The Academy Award nominations are in and we're not a film website...so your correspondent naturally focuses on on the two music categories first: Best Original Score and Best Original Song.
Best Original Score
Those who have been keeping an ear on other award show nominations won't be too terribly surprised by what's going on in the Original Score category. Between the Academy Awards and the BAFTAs (The UK's equivalent to The Oscars), all but two of the five nominees are the same: The Grand Budapest Hotel (by Alexandre Desplat), Interstellar (Hans Zimmer) and The Theory of Everything (Jóhann Jóhannsson) were well-received at both. New names include The Imitation Game (also by Desplat) and Mr. Turner (Gary Yershon).
Obvious Desplat seems to have the advantage, and he's been nominated six times previously without a win, so 2015 is looking good. Zimmer already has one win to his name (for The Lion King), while Jóhannsson and Yershon are both first-time nominees. The former has momentum on his side however, having won the Golden Globe for the category just last weekend.
Best Original Song
Writing a whole score might be more difficult than writing one song (unless you're Brian Wilson) but people tend to get more excited about this category. The nominees are: "Everything Is Awesome" (from The LEGO Movie), "Glory" from Selma, "Grateful" from Beyond The Lights, "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" from Glen Campbell...I'll Be Me and "Lost Stars" from Gregg Alexander.
John Stephens (better known as John Legend) is a safe pick for "Glory," which also won the Golden Globe over the weekend and Diane Warren ("Grateful") has gotten six nominations previously without a win.
