14 Days Until Oscar. When will Thomas Newman win?
Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 9:00AM Thomas Newman is currently the most nominated composer to have never won the Oscar (and third in line of most nominations for a living artist without a win). Sci-fi hit Passengers marks his 14th nomination. Unfortunately this year he's up against the La La Land juggernaut so he'll have to wait for #15. Or beyond. His cousin Randy Newman waited until his 16th before taking home the gold.
Thomas Newman is on his 14th nomination at age 61. His father won 9 Oscars but he's still waiting on his first.
Composing for Hollywood is a family business in case that connection escaped you but their relatives didn't have to wait nearly as long...
Thomas's dad Alfred Newman won 9 Oscars from 45 nominations (the third most nominated person in Oscar history after Walt Disney and John Williams). Alfred Newman's classics included Alexander's Ragtime Band (1938), Ball of Fire (1941), Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1955), and many many more all the way to a posthumous nomination for Airport (1970). Alfred's brothers (Randy & Thomas's uncles) Lionel and Emil were also Oscar nominated film composers with Lionel winning once.
Thomas does have an Emmy (Six Feet Under main titles) and two BAFTAs (Skyfall & American Beauty) but the Oscar remains elusive. Here are his 13 nominated films (he received two nominations for WALL•E, the second in Original Song). Which is your favorite?
Reader Comments (22)
I don't think he'll win this year for Passengers. I think he should have already won for American Beauty.
He should've won for The Shawshank Redemption (The Lion King, who?) and either The Horse Whisperer or Meet Joe Black, neither of which he was even nominated for of course. (A case also could be made for Fried Green Tomatoes.)
He's overdue, there's no doubt, but doesn't seem to scream "overdue!" either. I don't know how strong the drumbeat is, if there even is one. (I'm just delighted Alexander Desplat has one after the Birth snub and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button miss.)
Oh, and American Beauty. That one is a no-brainer.
His music generally underwhelms me. I think he's the least-distinguished of film composer Newmans working today. I'll take Randy's wonderful scores over his anytime.
I can recall memorable parts of the Wall*E and Little Women soundtracks easily. The others, not so much.
He should've won for American Beauty, hands down! It was singular, really weird and memorable. I also love his work for Lemony Snicket and Wall-E, but can see why he didn't win then. But there's no excuse for 1999... The Red Violin? Really?
I was convinced for years he won for American Beauty. I mean, how could he loose for that???
Just.... unbelievable.
We're forgetting Thomas' brother David. He's less illustrious than the other Newmans, but has enjoyed a long composing career and gotten one Oscar nomination.
His score for American Beauty was beautiful, and haunting.
Plenty of good work but I'll say that the American Beauty score is my favorite. Quirky but haunting.
My favourites of his nominated works are American Beauty (so much more than that brilliant main theme) and Little Women.
My "most played" score is Angels In America - one of my all time favorite scores for anything.
Perhaps my favourite film work of his, though, wasn't nominated. I love the Fried Green Tomatoes score, but mainly I think he had a banner year in 1998 with both The Horse Whisperer and Meet Joe Black. He did a valiant job of supporting cinematic syrup with both scores - Meet Joe Black in particular sounded as lush and overblown as befitted what the director had put on screen. Textbook example of a composer doing great work with ropey material.
Actually, his Passengers score was quite good, considering the movie. A lot of his 'tricks' (to me, a Thomas Newman score will always sound like a Thomas Newman score, for better and worse) are in play, but the themes are lovely, and there's enough harmonic resonance that it became, production design aside, the most memorable thing about the movie.
His magnum opus for me remains Angels in America, which works not just as a Greatest Hits of his own work, but as a touchstone of miniseries scoring. The main titles and the finale cues are absolutely mesmerizing, as is the entire musical segment at the end of Part I: Millennium Approaches when 'she' appears. Even the small little touches, like the Bayeux Tapestry and the 'More Life' sequences are heartbreakingly beautiful.
How it wasn't even nominated for the Emmy remains their most glaring oversight in the category, even more so than not forcing a tie between the Twin Peaks Theme and The Simpsons Theme winning. ;)
Fried Green Tomatoes and The Help are wonderful scores, too. He does heightened Southern very well, I reckon. The Whistle Stop Cafe finale still kills me...
Here's to Mr. Newman winning deservedly one day! :)
Strangely enough, I've never much cared for his music for American Beauty, but then again, I never much cared for the film itself.
The score for Passengers was not as good as most of his work. He won't win this year and, to be honest, there were far better scores to be nominated.
His American Beauty score will remain one of my all-time favorites because it pretty much changed the landscape of sounds that were possible for film scoring at the time. Minimalist, tender, dissonant. The use of xylophones in his work has remained a strong signature. I've never heard anything like that on film at the time. And he did win a Grammy and a BAFTA for his work so that's cool.
I think he was close to winning for WALL-E and he was probably second/third for Finding Nemo too. The year he was nominated for Lemony Snicket was great, all those nominated works were wonderful, except the winner Finding Neverland. Go figure.
Some of this other work since has been okay but some of those latter nominations I don't get at all. I don't even remember the music for Saving Mr. Banks or Skyfall.
I loved his soundtrack for Revolutionary Road.
Ooh, co-sign Revolutionary Road. Love that score!
My favorite score of his is WALL-E as it's mixture of orchestral and electronic music just has the right touch as it's also my favorite Pixar soundtrack.
My favourite film composer. Some of my favourite tracks from him:
1. First Day (FINDING NEMO)
2. And that Right Soon (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION)
3. Dead Already (AMERICAN BEAUTY)
4. Road to Chicago (ROAD TO PERDITION)
5. Drive Away (Lemony Snicket)
I love his slightly funky, discordant keyboard chords and can recognise his signature touch, yet love how he mixes it up according to the tone.
His score for Unstrung Heroes is terrific. He should have won for that as well as for American Beauty and Finding Nemo.
Still obsessed with his scores for American Beauty and Angels. Also in the camp where I misremembered him actually already winning for American Beauty.
I can't believe he didn't win for American Beauty or Angels in America! That just doesn't make any sense. WALLE would have been a good win too.
American Beauty is such an iconic soundtrack -defined a whole era- but then you listen to Corigliano's Red Violin played by Joshua Bell and you feel like Wes Bentley staring at that plastic bag. You know the quote: "There's so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can't take it."