’s perhaps not really the original score that people noticed musically within the movie. Jonny Greenwood, I don’t get – there’s nothing interesting in his film music for me.
The one I would have voted for if forced to choose from this set of five would have been Bugonia. There IS something interesting in there, something different, an ambition which seemed quite exciting to me.
Yeah I really don’t understand the love for One Battle After Another – I really don’t think the Oscars matter.
I listened to a critic the other day on the podcast Tech Won’t Save Us with Paris Marx. The discussion began about the Netflix potential buyout of Warner which ultimately went to Paramount – but the important part of this discussion was more about our relationship with film and going to the movies. What really resonated is that Hollywood has some how trained us to give a shit about Box Office numbers vs. just going out to enjoy a film. This conversation really resonated with me in case you wish to listen. This podcast is also highly recommended.
I stopped holding the Oscars in any esteem in the 90s, starting with the victory of Forrest Gump, but I canât deny that theyâve been on a roll for the last few years – Oppenheimer, Anora and One Battle after Another are all awesome, and would all be in my top ten (maybe even five) of their respective years. Sinners was pretty good, but I donât think it would even be in my top thirty of 2025.
Just a weird side note as we Germans like to change English movie titles with sublines or even invent titles. “Sinners” is one example currently as it is indeed named here “Blood & Sinners”. Apparently the vampire part was not clear enough for someone over here đ
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