Oscar Trivia: "Arrival" and Best Original Score Eligibility
Saturday, November 19, 2016 at 3:30PM 
by Chris Feil
Like his Denis Villeneuve Sicario collaboration last year, Jóhann Jóhannsson's score for Arrival is powerful and one of the most memorable components of its film. One of the special aspects of Jóhannsson's work with Villeneuve is how his scores both embody and inform the thematic landscape of the film. The composer was Oscar nominated for his pulsing Sicario score and you can easily imagine him returning this year.
But before we guess too quickly, take stock of the moving final piece that plays over the film's finale because you may have heard it before. The gorgeous track, "On the Nature of Daylight", is actually by Max Richter and has been used in previous films like Shutter Island.
None of this is to discredit Jóhansson's terrifying and soulful work, but one wonders if such prominent and integral use of Richter's work could hurt the composer's nomination chances...
The track is even credited somewhat prominently in the end credits, so the Arrival team isn't hiding anything about its use. The Academy has made some eligibility judgments of arguable fairness in relation to use of preexisting music in the past, so let's take a look at some past disqualifications to see if Jóhannsson might make it after the jump...
This is maybe the most easily understood disqualification in the bunch considering how heavily Clint Mansell's work borrows from and alludes to the original Swan Lake score. However, his reinterpretation is still an inextricable piece of this film.
Antonio Sanchez's jazzy, drum-centric is a perfect reflection of the film's tone and was a unique opportunity to reward work outside of the typically more orchestral norm. But no dice.
True Grit
While sung hymns are featured in the film, Carter Burwell's beautiful score infuses variations of piano hymns enough to merit ineligibility. Had he been nominated, I suspect the film still would've tied The Turning Point and The Color Purple for most nominations without a win.
Jonny Greenwood's first pairing with Paul Thomas Anderson was instantly iconic and among the best of that year. Like True Grit, the Academy deemed its (much smaller, mind you) use of traditional hymns enough to give it the axe.
But this is the most instantly recognizable and egregious omission. This classic score is unique among this list for being disqualified after it had already received a nomination. So in that regard, Alone Yet Not Alone is not alone.
Many other films have been disqualified for multiple composers (which may not be a good sign for Moana) or an overabundance of songs on the soundtrack. Do you think Johansson will be eligible?
Reader Comments (15)
Jungle book uses bare neccessities in its score at one point. I wonder if it will be disqualified as well.
I think it should be eligible. In his prior work, Theory of Everything, which also got nominated for Best Original Score for Oscars and even won the Golden Globe, had music at the end which was not composed by Jóhansson. It was rather, "Arrival of the birds" by The Cinematic Orchestra. So in my opinion, Jóhansson is pretty much eligible for his work on Arrival. The music was amazing, completely in sync with the tone of the film. I loved it.
I dont think it will face any difficulty. The score doesn't interpolate Richter's music throughout the score, does it? And, also, there's always BABEL...
Remember The Artist? It won the category despite that inexplicable (to me) use of the Vertigo score during the climactic sequence.
Moana stands no chance because the Academy doesn't view original musical scores as the same thing as original film scores. Once they understand lyrics, those scores are relegated to Original Song consideration unless enough musicals with original song scores are released in a year to trigger the category specifically made for original musical film scores. It's incredibly stupid.
Arrival could be disqualified as late as the day before the nominations are announced (like Where the Wild Things Are) and we would have no indication that it would happen.
Wasn't There Will Be Blood dq-ed because Johnny had reused some of his existing work from his BBC projects?
Paranoid -- yes, it was. they're very inconsistent with their rulings I think.
There's the Richter piece (which is used more substantially than The Cinematic Orchestra piece in ToE) .. but also the vocal pieces are either the pre-existing work of Joan la Barbara (which Johannsson has said he uses as 'found objects' ) or based heavily on her body of work.
Which I think may likely rule him out this year ...
Nat: So why don't they have an Adapted Score/Song Score (as in Tarantino/early Wes Anderson style music jobs) category? It would paint a more honest picture of the aural film year these days.
If it's just one or two musical cues, it shouldn't be a problem - even if it is an important one. Remember: Movies like King's Speech or Babel (which even won) weren't disqualified. There Will Be Blood was because there was too much classical music imbedded within Greenwoods work.
I would rather bet, that the academy will disqualify La-La-Land for Best Original Score. Why? Because after the golden Disney-era from The Little Memraid till The Hunchback of Notre Dame the rules were changed. Since then scores with too many songs are deemed ineligible (just look at Tangled or Frozen). But again there was at least one notable exception, that nonetheless made the cut: Slumdog Millionaire.
So, you never know... ;)
I remember The Godfather's ineligibility embarassment. However, contrary to what it has done on other occasions, the Academy appointed a new film to fill in the fifth slot that had been left vacant. And the nomination went to John Addison's spectacular score for Sleuth - quite a consolation prize for anyone who lamented the lost opportunity for Nino Rota.
Since we are talking about this particular category, that year John Williams received two nominations: for The Poseidon Adventure and for Robert Altman's Images. I strongly recommend Altman's forgotten film starring Susannah York to everyone.
Images is one of John Williams' best works.
Volvagia -- i have asked this many times but I guess they don't like to add categories which I can also understand.
This might be a bad example considering it wasn't nominated, but Room made the eligibility list despite the fact that it used a pre-existing piece of music in the escape scene. I'm willing to bet that Arrival makes it on.
Volvalgia and Nat: From 1962 through 1984 the Academy had a Best Score category for scores that were not necessarily fully original. There were two categories for scores and one for songs.
At the beginning it was Best Scoring: Substantially Original and Best Scoring: Adaptation or Treatment.
Later on it was Best Scoring: Original Music and Best Scoring: Song Score and/or Adaptation.
So, it would be a question