Branford Marsalis, Thomas Newman, Howard Shore, and Kris Bowers — what do they have in common, besides each being an accomplished composer, conductor, and/or recording artist in his own right? Within the past four years, they all produced a film score that didn’t even register as a blip on the Oscar radar.
“Let Them All Talk” and “Pieces of a Woman” gained zero traction for 15-time Oscar nominee Newman and three-time “The Lord of the Rings” Oscar winner Shore.
Bowers and Marsalis had respectively picked up momentum elsewhere on the awards circuit for “Green Book” (the eventual Best Picture winner) and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (the eventual Best Makeup and Hairstyling winner), yet those two films’ Oscar fortunes couldn’t do anything to boost their chances in Best Original Score.There’s no chalking it up to crowded fields, or voter bias.
It all comes down to the rules: Prior to last Oscar season,
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