Hans Zimmer bows out of this year's Oscar race
'Rango' will not be eligible in the original score category
Hans Zimmer's score for "Rango" will not be competing for the Oscar.
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Here's some news to create a bit of breathing room in an already stacked Oscar race for Best Original Score: whatever happens, nine-time nominee Hans Zimmer will not be in it. The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the German-born composer, nominated the last two years running for "Sherlock Holmes" and "Inception," has opted to sit out this year's derby by refusing to personally enter any of his 2011 scores for consideration -- as Academy rules require hopefuls in the category to do.
That'll come as a surprise to the many pundits who were predicting a nomination for his playful, genre-referencing work on surefire Best Animated Feature nominee "Rango." It also rules out the chance of further recognition for his jangly, gypsy-influenced sounds for the "Sherlock Holmes" franchise. (Ditto "Kung Fu Panda 2," "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" and "The Dilemma," but I don't think the Oscar race is drastically altered for their absence.)
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So, why is Zimmer choosing to pass on a potential tenth trip to the ball (and second Oscar statuette)? Well, as he tells the Reporter, he simply doesn't feel up to it:
As soon as you get nominated, and I don’t care who you are — there are certainly people of better character than me — it all goes crazy... You get the phone call at five o’clock and after that you have to do the interviews and then do the parties and meet all these people and do all these things. It’s disruptive, and I think it would be more interesting to observe it for a year. It does worry me that we have to stay relevant. Times are changing, very rapidly. Usually what I do when things are changing rapidly is stand still and observe.
Fair enough, though his stance suggests awards are for individuals, not films -- I'm sure the team behind "Rango," for example, would be glad of any recognition the film can get, so Zimmer's decision seems slightly hard on them. It would, of course, be quite possible to enter one's work in the race and then not campaign at all. (Mo'Nique recently proved that you needn't play the game to reap the rewards.)
Zimmer, in particular, is the kind of esteemed name in the branch who could get away with a silent campaign, though perhaps he doesn't wish to risk being seen as a default nominee either. Anyway, here's hoping he regains his taste for the race by the time "The Dark Knight Rises" (for which, he teases THR, he has composed much new material) rolls around.
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Spearheaded by editor Kristopher Tapley, In Contention represents a collective of awards obsessives who comment and reflect upon, muse about and attempt to decipher the Oscar season on a daily basis throughout the year, and especially during the Oscar crunch of the fall. Regular contributors include Guy Lodge, Roth Cornet and Gerard Kennedy.
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Best Adapted Screenplay
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October 23, 2011 at 3:05PM EST Reply to CommentHis score for Rango was okay, nothing special. I've heard Tintin's score now and it is so ridiculously complex and impressive that it SHOULD be a nominee and a prime candidate for the win. Certain War Horse pieces were also debuted recently on a radio show and a double nomination now seems very likely. I really hope Williams wins this year again, he is under-rewarded for the amount of classics he has written but I think Ludovic Bource is gonna win for The Artist.
Another good contender would be Giacchino for Super 8. Its a good score but the film it is written for is such a disaster that it comes off sounding much worse than it actually is.
PS I heard the three new tracks from War Horse that premiered last night. They were very impressive. I'd have to hear the full score to be sure, but based on what I heard, War Horse sounds like a winner.
October 23, 2011 at 3:54PM ESTJonnybon Super 8's a decent film.
October 23, 2011 at 5:05PM ESTGuy Lodge I refuse to call anyone with five Oscars, no matter how great their career achievements, "under-rewarded", particularly when he's in the unusual position of actually having won for his most classic work.
October 23, 2011 at 8:26PM ESTRF
October 23, 2011 at 3:34PM EST Reply to CommentWell I guess he has a point. BTW he should have won the Academy for his work ( Inception ) he got robbed !
Gretchen @twittarrpirate I agree! INCEPTION is perhaps the finest score ever written. I met Herr Zimmer at the POTC premiere after passing a note across a couple rows in the theater to say thank you for his work, his generosity in making it available for purchase by community orchestras and how much I love the INCEPTION score. He is as nice and remarkable a gentleman as you can imagine.
February 9, 2012 at 9:59PM ESTNelson
October 23, 2011 at 3:47PM EST Reply to CommentWith John Williams back in full force, his work didn't seem like a contender anyway. This decision is understandable, but I agree its a bit arrogant when filmmakers want their films to be recognized but one person feels beyond the need for recognition.
Also - any way to get rid of the pop-up ads? I had to watch a bad quality "Rum Diary" commercial before I could see this. Still missing the old InContention...
