When the Academy Award nominations are announced next month, it is expected that Black Swan, The Fighter, True Grit and The Kids Are All Right will be among the most recognized films. Just not in the Best Original Score category. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences music branch has ruled that all four Oscar contenders are ineligible for the award.
In the case of Black Swan (which borrowed heavily from Swan Lake) and True Grit (which used 19th century hymns as a base to its score), the Academy decided that the "scores [were] diluted by the use of tracked themes or other pre-existing music." That's bad news for composers Clint Mansell and Carter Burwell, the latter of whom has never been nominated for an Oscar, despite heralded work in Fargo, The Blind Side, Miller's Crossing and Where the Wild Things Are.
The scores for The Fighter and The Kids Are All Right didn't feature pre-existing music, but because both films relied so heavily on songs, the impact of their scores was apparently "diminished," resulting in the disqualification.
Movieline spoke with composer Rolfe Kent (Up in the Air) about the possibility that Black Swan and True Grit might be left out of the nominating process earlier this month.
"What excites me is hearing something really original, when someone has created something with their own voice, and that makes a contribution to the art," Kent said in an e-mail. "In theory an original contribution of this sort could be based on something that already exists -- there are so many classical 'variations' and Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Benjamin Britten and countless others have created original pieces drawing thematic material from other composers."
Not everyone is Aaron Copland, though: "There are also lots of people who simply arrange existing songs and themes, and you'd never want to consider any of those for the Best Original Score category. If a score really hinged on a central theme that was not original it would be so unfair for someone to win for that great theme that they didn't write."
That said, Kent understands the frustration that Burwell might be feeling right now. "As a composer, if I did some very creative work while integrating and adapting into my own voice some existing material, well I'd certainly like to think an argument could be made to consider it eligible."
ยท Academy nixes four score contenders [Variety]