Eligible Original Songs & Scores for the 98th Oscars

by Nathaniel R

Both of the following massive lists will be narrowed down to fifteen contenders on December 16 when the Academy reveals the shortlists in all the categories that use multiple ballots. But for now all the composers can all imagine golden statues in their future...

68 ELIGIBLE ORIGINAL SONGS
It's worth noting that even if you make an entirely original musical only two songs can be nominated so even when a film has multiple theoretically eligible songs they often submit only one or two so they're not competing with themselves. For instance KPop Demon Hunters had several original songs but they submitted only "Golden"... which is a bummer for those of us who love "Sodapop" just as much! Songwriters (not performers) are the official nominees in this category but we've listed the performers because if we try to list the songwriters we'll forget someone (as there are often multiple people crafting these tunes).  Bold indicates that we're rooting for them to make the 15-wide shortlist on December 16...

We've included a few of the music videos for your enjoyment / discovery. 

Arco – “Clouds Away” (November Ultra & Arnaud Toulon)
Avatar: Fire and Ash – “Dream as One” (Miley Cyrus)
The Bad Guys 2 – “Goodlife” (Rag’n’Bone Man)
The Bad Guys 2 – “Taking Everything” (Busta Rhymes)

The Ballad of Wallis Island” – “Our Love” (Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan)
Ballerina – “Fight Like a Girl” (Evanescence)
Bau, Artist at War – “However Long Forever Is” (Ryn Kid)
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” – “The Risk” (Laufey)

Billy Idol Should Be Dead – “Dying to Live” (Billy Idol)
Black Butterflies” – “Immigrantes” (Ruben Blades)
Brownsville Bred – “Semilla De Fe” (Edwin Vazquez)
Caught Stealing – “Rabbit Run” (Idles)
Chronicles of Disney – “Rising Sun at the Edge of the Ocean” (Jeremy Renner and Yi Zhou)

Come See Me in the Good Light – “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” (Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile)
David – “Follow the Light” (Brandon Engman, Phil Wickham and Angel)
Death of a Unicorn – “DOA” (St. Vincent)
Déjà vu: The Peril of Pauline – “They Say That Nothing Dies” (Cybela Clare)
Diane Warren: Relentless – “Dear Me” (Kesha)
F1 – “Drive” (Ed Sheeran)
F1 – “Lose My Mind” (Don Toliver featuring Doja Cat)
Freakier Friday – “Baby” (Lindsay Lohan)
Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie – “Kaleidoscope” (Gabby’s Dollhouse)
Goodbye June – “Good Goodbye”

Highest 2 Lowest – “Highest 2 Lowest” (Aiyana-Lee)
Highest 2 Lowest – “Trunks” (A$AP Rocky)
Him – “Him” (Denzel Curry)
How to Train Your Dragon – “You Are My Homeward” (John Powell)

Hurry Up Tomorrow – “Hurry Up Tomorrow” (The Weeknd)
I Know Catherine, the Log Lady” -“Some Believe”

In Your Dreams – “The Holding on and the Letting Go” (Simu Liu & Cristin Milioti)

KPop Demon Hunters – “Golden” (HUNTR/X, Ejae, Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami)

Lilly – “I Will Not Take It Anymore” (Cassidy Daniels)
Long Shadows – “Long Shadows” (Shockley & Fields)

Materialists – “My Baby (Got Nothing at All)” (Japanese Breakfast)

A Minecraft Movie – “I Feel Alive” (Jack Black)
My Dead Friend Zoe – “Beautiful Ruin” (Dan Romer & Kaia Kater)
On Swift Horses – “Song for Henry” (Loren Kramer)
Opus – “Dina, Simone” (Moretti, Nile Rodgers & The Dream)

Paddington in Peru – “Let’s Prepare for Paddington” (Olivia Coleman)
Paro (The Untold Story of Bride Slavery) – “Bawragayi”
Paro (The Untold Story of Bride Slavery) – “Lament”
Plainclothes – “My San Francisco” (Emily Wells)
Roommates – “A Wildflower” --- editors note. I can't find any info about this. What is this movie? Who did the song? There is one undated Roommates movie on IMDb and a TV series and one over 3 hour movie dated 2025 but neither of the films have much info.
The Rose: Come Back to Me – “Trauma” (The Rose)
Rule Breakers – “We Believe in Hope” (Aryana Sayeed, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Jeff Beal & Angel)
Sarah’s Oil – “The Gift” (Tamar Braxton)

Scarlet – “A Celebration Song” (Maya & Ayumu Matsuda)
Scarlet – “Nostalgia” (Kumu Hula – Iokepa Lopaka Ka o onuku umu Igarta-De Vera)
Scarlet – “Vastness” (Mana Ashida)
Sheepdog – “Wait for Me” (Loryn Taggart)

