Golden Globe Winner Predictions: Best Original Score

The competition:

Mank was composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, marking their fourth nomination as well as their fourth nominated collaboration with director David Fincher after bids for “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and “Gone Girl” and a win for “The Social Network.” The duo is also nominated in this category for “Soul.” Their film is the nominations leader.

The Midnight Sky was composed by Alexandre Desplat, who was nominated last year for “Little Women,” in 2018 for “Isle of Dogs,” and won in 2017 for “The Shape of Water.” He has eight other previous nominations, including another win, for “The Painted Veil” for 2006. This is the only nomination for his film. This is his fourth collaboration with director George Clooney.

News of the World was composed by James Newton Howard. He was previously nominated for “King Kong” in 2005 and for “Defiance” in 2008. His film has only additional nomination for supporting actress Helena Zengel. This is his first collaboration with director Paul Greengrass.

Soul was composed by Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. This is the first nomination for Batiste and the fifth for the other two, who also contend this year for “Mank.” This is the only nomination for his film. This is their first collaboration with directors Pete Docter and Kemp Powers. This film is also nominated for Best Animated Film.

Tenet was composed by Ludwig Göransson, who was previously nominated for “Black Panther” in 2018. This is the only nomination for his film. This is his first collaboration with director Christopher Nolan.

Additional notes: The winner of this award has gone on to win the corresponding Oscar ten times in the past fifteen years, failing to receive a nomination just three times. All five of these scores made the fifteen-wide finalist list for this year’s Oscar category. The last time an animated film won this prize was way back in 1994 for “The Lion King.” Composers have been nominated for multiple projects in the same year before and have sometimes triumphed.

What should win? These are all great choices, and I’ve spent a lot of time listening to them after seeing the films. I do think that “Tenet” would get my vote since it’s just something else.
What will win? I don’t think it’s locked up, but I’ll bet on Tenet for now.