With a nomination for best score and two nods in the song category, “Cold Mountain” dominates the musical contenders for the 76th annual Academy Awards. Composer Gabriel Yared earned his third nomination for his score for the Civil War epic, while Sting and the team of T-Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello each earned song nominations.
Sting’s nomination for “You Will Be My Ain True Love” is his third Oscar nod. Burnett and Costello’s collaboration, “Scarlet Tide,” gives each his first nomination. Both songs are performed by Alison Krauss on the film’s DMZ/Columbia soundtrack.
Also nominated in the song category is “Into the West,” written by first-time nominee Annie Lennox in tandem with veterans Fran Walsh and Howard Shore, who have been nominated seven and three times, respectively. The Lennox-performed theme of “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” won the comparable honor at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards.
Rounding out the category is “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” from the folk music parody “A Mighty Wind.” The song was written by the film’s co-star and “Spinal Tap” alum Michael McKean and his wife, Annette O’Toole, and is the first nomination for each.
In the score field, Yared will go up against Shore’s formidable “Lord of the Rings” work, which won him the Golden Globe. Also nominated are Danny Elfman’s “Big Fish” score, Thomas Newman’s “Finding Nemo” work and James Horner’s music for the film “House of Sand and Fog.”
The final installment of director Peter Jackson’s trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” leads all films with 11 Oscar nominations, including best picture and director. The seafaring epic “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” is close behind with 10 nominations, also netting best picture and director nods.
The best picture category is rounded out by “Lost in Translation,” “Mystic River” and “Seabiscuit.”
ABC will broadcast the Academy Awards Feb. 29 live from Los Angeles. Actor/comedian Billy Crystal will take his eighth turn hosting the ceremony, which will be held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ Kodak Theatre.
Source billboard.com.
