But what else... What were your favorites from the year that you want to see nominated? And then there's those that may not be favorites but you know the Academy will recognize anyway?

Other thoughts: Philip Glass hasn't written as many film and tv scores annually as he has in the last two or three years; this year alone three beautiful soundtracks on CD. I hope one of them is nominated. The public is buying The Illusionist at a brisk pace (thanks for the orders!). I enjoyed Roving Mars, but I can't recall an IMAX film score ever being nominated (against the rules, or what?!).

I also agree that Hollywood would nominate something related to The DaVinci Code before they would nominate something from The Nativitiy Story, which is unfornate. Nativity Story is more deserving of the two.

I wonder if the music branch leans more toward certain aspects of music scores than others, instead of truly a combination of all of them. Like importance of the music as it "works" in the movie (which requires an honest scholarly consumption of the movie, which no one has the time for if they are to be fair to all scores written in any given year), as well as the originality of the work on its own, and finally the emotional response the music evokes. All too often it's only the emotional response that music evokes, with little regard to originality and truly artful scoring, that gets the limelight.

I don't want to see any Zimmer or Horner this year, and looks so far like others don't either (a bit skewed as only two posts have been made with guesses!).

Also, would you recommend/consider Oscar-worthy "Pan's Labyrinth"?

(Edit: I see that your post above beat mine by a few moments--had I waited another few, I might have read your initial response. I suppose I overlooked 'Nativity', anticipating an attempt to capitalize/reclaim the success of 'Passion of the Christ', and as such, imitate it in as many ways possible. Less bloodshed, perhaps.)

1. Babel - Santaolalla
2. Da Vinci Code - Zimmer
3. The Fountain - Mansell
4. The Piented Viel - Desplat
5. Maybe a T. Newman score - either Good German or Little Children

My picks:

1. The Fountain - Mansell (easily my favorite score of the year)
2. Pan's Labyrinth - Navarette
3. Lady in the Water - Howard
4. The Departed - Shore
5. X Men 3 - Powell

Zimmer's Da Vinci Code is a definete runner up for me, as well as Giachinno's M:I:III.

Danna's score is interesting that he takes historical religious music (spanning about 800 to 1800) and incorporates this with his own music (specifically written to support the challenges and relationships of the leads).

Why? Because Danna figured this is the greatest story of all time. The nativity is an event that has inspired artists throughout the history of 0-present.

And then, to translate everything that wasn't originally from Latin verse into Latin verse to connect with the primary language that, for the greater part of 2000 years, was the language used to propagate the story of the nativity throughout civilization? Neat.

Scholarly art, originality, and great emotional response (just listen to "Holy Night" in Latin!).

THE QUEEN (Desplat)
LITTLE CHILDREN (Newman)
BABEL (Santaolalla)

Possibly also:
THE DEPARTED (Shore)
APOCALYPTO (Horner)

Oscar predictions:

1. All The King's Men, James Horner
2. The Good German, Thomas Newman
3. The Illusionist, Philip Glass
4. Apocalypto, James Horner
5. The Painted Veil, Alexnader Desplat

My nominations:

Babel (2006): Gustavo Santaolalla

The Good German (2006): Thomas Newman

Notes on a Scandal (2006): Philip Glass

Laberinto del Fauno, El (2006): Javier Navarrete

I was also a little disappointed not to see any technical achievements being given out to Casino Royale (especially a nod for Best Original Song, one that certainly has grown with me through viewings and listens). I do think all of the technical nods are well-deserved though. It's a great pleasure to see Wally Pfister back up on the Cinematography list for yet another Christopher Nolan film. Hopefully they'll wake up and actually give him the award the continuously tease him with. Visgmond's camera work on The Black Dahlia was my absoulte favorite of the year, so I'm glad that got recognized. And to see Lubezki and Navarro being nominated together is wonderful. However, Dick Pope's cinematography for The Illusionist was one of the primary problems I had with the film. It all felt too fake, too staged. I got the idea that he was harkening back to an earlier time with his cinematography, but it came across as cheap and useless; it added nothing to the already weak story and characters. At least Pfister and Nolan had the dignity to address their film as something that could exist in timelessness. Jeong-hun Jeong's cinematography for Sympathy for Lady Vengeance went for the same lighting style of the stark images and specifically lit objects, but it achieved mood rather than forgery. I would have loved to see it nominated.

I do like Desplat, so I'm looking into purchasing 'The Queen,' but I have just one nagging question: does he make gratuitous use of that bass synthesizer he used to such horrifically annoying effect in 'Birth' (and with far more restraint in 'The Painted Veil')? It drives me UP THE WALL, and I hereby vow to never again knowingly purchase one of his scores that contains it, as much as I adore his writing.

Thomas Newman may finally win, but ironically for a score that's more Alfred than Tommy! D'oh.

And I still don't like him.

NewmanNewmanNewmanNewmanNewmanNewmanNewmanNewmanNewmanNewmanNewman

And for what's worth...my Top Five Scores of 2006 (+ TV):

The Black Dahlia - Mark Isham
The Departed - Howard Shore
Eragon - Patrick Doyle
The Good German - Thomas Newman
The Nativity Story - Mychael Danna

Planet Earth - George Fenton

CK

As much as I'd like to see Navarrete or Newman get an award, my gut says it'll go to Philip Glass, if only because he's probably the best known outside of film music circles.