Alan Menken Goes for a Tangled Record

Serious Film's Michael C. here to shine a light on an overlooked story from the Oscar nominations. 

With all the attention paid to Tangled focusing on its somewhat surprising exclusion from the Best Animated Film lineup I think most people missed the more interesting story. If Alan Menken wins the Oscar for best song for Tangled’s "I See the Light" - and he has as good a chance as any of winning - he will have won an incredible ninth Oscar. Already the most awarded living person a ninth trophy would surpass famed costume designer Edith Head tying him with composer Alfred Newman (All About Eve) for the most awarded individual Oscar winner in history. 

**Trivia Alert** 

This record is debatable since ahead of Menken would technically still be behind art director Cedric Gibbons with 11 wins for such films as An American in Paris and The Bad and the Beautiful and Walt Disney with an untouchable 22 wins and 4 honorary Oscars. But I don’t believe they should be ranked against Menken since they were men who took credit for the work of entire studios and didn’t necessarily participate in the creation of all the award-winning works. Gibbons, in particular, had it written into his contract that every film released by MGM until 1956 credited him as art director. His IMDB page lists over 1,000 films among his credits.
 

Oscar hoarders throughout time

Most Awarded Living Individuals

8 Wins

• Alan Menken

7 Wins

• Gary Rydstrom (All wins were in Sound categories though he was recently nominated for Best Short Film for the animated "Lifted")

6 Wins + 2 Special Achievement Oscars and 1 Technical Achievement Award

• Dennis Muren - special effects artist (Jurassic Park, Terminator 2)

6 Wins

• Rick Baker -makeup artist (The new nomination for The Wolfman is his 12th)

5 Wins

• John Williams (Easily the most nominated person alive with 45 to his credit)
• Francis Ford Coppola

4 Wins

• The Coen Brothers
• Clint Eastwood
• Andre Previn - composer (Gigi, My Fair Lady)
• Mark Berger (sound categories - only person to ever go 4/4 nomination-to-wins. Last win was for The English Patient)
• Christopher Boys (sound categories - most recent win was for King Kong)
• Bob Beemer (yet another sound guy. Sound seems to be the easiest category to rack up multiple wins in. His last win was for Dreamgirls)

Who will be the next person to join this list? Some of the people still working who are stuck at 3 wins include writer/directors Woody Allen, Peter Jackson and James Cameron, directors Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone, actor Jack Nicholson, costume designers Milena Canonero and Sandy Powell (pictured left on her third win for Young Victoria), editor Thelma Schoonmaker and art director Stuart Craig.

Do you think Alan Menken will win his 9th for Tangled?

Ear Candy: Best Sound, Score, Songs of 2010

I really am trying to get a move on with my Film Bitch Awards. If you're new to The Film Experience that's this site's annual awards. We've been doing it for (gulp) 11 years... Each year I promise myself to spend more time listening to the movies since my eyes are so greedy and always want to watch watch watch. But movies are not only eye candy. They can also provide significant aural pleasure. 

Some films that sound gooooooooood

So I've now announced the nominees in all the sound categories. mixing, editing, original song, original score and my own special category "best adapted or song score" which is a highly necessary category given that  so many films now use a mix-tape approach rather than relying on one person to provide the music. This weekend we'll try to wrap all the other "standard" i.e. Oscar categories -- as well as do final Oscar predictions -- since that's all gotta be out of the way before Oscar nomination morning. (I don't expect my lineups to match Oscar's much in sound and score but they rarely do so I won't be hurt too much on Tuesday.)

Come back and let me know what you think of the soundscapes of movies like Black Swan, I Am Love, Salt, The Social Network, The Ghost Writer, Burlesque and many more in the comments. (My ears are not as well trained as my eyes but each year I think I listen a little better. Progress)

After the Oscar nomination brouhaha winds down late next week, we'll hit the "fun" categories like Diva, Villain, Best Action Sequence. You know how we do.