Academy Award for Best Original Score

The Academy began awarding movies for their scores in 1935. The category was originally called Best Scoring. At the time, winners and nominees were a mix of original scores and adaptations of pre-existing material. Following the controversial win of Charles Previn for One Hundred Men and a Girl in 1938, a film without a credited composer that featured pre-existing classical music, the Academy added a Best Original Score category in 1939. In 1942, the distinction between the two Scoring categories changed slightly as they were renamed to Best Music Score of a Dramatic Picture and Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. This marked the first time the category was split into separate genres. From 1942 to 1985, musical scores had their own category, with the exception of 1958, 1981, and 1982. During that time, both categories had many name changes: ;1. Non-musical scores • Best Music Score of a Dramatic Picture (1942) • Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture (1943–1962) • Best Music Score—substantially original (1963–1966) • Best Original Music Score (1967–1968) • Best Original Score—for a motion picture [not a musical] (1969–1970) • Best Original Score (1971, 1976–1995, 2000–present) • Best Original Dramatic Score (1972–1975, 1996–1999) ;2. Musical scores • Best Scoring of a Musical Picture (1942–1962) • Best Scoring of Music—adaptation or treatment (1963–1968) • Best Score of a Musical Picture—original or adaptation (1969–1970) • Best Original Song Score (1971) • Best Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score (1972–1973) • Best Scoring: Original Song Score and Adaptation -or- Scoring: Adaptation (1974–1976) • Best Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score (1977–1978) • Best Adaptation Score (1979) • Best Original Song Score and Its Adaptation -or- Adaptation Score (1980, 1983) • Best Original Song Score or Adaptation Score (1984) • Best Original Song Score (1985) • Best Original Musical or Comedy Score (1996–1999) Following the wins of four Walt Disney Feature Animation films in six years from 1990 to 1995 (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King) during a period called the Disney Renaissance, it was decided to once again split the Best Original Score category by genres, this time by combining comedies and musicals together. As Alan Bergman, the chairman of the Academy's music branch said, "People were voting for the songs, not the underscores. We felt that Academy members outside the music branch didn't distinguish between the two. So when a score like The Lion King is competing against a drama like Forrest Gump, it's apples and oranges – not in the quality of the score, but in the way it functions in the movie. There's a big difference." The category was therefore split into Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Musical or Comedy Score in 1996. This change proved unpopular in the other branches of the Academy as Charles Bernstein, chairman of the Academy's rules committee, noted that "no other Oscar category depended on a film's genre" and "the job of composing an underscore for a romantic comedy is not substantially different from working on a heavy drama." In 2021, the rules were changed again, lowering the minimum percentage of original music from 60% to 35% of the total music in the film. ==Academy Award for Best Original Musical==

The Academy Award for Best Original Musical is a category that was re-established in 2000 after the Best Original Musical or Comedy Score category was retired. It has never been awarded in its present form due to a prolonged drought of films meeting the sufficient eligibility requirements. The Music Branch Executive Committee of the Academy decides whether there are enough quality submissions to justify its activation. According to the rules, the Best Original Musical is defined as follows: ==Winners and nominees==

The following is the list of nominated composers organized by year, and listing both films and composers. The years shown in the following list of winners are the production years, thus a reference to 1967 means the Oscars presented in 1968 for films released in 1967. was the inaugural winner of this category, winning for One Night of Love (1934). won for One Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), the first and only win for a Department head and not the composer. won for The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). has won the most awards in this category with 9 wins among 43 nominations. He won for ''Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Tin Pan Alley (1940), The Song of Bernadette (1940), Mother Wore Tights (1947), With a Song in My Heart (1952), Call Me Madam (1953), The King and I (1956), and Camelot'' (1967). won alongside W. Franke Harling, John Leipold and Leo Shuken for Stagecoach (1939). won once out of five nominations for The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941). won alongside Frank Churchill for Dumbo (1941). won this award twice, his first win alongside Carmen Dragon for Cover Girl (1944), and his second alongside Harry Sukman for Song Without End (1960). won alongside Morris Stoloff for Cover Girl (1944). was nominated 16 times winning thrice for Spellbound (1945), A Double Life (1947), and Ben-Hur (1959). won for The Heiress (1949.) won for four times in this category: Easter Parade (1948) with Roger Edens, An American in Paris (1951) with Saul Chaplin, West Side Story (1961) alongside Saul Chaplin, Irwin Kostal and Sid Ramin, and Oliver! (1968). won three times amongst 14 nominations, winning for High Noon (1952), The High and the Mighty (1954), and The Old Man and the Sea (1958). won four times amongst 11 nominations, winning for Gigi (1958), Porgy and Bess (1959), Irma la Douce (1963), and My Fair Lady (1964). won twice for ''Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) and Victor/Victoria'' (1982). was nominated 10 times, winning only once for Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967). won for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). won for Let It Be (1970). won for Limelight (1971). won for Cabaret (1972). won twice in the same year for The Way We Were and The Sting both in 1973. won for The Great Gatsby (1974). won for The Godfather Part II (1974). has been nominated a record 49 times, winning five times for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and ''Schindler's List'' (1993). won for The Omen (1976). won for Chariots of Fire (1981). won for Purple Rain (1985). won for Round Midnight (1986). won for The Last Emperor (1987). won for The Last Emperor (1987). won for The Milagro Beanfield War (1988). won four times for The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995). won twice for The Lion King (1994) and Dune (2021). won for Pocahontas (1995). won for Titanic (1997). won for The Full Monty (1997). won for Life is Beautiful (1998). won for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). won twice for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003). won for Frida (2002). won for Finding Neverland (2004). won twice consecutively for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Babel (2006). won for Slumdog Millionaire (2008). won for Up (2009). and Atticus Ross won twice for The Social Network (2010) and Soul (2020). won for The Artist (2011). won for Life of Pi (2012). won for Gravity (2013). won for The Hateful Eight (2015). won for La La Land (2016). won twice for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The Shape of Water (2017). won for Joker (2019). won alongside Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Soul (2020). won for All Quiet on the Western Front (2022). won three times for Black Panther (2018), Oppenheimer (2023), and Sinners (2025). won for The Brutalist (2024). 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s ==Shortlisted finalists==

