2025 Oscars: Best Original Score Predictions

Nominations voting is from January 8-12, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 17, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT. We update our picks throughout awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

The Best Original Score expanded Oscar shortlist from December 17 includes “Alien: Romulus,” “Babygirl,” “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Blink Twice,” “Blitz,” “The Brutalist,” “Challengers,” “Conclave,” “Emilia Pérez,” “The Fire Inside,” “Gladiator II,” “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1,” “Inside Out 2,” “Nosferatu,” “The Room Next Door,” “Sing Sing,” “The Six Triple Eight,” “Wicked,” “The Wild Robot,” and “Young Woman and the Sea.”

“Blitz” (Apple TV+), from British director Steve McQueen, concerns Londoners during the Blitz of World War II in 1940. The harrowing drama focuses on a young bi-racial boy (Elliott Heffernan) sent to the countryside for safekeeping but immediately runs away and attempts to reunite with his mother (Saoirse Ronan) and grandfather (Paul Weller) back home in London. For composer Zimmer, this is a deeply personal movie since his mother was evacuated from Germany and spent the war years in London. Thus, he was privy to her stories about living in Mayfair, with all the bombs dropping around her. Zimmer reflected on his childhood when composing the score and constructed it from a child’s perspective of terror and chaos, opening with an orchestra of children’s recorders.

“Conclave” (Focus Features), Edward Berger’s follow-up to “All Quiet on the Western Front,” is a psychological thriller in which Ralph Fiennes’ Cardinal searches for a successor to the deceased Pope, who harbored a dark secret. “All Quiet” Oscar-winning composer Volker Bertelmann delivers a score that varies from sacral pieces to thrilling, energetic compositions for tension and sensitivity.

“Emilia Pérez” (Netflix), the genre-defying crime musical from Jacques Audiard, finds Zoe Saldaña’s disgruntled lawyer helping the titular Mexican cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón) with gender affirming surgery to evade capture and affirm her gender. The operatic score by Clément Ducol and Camille conveys the surreal blend of family drama, narcotics thriller, and musical (with a dash of comedy). The score came to them in an experimental way after writing the songs. It blends with the dialogue, lyrics, and overall soundscape.

In Fede Álvarez’s “Alien: Romulus” (20th Century Studios), which takes place between “Alien” and “Aliens,” Benjamin Wallfisch’s score pays tribute to Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner while creating his own menacing style balancing horror with action.

‘Challengers’©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection

“Gladiator II” (Paramount), Ridley Scott’s sequel to his Oscar winner, takes place two decades later, when Lucius (Paul Mescal), the former heir to the Empire, is forced to enter the Colosseum as a ruthless gladiator. There, he faces Pedro Pascal’s Roman general, Marcus Acacius. Harry Gregson-Williams’ score embodies the spiritual essence of the original film while creating a fresh sound for Lucius, who required a versatile melody that conveys his love, leadership, rage, and vengeance. Unique instrumentation included a baritone violin, electric cello, and primitive horns that help recall ancient Rome.

“The Wild Robot” (DreamWorks/Universal), directed by Chris Sanders, is an animated sci-fi adventure that finds robot Roz (Lupita Nyong’o) washed ashore on an uninhabited island and must adapt and live among the animals, including Brightbill (Kit Conor), an orphaned gosling bird, and a fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal). Kris Bowers’ score musically captures the convergence of Roz’s personal journey of survival and transformation with the sense of community that she witnesses among the animals on the island. The score also shares musical DNA with the original song “Kiss the Sky,” performed and co-written by Maren Morris. 

Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu” (Focus Features) reworks the legendary silent vampire film by F.W. Murnau with Bill Skarsgård as the infamous Count Orlok, Lily-Rose Depp as Ellen Hutter, and Nicholas Hoult as her husband. Robin Carolan, the director’s go-to composer, captures the intense terror and dread as well as the tragedy and doomed romanticism of this gothic re-imagining. He combines large-scale orchestral work with authentic Eastern European instrumentation and unnerving sound design.

With “Challengers” (Amazon MGM Studios), director Luca Guadagnino tackles the competitive 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 player Josh O’Connor, her ex-lover and his former best friend. Composers Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross provide the perfect driving, thumping, techno score to accompany the hot, super-sweaty, competitive action on the tennis court.

