The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced their latest nominations for their movie awards, including Original Music:

BlacKkKlansman - Terence Blanchard
If Beale Street Could Talk - Nicholas Britell
Isle of Dogs - Alexandre Desplat
Mary Poppins Returns - Marc Shaiman
A Star Is Born - Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Lukas Nelson

Justin Hurwitz won the Golden Globe for Best Original Score, Motion Picture for First Man, and "Shallow" from A Star Is Born won Best Original Song, Motion Picture.

CDS AVAILABLE THIS WEEK

Aquaman - Rupert Gregson-Williams - WaterTower
Delitto Quasi Perfetto - Carlo Rustichelli - Digitmovies
Doctor Who: Series 11 - Segun Akinola - Silva
Don Camillo - Pino Donaggio - Digitmovies
Fumo di Londra - Piero Piccioni - Beat
Once Upon a Time in the West - Ennio Morricone - Beat 

We hope you haven't disappeared for the holidays yet, because the jam-packed December edition of FSM ONLINE is now live. This month’s cover story is an interview with NICHOLAS BRITELL about his music for IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK and VICE, both shortlisted in the Best Score Oscar race. Also this issue, KRIS BOWERS tells us about scoring GREEN BOOK and coaching Mahershala Ali in his role of Dr. Don Shirley; RUPERT GREGSON-WILLIAMS dives deep for AQUAMAN; an interview with music supervisor MAGGIE PHILIPS on the soundtrack of HOMECOMING (written by FSM founder Lukas Kendall!); a HOMECOMING Counterpoint with Tim Greiving and the Kaplans arguing the merits of tracking; MAX RICHTER hails MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS; THEODORE SHAPIRO builds a score for DESTROYER; MYCHAEL DANNA writes for a living legend in ON THE BASIS OF SEX; LUDWIG GÖRANSSON re-enters the ring with CREED II and discusses his big year; Cary Wong’s annual MEMO TO THE ACADEMY MUSIC BRANCH takes on a different context; inside the Tadlow Records scoring session of KING OF KINGS; a very merry EAR OF THE MONTH contest; lots of album reviews, including MARY POPPINS RETURNS, MORTAL ENGINES and RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET; more embedded audio clips, and more.

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For the first time since the 1979 Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced shortlists for nominations in their music categories:

ORIGINAL SCORE
Annihilation [Geoff Burrow, Ben Salisbury]
Avengers: Infinity War [Alan Silvestri]
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs [Carter Burwell]
Black Panther [Ludwig Goransson]
BlacKkKlansman [Terence Blanchard]
Crazy Rich Asians [Brian Tyler]
The Death of Stalin [Christopher Willis]
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald [James Newton Howard]
First Man [Justin Hurwitz]
If Beale Street Could Talk [Nicholas Britell]
Isle of Dogs [Alexandre Desplat]
Mary Poppins Returns [Marc Shaiman]
A Quiet Place [Marco Beltrami]
Ready Player One [Alan Silvestri]
Vice [Nicholas Britell]

ORIGINAL SONG
"All the Stars" - Black Panther
"The Big Unknown' - Widows
"Girl in the Movies" - Dumplin'
"I'll Fight" - RBG
"Keep Reachin'" - Quincy
"OYAHYTT" - Sorry to Bother You
"A Place Called Slaughter Race" - Ralph Breaks the Internet
"The Place Where Lost Things Go" - Mary Poppins Returns
"Revelation" - Boy Erased
"Shallow" - A Star Is Born
"Suspirium" - Suspiria
"Treasure" - Beautiful Boy
"Trip a Little Light Fantastic" - Mary Poppins Returns
"We Won't Move" - The Hate U Give
"When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings" - The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The score list has its share of surprises. Because the list had to be finished before the end of the calendar year, I was worried that the Music Branch voters would go for the obvious film-and-composer choices, but perhaps because such perennial nominees as Randy Newman, Thomas Newman and John Williams had no new scores this year, they went for a more eclectic group. Only two of the fifteen listed scores were composed by past winners (Alexandre Desplat and Justin Hurwitz) and five of the fifteen were scored by composers who have never been nominated. The most unexpected inclusions were Annihilation and The Death of Stalin, and it's reassuring that the shortlist voters would show their support for such relatively obscure composers as Christopher Willis and the Burrow/Salisbury team, especially with heavy hitters like Giacchino and Zimmer not making the cut.