Fitz I miss the old site as well.
October 23, 2011 at 7:20PM ESTKristopher Tapley You could easily have skipped the ad by clicking the "skip" button above it.
October 25, 2011 at 4:46PM ESTAndrej
October 23, 2011 at 4:24PM EST Reply to CommentCould this open the field so Basement Jaxx might get in for their Attack the Block score?!?!
spoiler: no. :(
Hopefully TDKR will get the proper recognition TDK missed.
Jonnybon No. Basement Jaxx will never be nominated for an Oscar.
October 23, 2011 at 5:08PM ESTMr.F Yeah, there's no way Attack the Block gets nominated here however deserving it is.
October 23, 2011 at 7:00PM ESTBut let's hope that this could open up the field so that The Chemical Brothers may get in for Hanna. They may have not have that big a chance, but since their film had a bigger audience, they have a slight advantage
Jonnybon Attack the Block/Basement Jaxx don't deserve it...
October 23, 2011 at 7:07PM ESTAndrej I was underwhelmed by Hanna and its soundtrack, but I'll admit it'd be awesome to see the Chemical Brothers rocking it out at the Oscar stage.
October 23, 2011 at 9:13PM ESTBut last year they massively skipped on Daft Punk, and that's why we can't nice things here (Rez & Ross aside).
DylanS "Hanna" was the best score of the year. I'm curious as to what made you feel underwhelmed by it.
October 23, 2011 at 11:37PM ESTAndrej I was so bored and annoyed by Hanna that I didn't really noticed its soundtrack was made by the Chemical Brothers until the credits rolled. Probably on its own it's nice enough, but its film's imagery failed to do any supporting justice to it.
October 24, 2011 at 11:04AM ESTFor me, this is a situation similar as TRON: Legacy - you might as well hear the soundtrack by itself and have a better time than watching the whole movie.
JAB
October 23, 2011 at 5:19PM EST Reply to Comment"Inception" is his masterpiece & I love his Batman work (along with James Newton Howard). Like you, I can't wait for the music to "The Dark Knight Rises". I trust his reasons for bowing out this year.
loyal_mehnert
October 23, 2011 at 7:46PM EST Reply to CommentI was just listening to the Inception score this weekend for the 1000th time and it's really a shame it didn't win last year. Yeah the Oscars are largely political and based on award season narratives and are in no way indicative of quality BUT a win for Inception's masterful score would have been grand. Oh well, it's still one of the best scores in recent memory.
Guy Lodge A fine score, certainly, but I think the Academy -- for once -- actually made the more adventurous and forward-thinking choice on this occasion.
October 23, 2011 at 8:29PM ESTJLPatt They made the right choice. Besides, the score rips off Zimmer's own "Thin Red Line."
October 23, 2011 at 11:34PM ESTRashad I thought Inception and How to Train Your Dragon were much better than TSN.
October 24, 2011 at 2:09AM EST
October 24, 2011 at 6:03AM ESTI guess it comes down to how you like your scores. I'll always prefer a memorable score that stands out to a score that completely blends into the background and isn't distinctive in any way.
It was a bit of a joke Oscar win for The Social Network.
Guy Lodge This is all coming down to a person's individual ear. Ambient they may be, but I didn't find the themes in The Social Network to be at all wallpapery -- they have a stark individual texture and really stuck with me. If I think of the film, I hear the score in my head. I think it's more of a joke when the Academy stays in their box, frankly.
October 24, 2011 at 9:09AM ESTJJ1 Im cool with the TSN win. My personal win was Powell's HTTYD. Loved it. I also would have been fine with Inception winning or TKS (the latter is lovely, but I preferred non-nominated Ghost Writer.
October 24, 2011 at 9:36AM EST
October 23, 2011 at 7:48PM EST Reply to CommentWHAT?!!!
Chris138
October 23, 2011 at 9:27PM EST Reply to CommentI loved his work on Inception as well but I can totally see why The Social Network won instead. That's a great score.
I'm very curious to hear how the music for The Dark Knight Rises will be.
Tarzan
October 23, 2011 at 9:36PM EST Reply to CommentThis is old strategy. Its done to make it seem like he would have won if he had entered but is now considered so good it would be unfair for him to compete with anyone else. Its done by critically acclaimed artists who wish to move up to legendary status but aren't quite there to have that happen without a little push.
Guy Lodge Strategy for what, exactly? You can't "strategise" for legendary status, certainly not through means as trivial as this.