“Inside Out 2″ (Pixar/Disney), the animated sequel from director Kelsey Mann, introduced the hyperactive Anxiety (Maya Hawke) as the newest and most resonant emotion for 13-year-old Riley (Kensington Tallman). Pixar’s first female composer, Andrea Datzman, provides a score that musically embodies the emotional rollercoaster, blending melodic themes, intimate harmonies, and alternative pop-punk rock, wrapped around lush orchestrations.

‘The Wild Robot’ ©DreamWorks/Courtesy Everett Collection

In “Wicked” (Universal), Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, composer John Powell scores in collaboration with Schwartz. It’s about the unlikely friendship between Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a misunderstood girl with green skin, and the popular Galinda (Ariana Grande), who eventually become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda. 

“The Room Next Door” (Warner Bros.) marks Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut with an adaptation of the novel “What Are You Going Through” by Sigrid Nunez. It’s about the rekindling of a relationship between a war correspondent (Tilda Swinton), dying of cancer, and a former co-worker (Julianne Moore). Go-to composer Alberto Iglesias can be counted on to provide his eclectic blend of melodic orchestral and atonal avant-garde styles.

“The Brutalist” (Focus Features), 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 before being offered a massive project by Guy Pearce’s Lee Van Buren. Corbet tapped his friend, experimental British composer Daniel Blumberg, to handle the score following his free jazz flourish on “The World to Come.”

For “Babygirl” (A24), the erotic thriller starring Nicole Kidman about a shifting power struggle, Emmy-winning composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer (“The White Lotus”) creates a mesmerizing score appropriately filled with shifting moods and eclectic sounds.

“Blink Twice” (Amazon MGM Studios), Zoë Kravitz’s psychological thriller on a private island, features a moody score by Chanda Dancy that mixes classical, Japanese, and Indonesian styles.

‘Emilia Pérez’Shanna Besson/PAGE 114 – WHY NOT PRODUCTIONS – PATHÉ FILMS – FRANCE 2 CINÉMA

“The Fire Inside” (Amazon MGM Studios), the directorial debut of cinematographer Rachel Morrison, is a coming-of-age biopic about young boxing phenom Clarissa “T-Rex” Shields (Ryan Destiny) training for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. The score from composer Tamar-kali strikes a balance between Shields’ transformative journey and the rhythmic and percussive nature of boxing through strings, percussion, modern electronic sounds, and brass.

Kevin Costner’s epic Western, “Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1” (Warner Bros.), boasts a classic orchestral throwback score by John Debney, which fits the wide range of themes and melodies that underscore the Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West.

“The Six Triple Eight” (Netflix), Tyler Perry’s historical drama about the all-Black, all-female battalion during World War II, offers a rousing score by Aaron Zigman.

“Young Woman and the Sea” (Disney), Joachim Rønning’s sports biopic about Trudy Ederle (Daisy Ridley), the first woman to swim the English Channel, was scored by Amelia Warner around a classic theme of hope and determination with sweep and bombast.

“Sing Sing” (A24), Greg Kwedar’s biopic about John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo), founding member of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the maximum security prison, offers a score by Grammy-winning guitarist Bryce Dessner that underscores the environment and mood. It emphasizes an organic shaping with improvisation and dissonance. 

Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (Warner Bros), the sequel to his horror comedy, sees Michael Keaton’s foul-mouth ghoul return from the afterlife to torment the Deetz family 36 years later. Danny Elfman’s silly, spooky score jumps around stylistically in keeping with the kinetic movie that moves back and forth between the real world and the afterlife.

Potential nominees are listed in alphabetical order; no film will be deemed a frontrunner until we have seen it.

Frontrunners

“Blitz” (Hans Zimmer)
“Conclave” (Volker Bertelmann)
“Challengers” (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)
“Emilia Pérez” (Clément Ducol and Camille)
“The Wild Robot” (Kris Bowers)

Contenders

“Alien: Romulus” (Benjamin Wallfisch)
“Babygirl” (Cristobal Tapia de Veer)
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (Danny Elfman)
“Blink Twice” (Chanda Dancy)
“The Brutalist” (Daniel Blumberg)
“The Fire Inside” (Tamar-kali)
“Gladiator II“ (Harry Gregson-Williams)
“Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1″ (John Debney)
“Inside Out 2” (Andrea Datzman)
“Nosferatu” (Robin Carolan)
“The Room Next Door” (Alberto Iglesias)
“Sing Sing” (Bryce Dessner)
“The Six Triple Eight” (Aaron Zigman)
“Wicked” (John Powell)
“Young Woman and the Sea” (Amelia Warner)