The shortlists for the music categories have been revealed for the 97th Academy Awards, with 15 contenders for Best Original Song and 20 semifinalists for Best Original Score now one step closer to potentially earning Oscar nominations when they’re announced on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025.
The two frontrunners from “Emilia Pérez” — “El Mal” and “Mi Camino” — are both among the 15 shortlisted songs. Expectedly, the song category includes several high-profile singers, musicians and songwriters, such as Pharrell Williams, Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Lainey Wilson, Maren Morris, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robbie Williams, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Surprising Oscar contender Kristen Wiig, who co-wrote “Harper and Will Go West” from Will Ferrell’s “Will & Harper” documentary, also keeps her hopes alive for her first Academy Award nomination.
Diane Warren’s inclusion for her latest song “The Journey,” which is featured in Netflix’s “The Six Triple Eight,” brings the potential for her eighth consecutive Oscar nomination in the Original Song category. Should she end up being nominated next month, it would mark her 10th Academy Award nomination in the last 11 years.
There were notable snubs in the song category as well: Lady Gaga for her original tune, “Folie à Deux,” in the underwhelming and widely panned “Joker: Folie à Deux”; and Miley Cyrus, who co-wrote the title track for Gia Coppola’s “The Last Showgirl,” alongside Lykke Li and producer Andrew Wyatt.
Among the 20 scores up for Oscar nomination consideration are Clément Ducol and Camille for “Emilia Pérez,” Stephen Schwartz for “Wicked,” Hans Zimmer for “Blitz,” Daniel Blumberg for “The Brutalist,” Kris Bowers for “The Wild Robot,” Volker Bertelmann for “Conclave,” Harry Gregson-Williams for “Gladiator II” and Danny Elfman for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”
Significant omissions included Reznor and Ross for “Queer,” Jon Batiste for “Saturday Night” and Nicholas Britell, Dave Metzger and Williams for “Mufasa: The Lion King.” Zimmer, who moves forward on the score shortlist for the war epic “Blitz,” did not meet the Academy’s eligibility requirements for “Dune: Part Two” as it incorporated elements from his previous score for 2021’s “Dune.”
The second round of voting begins Wednesday, Jan. 8 and closes Sunday, Jan. 12, with nominations announced Friday, Jan. 17. Final voting takes place from Tuesday, Feb. 11 to Tuesday, Feb. 18. The 97th Academy Awards will air live coast-to-coast Sunday, March 2, 2025, on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. For the first time in history, the Oscars will be streamed live on Hulu.
See the complete shortlists, below:
ORIGINAL SCORE
“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”
“Young Woman and the Sea”
ORIGINAL SONG
“Forbidden Road” by Robbie Williams, Freddy Wexler and Sacha Skarbek from “Better Man”
“Winter Coat” Nicholas Britell, Steve McQueen and Taura Stinson from “Blitz”
“Compress/Repress” by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross from “Challengers”
“Never Too Late” by Elton John, Brandi Carlile and Andrew Watt from “Elton John: Never Too Late”
“El Mal” by Clément Ducol, Camille and Jacques Audiard from “Emilia Pérez”
“Mi Camino” by Clément Ducol and Camille from “Emilia Pérez”
“Sick in the Head” by Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara, DJ Próvaí, Adrian Louis Richard Mcleod, and Toddla T from “Kneecap”
“Beyond” by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear from “Moana 2”
“Tell Me It’s You” by Lin-Manuel Miranda from “Mufasa: The Lion King”
“Piece by Piece” by Pharrell Williams from “Piece by Piece”
“Like a Bird” by Abraham Alexander, Brandon Marcel and Adrian Quesada from “Sing Sing”
“The Journey” by Diane Warren from “The Six Triple Eight”
“Out of Oklahoma” by Lainey Wilson, Luke Dick and Shane McAnally from “Twisters”
“Kiss the Sky” by Delacey, Jordan Johnson, Stefan Johnson, Maren Morris, Michael Pollack and Ali Tamposi from “The Wild Robot”
“Harper and Will Go West” by Sean Douglas, Kristen Wiig and Josh Greenbaum from “Will & Harper”
See the other Oscar shortlists, below.