Sinners – “I Lied to You” (Miles Caton)
Sinners – “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” (Alice Smith and Miles Caton)
Songs From the Hole – “Steel Grave” (JJ’88)
The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants – “Big Guy” (Ice Spice)
Steve – “Don’t Leave Too Soon” (Little Simz)

Superman – “The Mighty Crabjoys Theme” (The Mighty Crabjoys featuring Foxy Shazam and Lou Lou Safran)

The Testament of Ann Lee – “Clothed by the Sun” (Daniel Blumberg and Amanda Seyfried)
The Testament of Ann Lee – “John’s Running Song” (cast of “The Testament of Ann Lee”)
Train Dreams – “Train Dreams” (Nick Cave)

Tron: Ares – “As Alive As You Need Me to Be” (Nine Inch Nails)

The Twits – “Open the Door” (David Byrne & Hayley Williams)
Viva Verdi! – “Sweet Dreams of Joy” (Nicholas Pike)

Wicked: For Good – “The Girl in the Bubble” (Ariana Grande)
Wicked: For Good – “No Place Like Home” (Cynthia Erivo)

Yolo – “I’m From Ulundurpettai” (Adithya RK)
Yolo – “Mudhal Mazhaithuli” (G.V. Prakash Kumar & Priyanka NK)
Yolo – “Kangal Kaanum Oru Kanavo” (Sireesha Bhagavatula & Akash Premkumar)

Zootopia 2 – “Zoo” (Shakira)

ORIGINAL SCORE
And while we're talking music here are the Original Scores that are eligible, all 135 of them. Once again, the Academy's music branch has made non-sensical rulings and the second part of Wicked is eligible just as the first one was despite both films doing everything that's supposed to make you ineligible: a reliance on preexisting material and being significantly diluted with songs. It's insane. It feels very very politically suspicious and we hate that given that they have been such sticklers in the past and disqualified worthier music for doing must less of both of those things! Remember when they disqualified "Come What May" from Moulin Rouge! because it was written years earlier for a different film by the same auteur (but never used or published). Meanwhile Stephen Schwartz can theoretically win an Oscar for songs he wrote more than 20 years ago and already won a Tony Award for.

Bold are scores we're fond of even if we don't think all of them should be eligible. (Haven't yet heard everything though)

