Horner and Zimmer nominated for Oscars

James Horner’s score for Avatar, Hans Zimmer’s Sherlock Holmes, Alexandre Desplat’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders’ The Hurt Locker and Michael Giacchino’s Up have been nominated for the Oscar category Music (Original Score).

The nominations in the Music (Original Song) category were ‘Almost There’ and ‘Down in New Orleans’, both by Randy Newman for The Princess and the Frog, ‘Loin de Paname’ from Paris 36 (music by Reinhardt Wagner and lyrics by Frank Thomas), ‘Take It All’ by Maury Yeston for Nine and ‘The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)’ from Crazy Heart, by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.

The nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards were announced yesterday in Beverly Hills, California by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and actress Anne Hathaway.

Avatar, Up and The Hurt Locker also received nominations in many other categories, including Best Picture. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up and The Princess and the Frog were nominated for the Animated Feature Film Award.

Britain’s acting talent is represented by Dame Helen Mirren and Carey Mulligan, who will compete for Actress in a Leading Role, and Colin Firth, who has been nominated Actor in a Leading Role. Mirren won the same category in 2008 for The Queen and this is the fifth time she has been nominated.

24-year-old Mulligan has rocketed to success for her role in An Education and won two awards, including Best Actress, at the Richard Attenborough Film Awards last week. Firth’s role as a gay college professor in A Single Man has earned him his first Oscar nomination.

An Education, in which Mulligan is the leading lady, has also been nominated for an Award in the Adapted Screenplay category.  Its writer Nick Hornby is also British, as is comedian Armando Iannucci, who directed In The Loop.