Richard Linklater's masterpiece Boyhood has been creating some serious Oscar buzz, and now the film may have a shot at winning an award in the category for Best Original Song.
As The Hollywood Reporter points out, three songs from the film have been submitted for Academy Award consideration, including "Split the Difference," "Ryan's Song" and "Summer Noon." Actor Ethan Hawke, who plays a father named Mason in the film, helped pen "Split the Difference" (Listen here) and "Ryan's Song" for the film while "Summer Noon" is by Tweedy (Jeff Tweedy and son, Spencer).
Hawke spoke with THR about the tunes and the craft of songwriting. "When Rick and I decided to make my character a songwriter, he gave me the challenge to write some songs for the movie," he said. "We didn't know at that time whether they would be in the movie or not, but it allowed me to take some time and get into character."
The actor added that his real-life experience of being a child of divorce influenced the songwriting for "Split the Difference." Hawke's character is divorced and has two children, who he plays the song for in the film.
"For me, all the different mediums of performance are all connected," he said. "Acting. Directing. Singing. Writing. It's all the same: trying to transfer real emotion and experience."
Boyhood was released in July and has been the talk of the town in Hollywood. Linklater and crew shot the film over 12 years, with all of the actor's aging in the movie.
"Time, and our interaction with time, and the way in which we are all ultimately overmatched and worn down by time, and the notion of cinema as a means of sculpting with time: these and other aspects of temporality are at the heart of Boyhood," Matt Zoller Seitz wrote for RogerEbert.com. "Time is the core around which all of this movie's musings on childhood and parenthood are woven."
