Jumping back into the FiLM BiTCH Awards now. They're my long running personal awards for best of any given year. I usually try to wrap up the exact-correlative Oscar categories before the Academy's nominations but obviously that didn't happen this year. Oops.Herewith the next couple of awards: Best Original Score and Best Adapted/Mix or Song Score.
I have two categories since so many films these days use a mix of original and previously recorded material for their soundscapes. You'll find that animated films are well represented in one category or another. Mr. Fox is Fantastic, everyone agrees. Coraline and Up are not just eye candy but ear candy, too. And then there's Karen O's work on Where the Wild Things Are which I like to think of as a hipster remembrance of the mysteries of childhood rather than a child-like score. Even with all the kiddies singing.
You'll find that my score nominees have a greater overlap with Oscar's choices than usual. I still can't believe The Hurt Locker got nominated in this category. That's not the type of score they go for, no matter how expressive, worthy and helpful it is to the film. To my mind that out-of-character nomination is a sure indicator that they really love the film. I liken it to that "costume design" nomination for Avatar from the Costume Designers Guild or that make-up nomination for Avatar from the BFCA which had to be mad declarations of love for the Na'Vi rather than a reflection of the, you know, costumes and makeup, animated as they were. I realize this is a bad likening since Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders aren't exactly unworthy for their contribution to The Sexy Locker. It's just the out-of-character bit is all.
Finally, two questions- Is Alexandre Desplat the hardest working man in Hollywood? He scored seven... that's right SEVEN motion pictures this year: Julie & Julia, Twilight: New Moon, Coco Avant Chanel, Chéri, Fantastic Mr. Fox and two over in his native France Un Prophete and L'Armée du Crime.
- What are your favorite films, musically speaking, this year?
