2025 Oscars: Best Original Score Predictions

Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations introduced January 17, 2025. Remaining voting is February 11-18, 2025. And at last, the 97th Oscars telecast will probably be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air reside on ABC at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT. We replace our picks all through awards season, so maintain checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

This season, the Academy shortlist for Finest Authentic Rating has expanded from 15 to twenty titles, and now as much as three composers will probably be allowed to obtain the Oscar. By way of the race, “Dune: Half Two” (Warner Bros.) is the early favourite, joined by such standouts as “Challengers” (Amazon MGM Studios), “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (Warner Bros.), “Inside Out 2” (Pixar/Disney), and “The Wild Robotic” (DreamWorks/Common).

The pageant season will see the premieres of “Blitz” (Apple TV+), “Conclave” (Focus Options), “Queer” (A24), “Joker: Folie à Deux” (Warner Bros.), “Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios), and “The Piano Lesson” (Netflix). The autumn/vacation contenders embody “Emilia Pérez” (Netflix), “Gladiator II” (Paramount), “Megalopolis” (Lionsgate), “Nosferatu” (Focus Options), and “Depraved” (Common).

In Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Half Two,” Hans Zimmer expands on his Oscar-winning rating for “Dune” by musically exploring Paul (Timothée Chalamet) main the Fremen in battle and assuming his messianic future. There may be extra intense motion scoring as Paul takes on the Harkonnens, the Emperor (Christopher Walken), and plots his management of Arrakis.

With “Challengers,” director Luca Guadagnino tackles the aggressive nature of tennis as a love triangle involving former tennis prodigy-turned-coach Zendaya, her husband and slumping tennis champ Mike Faist, and low-circuit tennis participant Josh O’Connor, who’s her ex-lover and his former greatest pal. Composers Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross present the right driving, thumping, techno rating to accompany the new, super-sweaty, aggressive motion on the tennis courtroom.

George Miller’s “Furiosa” prequel is one other wild journey deeper into the dystopian Wasteland, with the younger, vengeful Furiosa (Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Pleasure) taking over Chris Hemsworth’s biker chief, Dementus, and carving a highway for herself. In opposition to this violent backdrop, composer Tom Holkenborg delivers one other primal rock opera of sound and fury from steel and synths.

“Inside Out 2,” the animated sequel from director Kelsey Mann, launched the hyperactive Nervousness (Maya Hawke) as the latest and most resonant emotion for 13-year-old Riley (Kensington Tallman). Pixar’s first feminine composer, Andrea Datzman, offers a rating that musically embodies the emotional rollercoaster, mixing melodic themes, intimate harmonies, and different pop-punk rock, wrapped round lush orchestrations.

“The Wild Robotic,” directed by Chris Sanders, is an animated sci-fi journey that finds robotic Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) washed ashore on an uninhabited island and should adapt and reside among the many animals, together with Brightbill (Package Conor), an orphaned gosling hen, and a fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal). Kris Bowers’ rating musically captures the convergence of Roz’s private journey of survival and transformation with the sense of neighborhood that she witnesses among the many animals on the island. The rating additionally shares musical DNA with the unique track “Kiss the Sky,” carried out and co-written by Maren Morris. 

“Emilia Pérez,” the genre-defying crime musical from Jacques Audiard, finds Zoe Saldaña’s disgruntled lawyer serving to the titular Mexican cartel chief (Karla Sofía Gascón) with intercourse reassignment surgical procedure to evade seize and affirm her gender. The operatic rating by Clément Ducol and Camille conveys the surreal mix of household drama, narcotics thriller, and musical (with a touch of comedy). The rating got here to them in an experimental manner after writing the songs. It blends with the dialogue, lyrics, and total soundscape.

“Joker: Folie à Deux,” Todd Phillips’ musical thriller, picks up with Arthur/Joker (Joaquin Phoenix) dealing with the dying penalty for a number of murders and hanging up a delusional romance with Girl Gaga’s Harley Quinn whereas incarcerated in Arkham Asylum. Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir follows up her Oscar-winning “Joker” rating by drawing out the tonality of Arthur’s internal anguish by means of strings with a custom-built “string jail,” which seeps into the songs which are his try to interrupt free.

