Best Music – Original Score

Dario Marianelli and Alberto Iglesias both received their first nominations two years ago for “Pride & Prejudice” and “The Constant Gardener,” respectively. They return to the fold this year for “Atonement” and “The Kite Runner.” I’d call Marianelli the frontrunner for the win, while Iglesias will likely be his biggest competition.

Marco Beltrami gets his first nomination for “3:10 to Yuma,” a tribute to a great film, great score and great campaign. Meanwhile, Michael Giacchino grabs a nod for “Ratatouille,” one of five for Brad Bird’s acclaimed effort. I’d call both of these contenders dark horses in the race.

Johnny Greenwood, on the other hand, got disqualified for his amazing compositions for “There Will Be Blood” at the last minute. This is – pardon me – bullshit, as far as I’m concerned, and exemplifies the music branch’s refusal to welcome innovative, brilliant work. Every year it seems an out-of-the-box, non-traditionalist, innovative score is snubbed by these people. Greenwood may very well have gotten a nomination on his own merits without this 11th hour ruling.

Instead, we get a nomination for James Newton Howard for his exceedingly competent work on “Michael Clayton.” Howard is a fine composer and this score is solid (in a film I loved). But seriously, this is totally an excuse to have a vet in the lineup, as seems to be required by the music branch these days.

Best Music – Original Song

Speaking of vets seemingly being required by the music branch, we have Alan Menken showing up again and again and again in the song category this year. After a decade-long absence, he is triple-nominated for “Enchanted.” “That’s How You Know” is an admittedly fun ditty, though “Happy Working Song” and especially “So Close” leave a great deal to be desired as far as I’m concerned. This is the second straight year a film is triple-nominated in this category. It’s still too early to make a judgment on how the new process of choosing nominees affects the results here, but we’ll be watching.

I think Menken is going to lose, however, to “Falling Slowly,” by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, from “Once.” This wonderful tune is immensely important in the film, a gorgeous song, a way to recognize the nominees and does find itself competing internally like “Enchanted.”

Lastly, we come to “Raise It Up” from “August Rush,” an unexpected nomination for a film I have not seen. I have no comment.

I do have comments on the snubs, however. Denying tunes from “American Gangster” and “Hairspray” was surprising enough, given the roles of the songs in those films and the relatively high profile status of the efforts. Snubbing Eddie Vedder’s work from “Into the Wild” does not only add insult to injury to Penn’s film, but also is another AMPAS slap in the face to Vedder after missing out here for “Man of the Hour” in 2003.

Best Sound Editing

I said on Saturday that I had no idea what would happen here. But I was correct in guessing that “Transformers” would be nominated. I suspect Mike Hopkins and Ethan Van der Ryn are heading towards their third win.

“Ratatouille” will likely provide the biggest competition. Randy Thom and Michael Silvers did win this award for “The Incredibles,” after all. That was a much more sound-intensive effort, however.

“The Bourne Ultimatum” also pulls in one of its three nominations here. It’s a dark horse, but I don’t see it as that much of a threat to the win. A film that found itself in a similar situation 13 years ago was “Speed,” however. So anything can happen.

“No Country for Old Men” and “There Will Be Blood” got in on the strength of their films, though I can’t deny the quality of the work on both movies.

It’s worth noting that in both sound categories, “Spider-Man 3” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” failed to make the cut. It appears as though the branch grew tired of these series.

Best Sound Mixing

As expected, Kevin O’Connell and Greg P. Russell earned yet another nomination for “Transformers.” Given the nature of this film, I’m thinking they’ll finally take home the statute this year. But one can never know.

“No Country for Old Men” is a tremendously inspired nominee – the mixing in this film was phenomenal. Though it would be an extremely atypical winner, I’d nevertheless call it the main competition for O’Connell and Russell, especially given that it is the only Best Picture nominee in the category.

“The Bourne Ultimatum” brings Scott Millan back into the race. I don’t think it’s much of a threat to win but I’d still call it a dark horse. The film is clearly respected and there is always that “Speed” comparison.

I was able to predict accurately that we’d have a 3/5 matchup with the guild, and I predicted what those three films would be. But I missed what the two others would be. “3:10 to Yuma” and “Ratatouille” both scored here. I should have seen these coming, given the popularity of Paul Massey and Randy Thom in this field. But I don’t see them in the race for the win.

Best Visual Effects

“Transformers” has been the clear frontrunner since Day One in this category. “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” also expectedly completed the series with a third visual effects nomination. “The Golden Compass” manages to grab the last slot, despite the film flopping.

“300” and “I am Legend” are left on the doorstep. But really, this one has to go to the robots in disguise.

Well there we have it – the crafts category nominees for the 80th Annual Academy Awards! Come back next week as I’ll be speaking to one of the nominated sound crews.

Check out part one.