Women and Best Original Score
Thursday, January 9, 2020 at 9:44AM
by Travis Cragg
Hildur Guðnadóttir already has an Emmy and a Globe. Is an Oscar next?Watching Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir walking up to receive her Golden Globe for Joker was one of the more interesting moments of last weekend's ceremony. My streaming service in Australia suddenly decided to log me out just as the presenter came on stage, so I was cursing the world and rebooting! Once the anxiety was over, and Hildur was walking up to accept her trophy, it was time to reflect on a woman winning the equivalent Oscar. The Globe win for Score doesn't always transfer to an Oscar win (sometimes the winner isn't even nominated -- as with All is Lost and First Man in recent years) but could Guðnadóttir repeat?
Has a woman ever won the Oscar for Best Original Score before? Turns out it has happened, but only with double-category caveats…
The most recent examples were in the years of 1995-9, when the category was split into two prizes: “Dramatic”, and “Musical or Comedy”. This split was a response to Disney animated musicals winning most of the composing awards in the early 1990s, but the split was so unpopular that it reverted back to one category in 2000.
[A related sidenote: Did you know that, according to Academy Rule Fifteen, the category of “Original Musical” exists? It was also created in 2000 as an appeasement for re-merging the two Score categories into one. An Original Musical “…consists of not fewer than five original songs … by the same writer or team of writers, either used as voiceovers or visually performed. Each of these songs must be substantively rendered, clearly audible, and intelligible, and must further the storyline of the motion picture. An arbitrary group of songs unessential to the storyline will not be considered eligible.” Given that the rules for all categories is that you must have at least ten eligible films, it’s not hard to understand why this category has never been instigated.]
The first female Oscar score winner (travelling backwards in time) is Anne Dudley, who won with her only nomination to date for 1997’s The Full Monty (in the Musical or Comedy category). Dudley works fairly consistently in the UK, with The Crying Game, Elle and television’s “Poldark” on her resumé. Her most recent work is last year’s The Hustle. She was also a member of the pop band Art Of Noise, who you might remember for hits such as their interpretation of the Peter Gunn theme and the collaboration with Tom Jones in covering Prince’s “Kiss”.
Rachel Portman has 3 nominations and 1 win
Next is the only name that came to mind before I started researching: Rachel Portman. She was nominated for The Cider House Rules (1999) and Chocolat (2000), and she won in the Musical or Comedy category for 1996’s Emma. Her most recent feature-length composing was for 2017’s A Dog’s Purpose.
You have to travel all the way back to 1983 for the only other female winner of the category: Marilyn Bergman for Yentl. This was at the tail end of the other, much longer, period where the scoring category was split into two (1939-85, with the one-off unusual exception of 1958 where they all competed together) . The category names changed a few times but, in 1983, the categories were “Original Score”, and “Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Adaptation Score”. Bergman won for the latter, along with her husband Alan (they were the lyricists) and Michel Legrand. Marilyn was also a multiple winner in the Song category, for The Thomas Crown Affair, The Way We Were and Yentl.
The Bergmans at the 1983 Oscars with Neil Diamond and Michel Legrand
Other female nominees in the various Score categories over the years: Angela Morley (1974’s The Little Prince and 1976’s The Slipper And The Rose: The Story Of Cinderella), Lynn Ahrens (for 1997’s Anastasia) and Mica Levi (for 2016’s Jackie).
Do you think Gudnadottir has a good chance to join the winners and/or nominees club?
Reader Comments (16)
I think she'll win. It's an interesting score you remember in a popular movie.
I always thought they should keep the category split.
So many scores...the more the merrier.
I have no idea if she will even be Oscar-nominated but her introspective, sometimes discordant pieces are of the plangent mode that, like Anne Dudley's works in Elle and especially The Crying Game, are elegiac and emotionally moving. Familiar with her non-soundtrack score pieces, I recommend her beautiful album Without Sinking. At times, truly heartbreaking.
Not to be Oscar nominated would be unfair, as the soundtrack is one of the highlights in Joker. And she's still gorgeous and the best dressed of the party.
"The presenter" ???
You mean Jennifer Lopez!! she has a name lol
Rachel Portman won in 1997, Anne Dudley in 1998!!
Let's not forget that there's Thomas Newman to contend with. He has received 14 nominations and never won. And his film is 1917.
However, as Glenn Close will tell you, the new voters don't care about Oscarless long runs.
Probably they don't even know that he never won and has 14 nominations..
So, who can tell?
Mica Levi's scores are all worth owning.
Mica Levi should have been nominated for Under the Skin, and should have won for Jackie. That's that.
Speaking of Mica Levi, where oh where is the recognition for her MONOS score? She should be the woman who wins this year!
@Marcos: Are the composers’ names even on the voting ballot, or does the ballot just list the nominated films?
It’s possible that most of the Academy (new and old members) won’t remember Thomas Newman’s history when they decide whether or not to choose 1917.
DAVID - acknowledgements to J-Lo for being the presenter (in a season where I look forward to her getting the deserved Oscar nom) and no disrespect intended towards her.
But because of the technical glitches in my home system, I literally did not see who presented the award. In the process of writing the article, my mind did not guide me towards looking up who was the actual presenter. (Thanks for being the acknowledger.)
Geri - the years mentioned are referring to the release years for the films, not the years they received the Oscar.
I thought the score in Joker was memorable, but for the wrong reasons... I mean that I noticed the music, because I thought it didn't fit certain scenes, or the mood wasn't right, which I guess might be purposeful, but I found it more distracting than interesting.
The score is good and unique. But Joker is such a poorly directed movie that the craft prowess often suffers.
She also did MARY MAGDALENE with Johann Johannson and that's a wonderful piece of music that's better than the film.