Finalists for Best Score are selected by the Music Branch. Music Branch members shall vote in order of their preference for not more than 15 pictures to be considered for the Score award. The 15 motion pictures receiving the highest number of votes shall advance to the next round of voting. == Records ==

Superlatives These are only for nominations in the Scoring categories. Nominations in other categories, such as the Original Song category, are not included. Age superlatives Only one composer has won two Scoring Oscars the same year: in 1973, Marvin Hamlisch won Original Dramatic Score for The Way We Were and Best Adaptation Score, for The Sting. Hamlisch also won Best Song that year for The Way We Were, making him the only composer to win three music Oscars in the same year. Only one composer has won Oscars three years in a row: Roger Edens won for Easter Parade (1948), On the Town (1949) and Annie Get Your Gun (1950). Eight composers have won Oscars two years in a row: • Ray Heindorf won for Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) and This Is the Army (1943). • Franz Waxman won for Sunset Boulevard (1950) and A Place in the Sun (1951). • Alfred Newman won for With a Song in My Heart (1952) and Call Me Madam (1953). He won again two years in a row for Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) and The King and I (1956). • Adolph Deutsch won for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and Oklahoma! (1955). • André Previn won for Gigi (1958) and Porgy and Bess (1959). He won again two years in a row for Irma la Douce (1963) and My Fair Lady (1964). • Leonard Rosenman won for Barry Lyndon (1975) and Bound for Glory (1976). • Alan Menken won for Beauty and The Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992). • Gustavo Santaolalla won for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Babel (2006). Female nominees As of 2025, only 11 women have been nominated in music score categories: Ann Ronell, Tylwyth Kymry, Angela Morley, Marilyn Bergman, Rachel Portman, Anne Dudley, Lynn Ahrens, Hildur Guðnadóttir, Germaine Franco, Laura Karpman, and Camille. Kymry, Bergman, and Ahrens were nominated for their contribution as lyricists. Four women have won in the scoring categories. Three are composers: Rachel Portman, who won for Emma (1996); Anne Dudley, who won for The Full Monty (1997); and Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won for Joker (2019). The fourth is lyricist Marilyn Bergman, who won for Yentl (1983) in the Original Song Score category, sharing the award with co-lyricist Alan Bergman (her husband) and composer Michel Legrand. Hildur is the only woman to win the award under no qualifications; Bergman won for Best Song Score while Portman and Dudley won for Best Musical or Comedy Score. The female composers nominated for multiple Scoring Oscars are Rachel Portman, who was nominated for Emma (1996) (for which she won for Best Musical or Comedy Score), The Cider House Rules (1999), and Chocolat (2000); and Angela Morley, who was nominated twice in the Original Song Score or Adaptation Score category for The Little Prince (1974) and The Slipper and the Rose (1976). Notable nominees Dmitri Shostakovich and Duke Ellington were both nominated the same year but lost to the arrangers of West Side Story. The scores of Midnight Express by Giorgio Moroder in 1979, Slumdog Millionaire by A.R. Rahman in 2009, and The Social Network by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in 2011 are the only scores with electronic-based music ever to win the award. In addition, the electronic-based scores of Witness by Maurice Jarre in 1986, Rain Man by Hans Zimmer in 1989, and Her by William Butler, and Owen Pallett in 2014 have also been nominated. Noted nominated composers known for their music mostly outside the film world include: Aaron Copland, Kurt Weill, Gian Carlo Menotti, Philip Glass, John Corigliano, Peter Maxwell Davies, Randy Newman, Richard Rodney Bennett, Stephen Schwartz, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Artie Shaw, Trent Reznor, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Jon Batiste, and Jonny Greenwood. Rock musicians