21 Jan Final 2023 Oscar Nomination Predictions: Sound, Original Song, Original Score
Four films, Top Gun: Maverick, All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of the Water, and Elvis, all made the slates of the major precursors.
To me the last slot is between Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Batman. The Batman is probably the most widely-acclaimed superhero movie of the year and this and Visual Effects are where those films get their flowers. But Everything Everywhere All at Once is the Best Picture winner and was the nominations leader at MPSE (although it did get snubbed at CAS). I think it will get in here based on the overwhelming support for the film and since it is an action-adventure film, which often do well in this category.
BEST SOUND
Top Gun: Maverick – MPSE, CAS. BAFTA
Avatar: The Way of the Water – MPSE, CAS, BAFTA
All Quiet on the Western Front – MPSE, CAS, BAFTA
Elvis – MPSE, CAS, BAFTA
Everything Everywhere All at Once – MPSE
Could Jump In: The Batman – MPSE, CAS
Even though RRR didn’t makes SCL’s nominations, I’m gonna write that off as it being an international film and still keep it as my winner prediction. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Top Gun: Maverick, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hit all the major precursors and, to my ears, fit the kind of norms this category usually goes for.
Taylor Swift’s song ‘Carolina’ for Where the Crawdad Sings, but the fact that it’s a song by TAYLOR SWIFT and has less than 50 million plays on Spotify is not a good sign and stands in stark contrast with the songs from Lady Gaga and Rihanna (which both have over 150 million plays each). So even though it hit all the major precursors (and that I think it’s one of the top five songs on the shortlist), I think will be snubbed for this year’s song from Diane Warren who has been nominated in all of the last FIVE years.
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
RRR – GG, CCA
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – GG, CCA, SCL
Top Gun: Maverick – GG, CCA, SCL
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – GG, CCA, SCL
Tell It Like a Woman – SCL
Could Jump In: Where the Crawdads Sing – GG, CCA, SCL, White Noise – CCA, Till, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Justin Hurwitz’s extravagant and bombastic music for Babylon and Alexandre Desplat’s at-one-moment-wondrous-and-devastating-in-the-next backing score for Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio will be battling this category out until the end. John Williams’ score for The Fabelmans’ is being billed as the last of his career and as this an Academy that penciled him in for every one of the Star Wars sequel trilogy films, he is locked in my eyes. Hildur Guonadottir’s alternatingly ominous and comforting score for Women Talking seems quite likely to make it in as well.
The last slot is between The Banshees of Inisherin, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and All Quiet on the Western Front. I am going to stay safe and go with ‘Banshees’ since it has the most precursor nods of the three, but I have a feeling that even though hardly any one is predicting it, Everything Everywhere All at Once has a dark horse shot of attaining a nod in this category.
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Babylon – GG, CCA, BAFTA
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio – GG, CCA, SCL, BAFTA
The Fabelmans – GG, CCA
Women Talking – GG, CCA
The Banshees of Inisherin – GG, SCL, BAFTA
Could Jump In: Everything Everywhere All at Once – SCL, BAFTA, All Quiet on the Western Front – BAFTA