• The Actor (Richard Reed Perry)
• All of You (Ian Hultquist and Sofia degli Alessandri)
• All Operators Are Currently Unavailable (Marko Levanic)
• The Alto Knights (David Fleming)
• Anemone (Bobby Krlic)
• Arco (Arnaud Toulon)
• Avatar: Fire and Ash (Simon Franglen)
• The Bad Guys 2 (Daniel Pemberton)
• Ballad of a Small Player (Volker Bertelmann)
• The Ballad of Wallis Island (Adem Ilhan)
• Bau, Artist at War (John Coda)
• Belén (Marilina Bertoldi)
• A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (Joe Hisaishi)
• Black Bag (David Holmes)
• Black Phone 2 (Atticus Derrickson)
• Bring Her Back (Cornel Wilczek)
• Bugonia (Jerskin Fendrix)
• Captain America: Brave New World (Laura Karpman)
• Caught Stealing (Rob Simonsen and Idles)
• Christy (Antony Partos)
• Chronicles of Disney (Yi Zhou)
• Companion (Hrishikesh Hirway)
• The Conjuring: Last Rites (Benjamin Wallfisch)
• Dashavatar (AV Prafullachandra)
• David (Joseph Trapanese)
• Dead Man’s Wire (Danny Elfman)
• Death of a Unicorn (Dan Romer and Giosue Greco)
• Diane Warren: Relentless (Lesley Barber)
• Dog Man (Tom Howe)
• Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (Chris Letcher)
• Dust Bunny (Isabella Summers)
• East of Wall (Lukas Frank and Daniel Meyer-O’Keefe)
• Echo Valley (Jed Kurzel)
• Eddington (Daniel Pemberton and Bobby Krlic)
• Eleanor the Great (Dustin O’Halloran)
• The Electric State (Alan Silvestri)
• Elio (Rob Simonsen)
• Eternity (David Fleming)
• F1 (Hans Zimmer)
• The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Michael Giacchino)
• Final Destination: Bloodlines (Tim Wynn)
• Frankenstein (Alexandre Desplat)
• Freakier Friday (Amie Doherty)
• The Friend (Jay Wadley and Trevor Gureckis)
• Friendship (Keegan DeWitt)
• Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie (Stephanie Economou)
• Gevi (Bala Subramanian)
• Good Fortune (Carter Burwell)
• Goodbye June (Ben Harian)
• H Is for Hawk (Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch)
• Hamnet (Max Richter)
• Hedda (Hildur Gudnadottir)
• Hello Beautiful (Marco Werba)
• Highest 2 Lowest (Howard Drossin)
• Him (Bobby Krlic)
• The History of Sound (Oliver Coates) - LOVE THE MUSIC BUT WHY IS IT ELIGIBLE? Much of the soundscape is preexisting material in its wall-to-wall folk songs.
• Honey Don’t (Carter Burwell)
• A House of Dynamite (Volker Bertelmann)
• The Housemaid (Theodore Shapiro)
• Hurry Up Tomorrow (Abel Testaye and Daniel Lopatin)
• In Your Dreams (John Debney)
• Is This Thing On? (James Newberry)
• Jay Kelly (Nicholas Britell)
• Joachim and the Apocalypse (Michele Josia)
• Jurassic World Rebirth (Alexandre Desplat)
• Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1 (B. Ajaneesh Loknath)
• Last Breath (Paul Leonard-Morgan)
• The Legend of Ochi (David Longstreth)
• The Life of Chuck (The Newton Brothers)
• Lilo & Stitch (Dan Romer)
• Long Shadows (Tommy Fields)
• The Long Walk (Jeremiah Fraites)
• Lost & Found in Cleveland (Sven Faulconer)
• The Lost Bus (James Newton Howard)
• A Magnificent Life (Stefano Bollani)
• Marty Supreme (Daniel Lopatin)
• The Mastermind (Rob Mazurek)
• Materialists (Daniel Pemberton)
• Mickey 17 (Jung Jae-il)
• A Minecraft Movie (Mark Mothersbaugh)
• The Naked Gun (Lorne Balfe)
• No Other Choice (Jo Yeong-wook)
• Nobody 2 (Dominic Lewis)
• Nuremberg (Brian Tyler)
• Oh, Hi! (Steven Price)
• On Swift Horses (Mark Orton)
• One Battle After Another (Jonny Greenwood)
• Opus (Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans)
• Paddington in Peru (Dario Marianelli)
• Paro (The Untold Story of Bride Slavery) (Satish Chakravatrhy)
• Pillion (Oliver Coates)
• The Plague (Johan Lenox)
• Plainclothes (Emily Wells)
• Predator: Badlands (Sarah Schachner and Benjamin Wallfisch)
• Preparation for the Next Life (Emile Mosseri)
• Prime Minister (Sofia degli Alessandri)
• A Private Life (Robin Rob Coudert)
• Rebuilding (Jake Xerxes Fussell and James Elkington)
• Rental Family (Jonsi and Alex Somers)
• Roofman (Christopher Bear)
• Rosemead (Will Bates)
• Rule Breakers (Jeff Beal)
• The Running Man (Steven Price)
• Sarah’s Oil (Kathryn Bostic)
• Scarlet (Taisei Iwasaki)
• Schindler Space Architect (Mark Tschanz)
• Sentimental Value (Hania Rani)
• The Shrouds (Howard Shore)
• Sinners (Ludwig Goransson) - LOVE THE MUSIC BUT SHOULDN'T IT HAVE ANOTHER CATEGORY TO COMPETE IN? It's so jampacked full of songs, both original and pre-existing, that you can arguably call it a musical! Maybe the Academy should bring back the Best Original Song Score or Best Adapted Score categories or some fusion of them and that's where we could honor things like KPop Demon Hunters, Siners, Wicked For Good, The Testament of Ann Lee, The History of Sound, Hurry Up Tomorrow and more... 
• Sirāt (Kangding Ray)
• Sisu: Road to Revenge (Juri Seppa and Tuomas Wainola)
• The Smashing Machine (Nala Sinephro)
• Sorry, Baby (Lia Ouyang Rusli)
• Soul of a Nation (Mikel Hurwitz)
• The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants (John Debney)
• Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (Jeremiah Fraites) - AGAIN The soundscape is extremely reliant on its song score of pre-existing and very famous material by Bruce Springsteen.
• Steve (Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow)
• Stitch Head (Nick Urata)
• The Testament of Ann Lee (Daniel Blumberg)
• Thunderbolts* (Son Lux)
• Train Dreams (Bryce Dessner)
• Tron: Ares (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)
• Truth & Treason (Aaron Zigman)
• 28 Years Later (Young Fathers)
• Twinless (Jung Jae-il)
• The Twits (Oli Julian)
• 2000 Meters to Andriivka (Sam Slater)
• The Voice of Hind Rajab (Amine Bouhafa)
• The Vortex (Asdru Sierra)
• Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Nathan Johnson)
• Weapons (Ryan Holladay, Hays Holladay, Zach Cregger)
• Wicked: For Good (John Powell and Stephen Schwartz) - COULD HAVE BEEN RELEASED AS A SING-ALONG AND THIS IS WHY THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL IT SHOULD BE ELIGIBLE.  Schwartz won the Tony Award for this song score 21 years ago. Yes he composed two new songs but they're eligible in Best Original Song!
• Wolf Man (Benjamin Wallfisch)
• Yolo (Fei Peng)
• Zootopia 2 (Michael Giacchino)