2/20 Thoughts: "The Artist" has scarcely lost a significant precursor here, as BAFTA followed the Globes and the BFCA in honoring Bource over more esteemed names. And no wonder -- as the driving sonic force of a silent film, Bource's score is even more conspicuous than John Williams's thundering work on "War Horse," and that's saying something. Meanwhile, Kim Novak's silly, roundly dismissed tantrum about "The Artist"'s sampling of Bernard Herrmann probably did the film more good than harm in this category. --Guy Lodge

Good Bets

• "The Artist" (Ludovic Bource)
  1.

Other Possibilities

• "Hugo" (Howard Shore)
  2.

Dark Horses

• "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" (Alberto Iglesias)
  3.
• "War Horse" (John Williams)
  4.
• "The Adventures of Tintin" (John Williams)
  5.

The Rest of the field