See Who Was Nominated — and Who Was Passed Over — in Oscars’ 2025 Music Categories
Diane Warren received her 16th Oscar nomination for best original song on Thursday (Jan. 23) — a tally equaled by only three other songwriters in the 91-year history of the category. Sammy Cahn leads with 26 nods, followed by Johnny Mercer with 18 and Paul Francis Webster, also with 16. (This makes her the woman with the most best original song nods. She pulls ahead of the late lyricist Marilyn Bergman, who amassed 15.) Warren was nominated this year this year for “The Journey,” sung by H.E.R. in The Six Triple Eight.
Moreover, this is the eighth year in a row Warren has been nominated, which enables her to tie Cahn for the longest continuous streak of nominations in this category. Cahn was nominated eight years running from 1954 to 1961.
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Clément Ducol and Camille have two of the five songs that are nominated for best original song — “El Mal” and “Mi Camino,” both from Emilia Pérez. (They cowrote “El Mal” with the film’s director, Jacques Audiard.) This marks the first time that a songwriter or team of songwriters has had two nominated songs in the same year since 2017, when Justin Hurwitz and the team of Pasek & Paul had two nominated songs from La La Land, “City of Stars” (which won the award) and “Audition (The Fools Who Dream).”
Audiard, nominated for directing and original song for Emilia Pérez, becomes only the third person to be nominated in both the directing and original song categories, and the first to do so for the same film. Leo McCarey and Spike Jonze received their nominations in separate years.
This is the fifth year in a row that one or more non-English language songs has been nominated in the original song category. The streak started with “Io Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se) and continued with “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto, “Naatu Naatu” from RRR and “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People)” from Killers of the Flower Moon.
Elton John received his fifth Oscar nomination for co-writing “Never Too Late” Elton John: Never Too Late. It’s the second nod for his collaborator Bernie Taupin; and the first for fellow collaborators Brandi Carlile and Andrew Watt. “Never Too Late” is the first song written by four songwriters to be nominated for best original song since “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever two years ago, which was cowritten by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson.
Best Original Song Nominees
“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez; Music by Clément Ducol and Camille; Lyric by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard
“The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
“Like a Bird: from Sing Sing; Music and Lyric by Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez; Music and Lyric by Camille and Clément Ducol
“Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late; Music and Lyric by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt and Bernie Taupin
The Motion Picture Academy released a shortlist of 15 contenders for best original song on Dec. 17. One song, “Forbidden Road” from Better Man (Paramount Pictures) was removed from the shortlist two days later because of similarities to a 1973 film song, “I Got a Name” from The Great American Hero.
Among the notable songwriters who were shortlisted but not nominated: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pharrell Williams, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Miranda was shortlisted for writing “Tell Me It’s You” from Mufasa: The Lion King. Miranda has been just an Oscar away from an EGOT since 2014, when he won his first Primetime Emmy. He has been Oscar-nominated twice for writing “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana and “Dos Oruguitas” from Encanto.
Shortlisted But Not Nominated for Best Original Song
“Beyond” from Moana 2 (Walt Disney Pictures) — Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear
“Compress/Repress” from Challengers (Amazon MGM) — Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Luca Guadagnino
“Harper and Will Go West” from Will & Harper (Netflix) — Sean Douglas, Kristen Wiig, Josh Greenbaum
“Kiss the Sky” from The Wild Robot (DreamWorks Animation) — Delacey, Jordan Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Maren Morris, Michael Pollack, Ali Tamposi
“Out of Oklahoma” from Twisters (Universal Pictures) — Lainey Wilson, Luke Dick, Shane McAnally
“Piece by Piece” from Piece by Piece (Focus Features) — Pharrell Williams
“Sick in the Head” from Kneecap (Sony Pictures Classics) — Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvaí, Adrian Louis Richard Mcleod, Toddla T
“Tell Me It’s You” from Mufasa: The Lion King (Walt Disney Pictures) – Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Winter Coat” from Blitz (Apple Original Films) — Nicholas Britell, Steve McQueen, Taura Stinson
Best Original Score
Volker Bertelmann, who won two years ago for All Quiet on the Western Front, is nominated for Conclave.
Kris Bowers received his first scoring nomination for The Wild Robot. He has been nominated twice in documentary categories, for A Concerto Is a Conversation and The Last Repair Shop (both collabs with Ben Proudfoot).
Clément Ducol and Camille were nominated for Emilia Pérez. They are the third married couple to be nominated in a scoring category. Composer Fred Karlin and lyricist Tylwyth Kymry were nominated in 1971 for best original song score for The Baby Maker. Lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman were nominated for best original song score and its adaptation or adaptation score in 1984 for Yentl, on which they teamed with Michel Legrand.
John Powell and Stephen Schwartz were nominated for Wicked. The film has become the top-grossing film ever adapted from a Broadway musical.
Best Original Score Nominees
The Brutalist (A24), Daniel Blumberg
Conclave (Focus Features), Volker Bertelmann
Emilia Pérez (Netflix), Clément Ducol and Camille
Wicked (Universal Pictures) John Powell and Stephen Schwartz
The Wild Robot (DreamWorks Animation), Kris Bowers
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, two-time winners in the category (for The Social Network and Soul, a collab with Jon Batiste), were passed over for Challengers.
This was not Hans Zimmer’s year at the Oscars. First, his score for Dune: Part Two was ruled ineligible due to exceeding the Academy’s limit on pre-existing music. Academy rules state: “In cases such as sequels and franchises from any media, the score must not use more than 20% of pre-existing themes and music borrowed from previous scores in the franchise.” Zimmer’s score for Dune: Part Two incorporates substantial elements from his Oscar-winning score for 2021’s Dune. Zimmer was in on the score shortlist for his work on Steve McQueen’s Blitz, but that score failed to land a nomination.
Andrea Datzman was also passed over for Inside Out 2. With this release, Datzman became the first woman to score a Pixar feature film.
Shortlisted But Not Nominated for Best Original Score
Alien: Romulus (20th Century Studios) – Benjamin Wallfisch
Babygirl (A24) – Critobal Tapia de Veer
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Warner Bros. Pictures) – Danny Elfman
Blink Twice (Amazon MGM Studios) – Chanda Dancy
Blitz (Apple Original Films) — Hans Zimmer
Challengers (Amazon MGM) — Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM) — Tamar-kali
Gladiator II (Paramount Pictures) — Harry Gregson-Williams
Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 (New Line Cinema) – John Debney
Inside Out 2 (Pixar) — Andrea Datzman
Nosferatu (Focus Features) – Robin Carolan
The Room Next Door (Sony Pictures Classics) — Alberto Iglesias
Sing Sing (A24) — Bryce Dessner
The Six Triple Eight (Netflix) – Aaron Zigman
Young Woman and the Sea (Walt Disney Pictures) — Amelia Warner
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