The OSCARs: a preview

1. Hans Zimmer

The nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards attended a lunch at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 7, 2011 in Beverly Hills, California. Among the five nominees for the category Music (Original Score) this year is Hans Zimmer, for his Inception soundtrack.

2. Hans Zimmer

Inception is the eighth soundtrack for which Zimmer has been nominated for an Oscar. Last year he was nominated for Sherlock Holmes. Here he is in 1995, when he won an Oscar for The Lion King.

3. Hans Zimmer

In December 2010 Hans Zimmer was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, acknowledging his phenomenal success to date, with scores including The Lion King, Gladiator and Dark Knight.

4. Alexandre Desplat

Alexandre Desplat has just won a BAFTA for his soundtrack for The King's Speech. Will he also be lucky at the Oscars? Last year he was nominated for an Oscar for Fantastic Mr Fox.

5. The King's Speech

The Original Music award was just one of the seven scooped by The King's Speech at this year's BAFTAs.

6. Alexandre Desplat

Alexandre Desplat is currently in London working on his score for the final Harry Potter film. He's seen here at the premiere of the penultimate Harry Potter film. He came in to Classic FM a few weeks ago and you can hear the interview in the Music section.

7. A.R. Rahman

A.R. Rahman is another of the hopefuls for the Music (Original Score) category of the Oscars. He's nominated for 127 Hours. Here he is accepting the award for Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song) at the 81st Annual Academy Awards held at Kodak Theatre on February 22, 2009 in Los Angeles, California.

8. A.R. Rahman

In 2009 A.R. Rahman won a whole string of awards for his soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire, including Oscars and a BAFTA, which he's holding here. Here him talk about 127 Hours in our interview in the Music section.

9. John Powell

John Powell's score for How to Train Your Dragon is also nominated in the Music (Original Score) category this year.

10. John Powell

Composer John Powell (far left) is seen here with the cast of Happy Feet, at its Hollywood premiere in 2006.

11. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

The final nomination for Music (Original Score) this year goes to The Social Network. The soundtrack was composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, pictured here at the 83rd Academy Awards nominations luncheon.

12. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

In January Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor won the award for Best Original Score (Motion Picture) for The Social Network in the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

13. Trent Reznor

14. Michael Giacchino

Last year Michael Giacchino won the Oscar for Music (Original Score), for his soundtrack to Up.

15. James Horner

Desplat and Zimmer were nominated for Music (Original Score) last year, as this year. The other nominees last year were James Horner, pictured here, who wrote the soundtrack to Avatar, and Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders, for The Hurt Locker.