October 24, 2011 at 9:11AM ESTcrossie
October 24, 2011 at 12:41AM EST Reply to CommentWell, shoot.
Rashad
October 24, 2011 at 2:08AM EST Reply to CommentRango is definitely one of the best scores of the year, so this is kind of silly. Can't the studio.producers submit the score on his behalf? Don't they have that right?
Vn
October 24, 2011 at 4:40AM EST Reply to CommentIn my opinion, he's pretty much under-rewarded: ¡5 wins and 40 loses! We're talking about the best film composer of all time. He won for Fiddler on the Roof, Star Wars, Jaws, E.T. and Schindler's List but there are several classics without statue: Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Harry Potter or Memoirs of a Geisha. Almost 20 years since his last won with Schindler's List.
I just hope he wins for War Horse. What I've heard is really impressive, a beautiful, complex, emotional material.
Jonnybon This comment should have been a reply to the John Williams comment...
October 24, 2011 at 10:57AM ESTVn
October 24, 2011 at 4:40AM EST Reply to CommentWrite a comment...In my opinion, he's pretty much under-rewarded: ¡5 wins and 40 loses! We're talking about the best film composer of all time. He won for Fiddler on the Roof, Star Wars, Jaws, E.T. and Schindler's List but there are several classics without statue: Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, Harry Potter or Memoirs of a Geisha. Almost 20 years since his last won with Schindler's List.
I just hope he wins for War Horse. What I've heard is really impressive, a beautiful, complex, emotional material.
Guy Lodge Frankly, after looking through the history books and sizing up which scores Williams was competing against from year to year, I think his record of wins is approximately what it should be. A win for "Memoirs of a Geisha" (a pretty overwrought score, if you ask me) over "Brokeback Mountain" would have been regrettable, I think. Ditto the first "Harry Potter" film over "The Fellowship of the Ring."
October 24, 2011 at 9:27AM ESTPaul Personally, I think Williams should have won for Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Saving Private Ryan, and Memoirs of a Geisha (and maybe for Hook). I would say that Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jurassic Park were also worthy, but Williams won for his other works when those two films were eligible. Based on his works so far, I think he deserves at least 9 Oscar wins, which would tie Alfred Newman's record.
October 24, 2011 at 2:07PM ESTI seriously don't understand why the scores for Brokeback Mountain, Babel, and The Social Network have won the Oscar. My only explanation is that because the majority of Academy members don't specialize in music, they simply just vote for highly regarded films with somewhat decent-sounding music. The past 10 winners in the score category with the exception of Frida were BP nominees. If we go back further, we will find that BP nominees tend to succeed in this category. Thus, if you wrote a magnificent score for a critically-panned film, you basically have a very low chance of winning (or even getting nominated). Does anyone think that the score for Brokeback Mountain would have won had the film been a failure?
The Academy has made a lot of questionable choices in the past decade, so I think it has become irrelevant for a lot of soundtrack enthusiasts. The only award-giving body that I feel truly understands film music is the IFMCA, which is not surprising I guess because it is made up of film music journalists. I only have admiration for a group that chose HTTYD over TSN, Memoirs over Brokeback, and had the balls to nominate Daft Punk's Tron Legacy and give their top award to the brilliant score for Lady in the Water, probably one of the worst films in recent years.
red_wine Guy, Brokeback Mountain is not even a score compared to Memoirs Of A Geisha. Its just some random guitar strumming that sounds pretty and "soulful".
October 24, 2011 at 5:11PM ESTWe *should* judge scores on the basis of composition and Geisha is a very well composed score with themes and leitmotifs and variations and resolution. I don't believe difficulty in composing should be rewarded (since how can we judge that accurately) but I should atleast feel that some effort was put into it. It should not sound trivial.
As great as Brokeback Mountain is, its score nomination and win infuriated me as much as Crash's win. And Williams admittedly should have won for Superman and Raiders Of The Lost Arc. Nothing in their respective years could compare.
I'll agree with you on Fellowship though. Its a massive and complicated score, more-so than Sorcerer's Stone, but I believe Sorcerer's Stone would have been an equally worthy winner.
Guy Lodge Sorry, I judge on effect, not process. We'll never agree on this.
October 24, 2011 at 5:20PM ESTred_wine @Paul
October 24, 2011 at 5:22PM ESTI completely agree. The score choices made by the academy have been horrible. They are prone to contain Best Picture coat tail nominations. Film music journalists would be caught dead before even nominating something like Social Network or Brokeback Mountain for Best Score of the year.