“Conclave,” Edward Berger’s follow-up to “All Quiet on the Western Entrance,” is a psychological thriller through which Ralph Fiennes’ Cardinal searches for a successor to the deceased Pope, who harbored a darkish secret. “All Quiet” Oscar-winning composer Volker Bertelmann delivers a rating that varies from sacral items to thrilling energetic compositions for stress and sensitivity.

“Gladiator II,” Ridley Scott’s sequel to his Oscar winner, takes place twenty years later, when Lucius (Paul Mescal), the previous inheritor to the Empire, is compelled to enter the Colosseum as a ruthless gladiator. There, he faces Pedro Pascal’s Roman common, Marcus Acacius. Harry Gregson-Williams’ rating embodies the religious essence of the unique movie whereas making a contemporary sound for Lucius, who required a flexible melody that conveys his love, management, rage, and vengeance. Distinctive instrumentation included a baritone violin, electrical cello, and primitive horns that assist recall historic Rome.

“Nosferatu,” Robert Eggers’ ardour challenge, reworks the legendary silent vampire movie by F.W. Murnau with Invoice Skarsgård because the notorious Rely Orlok, Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, and Nicholas Hoult as her husband. Robin Carolan, the director’s go-to composer, captures the extraordinary terror and dread in addition to the tragedy and doomed romanticism of this gothic re-imagining. He combines large-scale orchestral work with genuine Japanese European instrumentation and unnerving sound design.

“Nickel Boys,” RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, explores two Black youngsters (Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson) who develop into wards of a barbaric juvenile reform faculty in Jim Crow–period Florida. Composers Alex Somers and Scott Alario lean into the movie’s sensory expertise with an experimental musical method: They captured a kids’s choir with cassette recorders, tape delays, and subject recordings from the set to create an ethereal and textural sonic setting that underscores the darkish tragedy.

As for the remaining: “Blitz,” by British director Steve McQueen, issues Londoners throughout the Blitz of World Battle II and facilities on a younger boy (Elliott Heffernan) despatched to the countryside for safekeeping, who’s decided to reunite along with his mom (Saoirse Ronan) and grandfather (Paul Weller) at their London dwelling. Together with his rating, Zimmer little question will seize the horror of the bombings, the nuances of the London neighborhood, and the intimate household drama at its core.

“Megalopolis,” Francis Ford Coppola’s $120 million epic sci-fi ardour challenge, is ready in a New York-like metropolis known as New Rome. After an accident destroys the decaying metropolis, an architect (Adam Driver) with the facility to regulate time makes an attempt to rebuild it as a utopia by means of his miracle-building materials, Megalon, however is met with resistance from the previous guard. Go-to composer Osvaldo Golijov offers a lush rating paying homage to the nice Miklós Rózsa.

“The Piano Lesson,” Malcolm Washington’s adaption of the August Wilson play starring John David Washington and Samuel L. Jackson, explores the lives of the Charles household in Melancholy-era 1936 Pittsburgh and the significance of the cherished household heirloom: a piano carved by their enslaved ancestor. Composer Alexandre Desplat, the grasp of melancholy, is ideal for scoring this story about legacy and self-worth.

In “Depraved,” Jon Chu’s adaptation of the Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, composer John Powell scores in collaboration with Schwartz. It’s in regards to the unlikely friendship between Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a misunderstood woman with inexperienced pores and skin, and the favored Galinda (Ariana Grande), who finally develop into the Depraved Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. 

“Queer,”* Guadagnino’s much-anticipated adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ semi-autobiographical novella about disconnected homosexual American expatriates in post-World Battle II Mexico Metropolis, finds heroin consumer William Lee (Daniel Craig) falling for the a lot youthful and enigmatic Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Their romance turns into an odyssey crammed with psychedelic surrealism and nice tenderness that finally takes them to the Ecuadorian jungle. Little question Reznor & Ross will rating this with a complementary musical odyssey.

