Sometimes the historical success of a film rests solely on its music, at least with us film score fans. Such is the case with BORN FREE. Based on naturalist Joy Adamson’s bestselling book, the film chronicles the African adventures of Joy (Virginia McKenna) and her husband George (Bill Travers), including bringing up a lioness cub. [...]

Elliot Goldenthal always seems to produce his best work when he’s collaborating with his real life partner, director Julie Taymor. And such was the case with his Oscar-winning score to FRIDA (2002). Selma Hayak lustily portrays the tortured life of painter Frida Kahlo in the captivating biopic, from Frida’s humble beginnings, her marriage to legendary revolutionary [...]

Ask any film score fan for one of Oscar’s greatest injustices and they’ll point to Anne Dudley‘s 1997 win for THE FULL MONTY. This sleeper hit surprised many by also picking up a Best Picture nod in this tale of six out-of-work steelworkers in a once-thriving English suburb who decide to strip to earn a [...]

The granddaddy of all disaster movies–THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY–holds a special place in the history of film music and the Academy Awards. Based on Ernest K. Gann’s novel, the film follows passengers aboard an airplane in distress from Hawaii to San Francisco. The film is basically a multi-character soap opera in the sky, with John [...]

My buddy Tim got married a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t at the wedding and I’ve never even met Tim in person. Yet we’ve connected through Twitter, this blog, and our love of film music. You really can connect with people online, even when you haven’t physically met. I was as happy for Tim [...]

Published in FSM Online March 2010 This year marks the 75th anniversary of the first Academy Awards in Music. While the Best Song category has remained essentially unchanged since its inception (except for those continually bizarre behind-the-scenes nomination rules), the Best Scoring category has been subjected to numerous permutations and title changes over the years [...]

Legendary French composer Georges Delerue finally won an Oscar in 1979. But that award is tainted–or sweetened, depending on how you look at it–by the delicate strains of Vivaldi. A LITTLE ROMANCE is charming but slight; yet it yearns with the heartbreak of first love. Directed by Oscar-winner George Roy Hill (THE STING), Diane Lane (in [...]

When FINDING NEVERLAND was released in 2004, it came with the pedigree of playwright J.M. Barrie as its inspiration, the Miramax marketing machine, and Johnny Depp in the lead. Depp stars as Barrie, whose friendship with widow Kate Winslet and her four boys provide the inspiration for Barrie’s Peter Pan. By the time the Oscars rolled [...]

Based on Hervey Allen’s bestselling epic novel of historical romance in the Napoleonic era, ANTHONY ADVERSE emerged as one of the biggest hits of 1936 and was nominated for six Oscars, winning four, including the first-ever Best Supporting Actress (Gale Sondergaard). Fredric March stars as the title hero and the film follows his adventures from [...]

LOVE STORY was the Number One film of 1970 and probably the most famous three-hanky tearjearker of all time. Harvard law student (and millionaire) Ryan O’Neal meets Radcliffe music student (and self-described “social zero”) Ali MacGraw and the two quickly (way too quickly) fall in love. There’s marriage, a few fights, and success in law, [...]