and pop stars are most often nominated in the songwriting category. These popular performers were nominated in the Scoring categories: The Beatles, Prince, Pete Townshend, Rod McKuen, Isaac Hayes, Kris Kristofferson, Quincy Jones, Randy Newman, Anthony Newley, Paul Williams, Tom Waits, David Byrne, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Trent Reznor, and Matthew Wilder. Record producers George Martin (The Beatles) and Jerry Wexler (Atlantic Records) also received nominations in the Scoring categories. Multiple nominations The following is a list of composers nominated more than once and winning at least one Academy Award (in this category). This list is sorted by number of awards, with the number of total nominations listed in parentheses. These do not include nominations (or awards) in the Best Original Song category. • 9: Alfred Newman (43) • 5: John Williams (49) • 4: Johnny Green (12) • 4: André Previn (11) • 4: John Barry (6) • 4: Alan Menken (5) • 3: Max Steiner (24) • 3: Ray Heindorf (17) • 3: Morris Stoloff (17) • 3: Miklós Rózsa (16) • 3: Dimitri Tiomkin (14) • 3: Maurice Jarre (8) • 3: Ken Darby (6) • 3: Roger Edens (6) • 3: Saul Chaplin (5) • 3: Adolph Deutsch (5) • 3: Ludwig Göransson (3) • 2: Hans Zimmer (12) • 2: Alexandre Desplat (11) • 2: Franz Waxman (11) • 2: Henry Mancini (7) • 2: Lennie Hayton (6) • 2: Michel Legrand (6) • 2: Irwin Kostal (5) • 2: Marvin Hamlisch (4) • 2: Leonard Rosenman (4) • 2: Ralph Burns (3) • 2: Trent Reznor (3) • 2: Atticus Ross (3) • 2: Howard Shore (3) • 2: Gustavo Santaolalla (2) • 1: Jerry Goldsmith (17) • 1: Victor Young (17) • 1: Herbert Stothart (11) • 1: Elmer Bernstein (10) • 1: Hugo Friedhofer (9) • 1: Lionel Newman (9) • 1: Georgie Stoll (9) • 1: James Horner (8) • 1: Leigh Harline (7) • 1: Charles Previn (7) • 1: Paul Smith (7) • 1: Dave Grusin (6) • 1: Ennio Morricone (6) Also received an Academy Honorary Award. • 1: Leslie Bricusse (5) • 1: Georges Delerue (5) • 1: Richard Hageman (5) • 1: Bernard Herrmann (5) • 1: Nelson Riddle (5) • 1: Oliver Wallace (5) • 1: Aaron Copland (4) • 1: Leo F. Forbstein (4) • 1: Ernest Gold (4) • 1: Stephen Schwartz (4) • 1: Richard M. Sherman (4) • 1: Robert B. Sherman (4) • 1: Louis Silvers (4) • 1: Volker Bertelmann (3) • 1: Frank Churchill (3) • 1: Elliot Goldenthal (3) • 1: Erich Korngold (3) • 1: Bronisław Kaper (3) • 1: Dario Marianelli (3) • 1: Rachel Portman (3) • 1: Harry Sukman (3) • 1: Gabriel Yared (3) • 1: John Addison (2) • 1: Luis Bacalov (2) • 1: Robert Russell Bennett (2) • 1: Jay Blackton (2) • 1: John Corigliano (2) • 1: Michael Giacchino (2) • 1: Michael Gore (2) • 1: W. Franke Harling (2) • 1: Justin Hurwitz (2) • 1: A.R. Rahman (2) • 1: Heinz Roemheld (2) • 1: Nino Rota (2) • 1: Leo Shuken (2) The following composers have been nominated for a Best Original Score Oscar more than once but have yet to garner one. The number of nominations is listed in parentheses. These do not include nominations (or awards) in the Best Original Song category. Deceased • Alex North (14) Received an Academy Honorary Award. • Walter Scharf (9) • Roy Webb (7) • Werner Janssen (6) • George Duning (5) • Lalo Schifrin (5) Received an Academy Honorary Award. • Edward Ward (5) • Constantin Bakaleinikoff (4) • Edward H. Plumb (4) • Frank Skinner (4) • Frank De Vol (4) • Richard Rodney Bennett (3) • George Bruns (3) • Louis Gruenberg (3) • Marvin Hatley (3) • Quincy Jones (3) Has won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, a special Academy Award. • Ernst Toch (3) • Charles Wolcott (3) • Daniele Amfitheatrof (2) • Nat W. Finston (2) • Frederick Hollander (2) • Jóhann Jóhannsson (2) • Jack Nitzsche (2) Has won 1 Oscar Award for Original Song. • Richard Robbins (2) • Victor Schertzinger (2) • Meredith Willson (2) Living • Thomas Newman (14) • Randy Newman (9) Has won 2 Oscar Awards for Original Song. • James Newton Howard (7) • Danny Elfman (4) • George Fenton (4) • Alberto Iglesias (4) • Marc Shaiman (4) • Philip Glass (3) • Nicholas Britell (3) • Carter Burwell (3) • Jonny Greenwood (3) • Marco Beltrami (2) • Terence Blanchard (2) • Patrick Doyle (2) • David Hirschfelder (2) • John Powell (2) ==See also==