“The Room Subsequent Door” (Warner Bros.) marks Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut with an adaptation of the novel “What Are You Going By way of” by Sigrid Nunez. It’s in regards to the rekindling of a relationship between a battle correspondent (Tilda Swinton), dying of most cancers, and a former co-worker (Julianne Moore). Go-to composer Alberto Iglesias will be counted on to supply his eclectic mix of melodic orchestral and atonal avant-garde types.

“The Brutalist” (Focus Options), from director Brady Corbet (“Vox Lux”), is a “Fountainhead”-inspired, 215-minute epic shot in 70mm, starring Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Hungarian Jew and Auschwitz survivor who struggles as a visionary architect earlier than being supplied a large challenge by Man Pearce’s Lee Van Buren. Corbet tapped his pal, experimental British composer Daniel Blumberg, to deal with the rating following his free jazz flourish on “The World to Come.”

For Wes Ball’s “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (twentieth Century Studios), which kicks off a brand new saga when apes rule, throwing collectively chimp teenager Noa (Owen Teague) and human Mae (Freya Allen), composer John Paesano pays tribute to Jerry Goldsmith’s iconic 1968 “Planet of the Apes” rating. Secret is “Human Hunt,” which interweaves Goldsmith’s “The Hunt” theme. Paesano enhances the unique piano motif whereas modernizing the association. On the similar time, Paesano offers his personal melodic and percussive signature to the sci-fi journey.

“Higher Man”* (Roadshow), from director Michael Gracey (“The Biggest Showman”), is a musical fantasy biopic about British singer Robbie Williams (who performs himself with Jonno Davies portraying the youthful model). The rating is by Batu Sener (“Harold and the Purple Crayon”), who’s beforehand labored in animation, together with the “Ice Age” franchise.

“Eden,”* Ron Howard’s survival thriller, explores a gaggle of Europeans in search of a brand new life within the harsh Galápagos Islands and getting sucked right into a thriller. The solid contains Jude Legislation, Vanessa Kirby, Daniel Brühl, Sydney Sweeney, and Ana de Armas. Zimmer has one more Oscar-contending rating to indicate off his artistic versatility.

“The Fireplace Inside” (Amazon MGM Studios), the directorial debut of cinematographer Rachel Morrison, is a coming-of-age biopic about younger boxing phenom Clarissa “T-Rex” Shields (Ryan Future) coaching for the 2012 Summer season Olympics in London. The rating from composer Tamar-kali strikes a stability between Shields’ transformative journey and the rhythmic and percussive nature of boxing by means of strings, percussion, fashionable digital sounds, and brass.

“The Finish”* (Neon), from Joshua Oppenheimer (“The Act of Killing”), is a post-apocalyptic musical with Swinton, Michael Shannon, and George MacKay as a musical household that sings and dances in an underground bunker after the top of the world. The rating for this extravaganza is by Joshua Schmidt (“Midwestern Gothic”) and Marius de Vries (“NAVALNY”).

*These movies don’t but have U.S. launch dates

Potential nominees are listed in alphabetical order; no movie will probably be deemed a frontrunner till now we have seen it.

“Challengers” (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)
“Dune: Half Two” (Hans Zimmer)
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (Tom Holkenborg)
“Inside Out 2” (Andrea Datzman)
“The Wild Robotic” (Kris Bowers)

“Higher Man” (Batu Sener)
“Blitz” (Hans Zimmer)
“The Brutalist” (Daniel Blumberg)
“Conclave” (Volker Bertelmann)
“Eden” (Hans Zimmer)
“Emilia Pérez” (Clément Ducol and Camille)
“The Finish” (Joshua Schmidt and Marius de Vries)
“The Fireplace Inside” (Tamar-kali)
“Gladiator II” (Harry Gregson-Williams)
“Joker: Folie à Deux” (Hildur Guðnadóttir)
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (John Paesano)
“Megalopolis” (Osvaldo Golijov)
“Nickel Boys” (Alex Somers & Scott Alario)   
“Nosferatu” (Robin Carolan)
“The Piano Lesson” (Alexandre Desplat)
“Queer” (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)
“The Room Subsequent Door” (Alberto Iglesias)
“Depraved” (John Powell)