Alexandre Desplat has enjoyed a brilliant career in U.S. features as of late (on the back of immense talent, naturally). 2010 was a grand year for the composer as he, once again, balanced scoring duties on a number of notable films.
Today, the final announcement from the critics awards circuit has landed in the form of the International Film Music Critics Association’s picks, seven of the nominations going to Desplat for his work on “The Ghost Writer,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” and, of course, “The King’s Speech.” It’s highly probably he’ll walk away with an Oscar later this month, capping of one heck of a year.
John Powell netted five nominations for his work on “How to Train Your Dragon,” while Daft Punk and Hans Zimmer each grabbed three for their respective actioners. Interesting to note, however, is the complete absence of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for their innovative work on “The Social Network.” Your guess is as good as mine as to why the group turned the other cheek there. Ditto A.R. Rahman’s work on “127 Hours,” which is actually a beloved piece of work among musicians. In any case, have a look at The Circuit for the full list of film nominees.
[Photo: Last.fm]
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26 responses to “Desplat leads International Film Music Critics nods”
Interesting nominees, really. Does lack of Reznor and Ross hurt their Oscar chances you think?
No. Doesn’t matter.
That said, I don’t think they’re winning anyway. Desplat is more likely, I think.
I wish Desplat had gotten an Oscar nomination for The Ghost Writer instead of TKS. I did like the theme of TKS, but when compared to TGW, but it seems bland when you compare them both. I’m rooting for Reznor/Ross and John Powell for the Oscar.
And I guess that Vampires Suck is an award-nominated movie
Nice to Powell, Burwell, Elfman, Mansell, Daft Pank, et al recognized for such great work this year.
Poor Scott Pilgrim gets ignored again, though it’s a nice, well-chosen set of nominees.
What really sticks out, though, is the random nomination for Vampires Suck. Who ever thought we would see the day a Friedberg/Seltzer production would get nominated for a “Best” anything?
The score to Vampires Suck is a beautiful score. I wouldn’t knock the score just because the film was a total piece of trash. Christopher Lennertz wrote a dead serious score in the tradition of Elmer Bernstein’s Airplane and it really sings on CD. Bravo to the International Film Music Critics for thinking outside of the box.
Social Network and 127 Hours are terrible scores according to me. Perhaps suited to the film and functional but I found it mind-boggling that TSN won award after award for score. Finally sweet vindication. If they had missed Inception too, it would have been a great slate of nominees.
And yippie yi for Daft Punk. Their work on Tron must seriously be classified as some kind of achievement, music this thrilling, this dazzling orchestrated is rare to come by, so what if it was electronic.
I’m not surprised that they shut out Reznor/Ross. This a group that likes to look at scores both in how they function within a film AND outside of it – scores with leitmotif-heavy , melodic passages will always play better on CD than dissonant, atmospheric music, no matter how innovative or fitting it is. Nice to see Daft Punk get the due they so much deserve!
I’m a bit surprised Rachel Portman didn’t get a nod for “Never Let Me Go” here, especially since her score got a lot of praise from film music critics.
Ditto A.R. Rahman’s work on “127 Hours,” which is actually a beloved piece of work among musicians.
Very well said. I have spoken with many musicians and all tend to agree best score of the year is 127 hours and If i rise is one of the best melodies ever composed for a movie song
Desplat is undoubtably the greatest living composer. williams is still alive, but let’s face it, he’s gotten old and isn’t working like he used to
Thee’s nothing sadder than reading nonsense like the stuff above. Williams may have understandably slowed down but when he does put out work it is incredible. Geez, it’s like some people are waiting for an opportunity to judge. Also, last I checked his body of work exceeds that of Desplat by several orders of magnitude.
By the way it’s a very minor thing but “TRON Legacy” (Daft Punk” is listed without the closing left parenthese.
“Thee’s nothing sadder than reading nonsense like the stuff above.”
Try to make your arguments without sounding like a child in a sand box.
The argument is there. Try to write a response that doesn’t make you sound like a brat.
If I consider something downright upsetting to read, I will point it out, in a manner of MAH choosing.
Pardon me for attempting to steer things away from unnecessarily catty and offensive discourse. That doesn’t make me a “brat” it makes me responsible for the culture of the commenting on a site I own. Thanks very much.
Nice to see they nominated the score of The Last Airbender by James Newton Howard. “Flow Like Water” is a gorgeous, epic composition!
Desplat. He doesn’t have an Oscar (yet), but he’s won just about everything else you could possibly win for original scores; and he deserves them. I can’t think of one score he’s done in the last 5-6 years that I didn’t find at least ‘good’, if not superb.
Also, still so happy for John Powell, Daft Punk, but am also surprised by the lack of Rachel Portman.
Interesting there’s no “Inception” mentioned under Best Music Composition.
Great list of noms, wish TSN was nomed, great score. Still bummed Delspat didnt get the Oscar win for Ben Button. Cant wait for his work on Tree of Life.
I feel really bad for John Williams because some people question his talent just because of his age. A lot of people consider John Williams the best living film composer, and I don’t think it is fair to rob him of that honor just because he has slowed down. He’s not dead yet. And he probably hasn’t lost his talent. (Conrad Pope, Williams’ usual orchestrator, is predicting that William’s Tintin score will become a classic).
Desplat is a good composer. I do think, however, that it is a bit premature to call him the greatest living composer. He has produced some amazing works. His score for Hostage is a masterpiece (Most people probably haven’t heard it). And his Benjamin Button score was pure beauty. But I wouldn’t necessarily put his scores in the same category as John Williams’ E.T., Star Wars, Indiana Jones, JFK, Schindler’s List, Jaws, Jurassic Park, or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Even most soundtrack critics think that Desplat’s Deathly Hallows score doesn’t quite reach the heights of Williams Oscar-nominated Prisoner of Azkaban. Still, I think Desplat has a lot of potential, and I am looking forward to hearing his future works.
I feel Desplat is becoming slightly overrated. I love him, don’t get me wrong, but I feel he hasn’t done a proper epic score yet (no, not even Potter) but I do feel he’s the best at scoring smaller drama-films. His score for The King’s Speech was again pleasant but never anything special.
Also, I gotta say the Oscar race for Best Score is very difficult to call.
Moviehobbyist, I would agree that TKS is Desplat’s weakest score of the 3 he did this year. But gosh, it’s still pleasant (even memorable). And his other two didn’t even get nominated.
I would never call him Greatest of All-Time. That’s silly. But I would, in my estimation, say that he’s been the most satisfying/successful composer out there since the mid-2000s. No?
Desplat is still young but his work on The Painted Veil, Lust Caution, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Birth and Fantastic Mr. Fox have my admiration. His score for the second Twilight film was shamefully overlooked.
Agreed ^ (Twilight). The movie was pretty poor, but not the score.
The Painted Veil and Curious Case of Benjamin Button remain my favorites of his, thus far.