Star Warsis a machine. And some of the best people in the industry work on all aspects of these movies, as now controlled by Disney. So it should come as no shock thatThe Last Jediwasnominated for a handful of Oscarsthis Tuesday. Some believed that the 8thStar Warssequel in the Skywalker saga could even take Best Picture, with noms for Best Director Rian Johnson and Supporting Actor Mark Hamill. That didn’t come to pass. But John Williams appears to be a lock for his Best Original Score.
John Williamsis the second most-nominated individual in Oscar history, andThe Last Jedimarks his 51st nomination. Out of those 51 noms, though, he has only taken home 5 golden statues. Perhaps the latestStar Warsmovie will bring him his sixthwin.
Williams has some pretty stiff completion in the BestOriginal Scorecategory. Also nominated on Tuesday for his work in Christopher Nolan’sDunkirkis Hans Zimmer. He is followed by Johnny Greenwood forPhantom Thread, Alexandre Desplat forThe Shape of Water, and Carter Burwell forThree Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. This may be the only category thatThe Last Jediwins, with Williams the odds on favorite.
The Last Jediwas avisual treat, so a win for Best Visual Effects could be a lock too. Richard Bain, Ben Morris, Neil Scanlan, and Chris Corbould are all nominated for the award. They will be competing against Marvel’s only nominated movieGuardians of the Galaxy 2, with Dan Sudick, Jonathan Fawkner, Guy Williams and Christopher Townsend. They face some mean competition against theBlade Runner 2049team of John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert, and Richard J. Hoover.War for the Planet of the Apescould be the big winner here, though, with Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Joel Whist nominated. The clear underdog in this race isKong: Skull Islandwith a team backed by Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza and Mike Meinardus.
Not only is the score forThe Last JediOscar-worthy, the entire sound scape of the movie has been nominated. ThisStar Warssequel has been nominated in both the Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing categories. And usually these two awards will go to the same movie. David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson are nominated for Best Sound Mixing, withThe Last Jedigoing up against Tim Cavagin and Mary H. Ellis forBaby Driver, Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill and Mac Ruth forBlade Runner 2049, Gregg Landaker, Gary Rizzo and Mark Weingarten forDunkirk, and Christian T. Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Brad Zoern forThe Shape of Water. It looks likeBaby Drivercould pull of its one Oscar win in this category, but competition is pretty tough.
Matthew Wood takes the sole nomination for Best Sound Editing, having worked onThe Last Jedias a solo mission. All of the same movies are once again nominated in this category, with Julian Slater nominated forBaby Driver, Mark Mangini nominated forBlade Runner 2049, Richard King nominated forDunkirkand Nathan Robitaille nominated forThe Shape of Water.
WhileThe Last Jedididn’t manage to secure any nominations in the biggest categories, with bad audience reviews possibly costing Mark Hamill his Best Supporting Actor nomination, the movie does have a few horses in the race, and it’s just as likely to win in any of the four categories. It’s likely that John Williams will walk away with a sixthOscar, but don’t ever count out Hans Zimmer. His score forDunkirkain’t too shabby.
