Three Original Scores Were Disqualified From the Oscars for This Huge Reason

‘Arrival,’ ‘Silence,’ and ‘Manchester by the Sea’ were all disqualified for an Oscar for original score this year.

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The Oscars list of eligible contenders in the category for Original Scores is in, and three major films did not make the cut. According to reports at Variety,  original scores used in Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, and Silence were disqualified by the Academy on Tuesday because they contained some pre-existing music and therefore were not actually considered an original piece. 

The Academy defines an original score as "a substantial body of music that serves as original dramatic underscoring and is written specifically for the motion picture by the submitting composer." The Academy's rules and eligibility guidelines note that a score "shall not be eligible if it has been diluted by the use of pre-existing music, or it has been diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs or any music not composed specifically for the film by the submitting composer." In regards to Arrival, which was composed by Johann Johannson, the Academy reportedly ruled unanimously to give the score the boot, saying that voters would be influenced by the use of "borrowed material" in the composition.  Johannsson, who's been nominated twice twice for this category in the past, previously told Variety that he recorded a 16-track tape loop for his composition. 

Similarly, pre-existing music was also utilized in Lesley Barber's score for Manchester by the Sea. The Academy ruled that Barber's own work was not "substantial" enough for voters to determine its contribution to the film. Kim Allen Kluge and Kathryn Kluge’s score for Martin Scorsese’s Silence was also disqualified for those reasons.  

Although these three didn't qualify, there were a number of films that did live up to the Academy's standards. Alan Silvestri's score for Allied, Henry Jackman's for A Birth of a Nation, and Gary Lionelli's for OJ: Made in America all made the list of 145 original scores in the running for an Oscar this year. 

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