Your question is valid, if these had not been Best Picture nominees, they would not even have emerged as remote possibilities.
Film composing is in such dire straights today that even a Williams autopilot score would be better than the career best of all composers working today.
Rashad I loved Munich's score more. Beautiful music, and that drum theme that was repeated for each mission was great.
October 24, 2011 at 5:52PM ESTGeisha was very good as well. I listen to Going to School all the time. Showed Williams being versatile, and not just trapped by what he does regularly.
October 24, 2011 at 6:57PM ESTThe Social Network clearly won because enough people voted straight ticket to give TSN the win in Score. If The Social Network wasn't battling The King's Speech for BP, it wouldn't have won Score.
Again, that's the case for many tech categories. The Hurt Locker for Best Sound Editing and Sound Mixing over Avatar? LOL Come on.
viking
October 24, 2011 at 7:41AM EST Reply to CommentThis guy gets paid for his writing? I think he needs to hire someone to proofread his work because this is some awful writing.
Guy Lodge Yes, astonishingly enough, I do get paid for my writing -- though sadly not enough to hire a personal proofreader. Given that I often have to post somewhat hurriedly, I'm always grateful for readers' corrections and suggestions -- less so for snarky, unspecific criticism, but do what you must.
October 24, 2011 at 9:18AM ESTjrs1965 The author has no personal proofreader and intimates he has to post hurriedly. Sorry but that is no excuse for a few of the errors above. You get paid to write yet you don't use spell check? "Sharlock Holmes?" "That'll some as a surprise?" I can't imagine what else may be wrong but I stopped reading after that. Any writer that makes basic mistakes like that is either moving too quickly and needs to slow down or they're lazy and don't check their own work. You get paid to do this, sir. Please present your work in a more professional manner.
October 24, 2011 at 9:40AM ESTGuy Lodge Well, thank you. That's a much more helpful comment, at least. Corrections duly made.
October 24, 2011 at 9:51AM ESTGuy Lodge And obviously, apologies for the errors, which aren't the norm around here. I fully admit to being a bad proofreader, though I like to think isn't quite the same thing as being a bad writer. (Though if Viking's complaint is style-based, I'm always grateful for constructive feedback in that department too.)
October 24, 2011 at 9:58AM ESTmarco70go Mr. Lodge doesn't need to be defended, since he is for sure able to do it by himself. Still, what I can say is that I've seen him at some movie festivals; at screenings at any time of the morning, day, afternoon, evening and night. And yet able to constantly provide interesting, engaging and thought-provoking articles. He can make some mistakes, from time to time, but who doesn't? And I like to read him more for what he says than for how he says it.
October 24, 2011 at 10:11AM ESTAnd I do not always agree with his opinions, but even when strongly disagreeing, I find anyway his point of view always interesting and engaging, showing a deep love and knowledge of Cinema.. and this is something I cannot say of many other persons passing themselves as movie critics.
Guy Lodge CORRECTION: "*which* I like to think isn't quite the same thing..."
October 24, 2011 at 10:34AM ESTSee, typos plague me even in my comments.
Jonnybon Errors ARE the norm around here. Greg Ellwood's articles are strewn with them.
October 24, 2011 at 11:00AM ESTKristopher Tapley What is this, the friggin' grammar police? A few simple, not-at-all absurd typos? Out-of-the-blue bitching about nonsense that isn't a huge deal?
October 25, 2011 at 4:52PM ESTI'm the one who pays Guy. And he has more professionalism in his fingernail than some of the children here quick to harp on something like this. Jesus Christ.
GlennAU
October 24, 2011 at 7:44PM EST Reply to CommentJohn Williams? OBVIOUSLY THE BEST SCORE OF THE YEAR OMG!!!
msd
October 25, 2011 at 8:49AM EST Reply to CommentI didn't realise composers had to personally enter themselves into this category.
As for Zimmer, he's one of the most respected composers around and has nothing to prove. I don't know why anyone would suggest it's a sly tactic to get himself talked about. His long time publicist and friend was murdered last year, he's obviously just exhausted by all the awards hoopla.
adam
October 25, 2011 at 2:54PM EST Reply to Commentmakes sense, why do the awards season hassle when four of the five nominations are already locked, the winner is already known and the last nomination will probably go to a smaller, quieter score, which Zimmer is not known for?
Williams is getting double nominated, Reznor is getting a second nod and The Artist is completely unstoppable for the win. So who is the fifth nominee? Zimmer's got four films competing with himself, why go to all the hassle.