Oscar Predictions: Best Original Score

This year, Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 23rd. I’ll be offering detailed predictions in most of the major categories, saving some of the biggest categories for last.

Last year’s nominees: Jackie, La La Land, Lion, Moonlight, Passengers

This year’s locks: The Shape of Water, Dunkirk, Phantom Thread

Very likely: The Post

Possible: Darkest Hour, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Blade Runner 2049, Coco, Get Out, Molly’s Game

Unlikely: The other 131 eligible films!

The rundown: There are four films that have been nominated for both the Golden Globe and the Critics Choice Award, and I think they’re all but guaranteed to make the cut: The Shape of Water, Dunkirk, Phantom Thread, and The Post. After that, the final Globe nominee was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and the other two Critics Choices were Darkest Hour and Blade Runner 2049. Coco could compete, as could Get Out and Molly’s Game. I think this category is pretty set though, but we’ll see.

One possible crazy scenario: Two time-nominee Patrick Doyle returns with a bid for Murder on the Orient Express.

Forecasted winner: I see this going to The Shape of Water.