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Oscar-winning movie soundtracks from history
Discover all the winners of the prestigious Best Original Score category at the Oscars - almost 80 years of fantastic movie soundtracks!
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1. One Night Of Love - Victor Schertzinger and Gus Kahn
1935: This musical is set in the world of opera singers and, with its rip-roaring score, managed to beat competition from the great movie composer Max Steiner's The Lost Patrol. Like the rest of the soundtracks in the list, the Academy Award is given for films released in the previous year.
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2. The Informer - Max Steiner
1936: Max Steiner was beaten to the Oscar in the previous year, but he he made sure with The Informer. Interestingly, he also managed to beat competition from the legendary Erich Korngold, since then revered as one of the founding fathers of movie soundtracks.
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3. Anthony Adverse - Erich Korngold
1937: He's currently enjoying something of a renaissance thanks to Nicola Benedetti's evangelisation of his violin concerto, but Erich Korngold got his first Oscar back in 1937 for this fabulous score.
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4. One Hundred Men and a Girl - No composer credit
1938: This is a strange one - there's no official composer credit for this Oscar-winner. Charles Previn (pictured conducting in a different movie entirely), head of the Universal Studio Music Department, is who received the award, but even in a film that stars the great Leopold Stokowski as himself. The soundtrack itself also features a lot of existing classical music (Tchaikovsky, Mozart) etc, recorded by Stokowski.
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5. The Adventures of Robin Hood - Erich Korngold
1939: A second Oscar for Korngold, and a typically ripping score for the swashbuckling Errol Flynn movie.
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6. The Wizard of Oz - Herbert Stothart
1940: Herbert Stothart's score for the classic musical beat the likes of Max Steiner, Alfred Newman, Dmitri Tiomkin and a young buck by the name of Aaron Copland.
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7. Pinocchio - Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith
1941: You'd expect the films of Walt Disney to have a glittering record in the soundtrack category, but this was the first time a Disney film bagged one for the music, and it would be quite some time before they got another...
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8. All That Money Can Buy - Bernard Herrmann
1942: The great Bernard Herrmann picked up his first ever Oscar with this score for this early fantasy film, which included several interesting takes on traditional folk tunes.
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9. Now Voyager - Max Steiner
1943: Max Steiner returned to the Oscar podium to collect the award for Best Music for this golden classic.
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10. The Song of Bernadette - Alfred Newman
1944: Alfred Newman beat stiff competition from Max Steiner (again) and Aaron Copland (again) to swipe the Oscar in 1944.
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11. Since You Went Away - Max Steiner
1945: This drama about the American home front in WWII meant a third trip up to the podium for Max Steiner, thanks to his blend of adventure and wistfulness in the score.
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12. Spellbound - Miklós Rósza
1946: A winner back when the category was known as 'Music (Score of a Dramatic Picture or Comedy), Rósza's score for beat tens of rivals - including two other scores written by Rósza himself.
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13. The Best Years Of Our Lives - Hugo Friedhofer
1947: A cracking win for Hugo Friedhofer - he managed to pip Bernard Herrmann and Miklós Rósza to the Oscar in 1947.
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14. A Double Life - Miklós Rósza
1948: The Oscar merry-go-round continued, with Miklós Rósza taking his second gong ahead of some familiar faces - Friedhofer, Newman and Steiner.
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15. The Red Shoes - Brian Easdale
1949: The Red Shoes saw an Oscar newcomer take the gong at his first attempt - Brian Easdale's score to The Red Shoes was also the first time a British composer had won the award.
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16. The Heiress - Aaron Copland
1950: After several nominations in the 30s and 40s, Aaron Copland finally managed to win the Best Soundtrack Oscar just before the second half of the 20th century.
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17. Sunset Boulevard - Franz Waxman
1951: Franz Waxman was famous for his scores for horror pictures like Bride of Frankenstein, but with this nail-biting film-noir soundtrack he got the pinnacle award in the world of film composition.
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18. A Place In The Sun - Franz Waxman
1952: Waxman made it two in a row in 1952 with the score to this George Stevens-directed drama.
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19. High Noon - Dmitri Tiomkin
1953: After several nominations, Dmitri Tiomkin finally got his hands on a soundtrack Oscar with the score to this classic western.
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20. Lili - Bronislau Kaper
1954: Polish composer Bronislau Kaper was the first Pole to ever win the Oscar for best soundtrack, thanks to his work on Lili, which featured Zsa Zsa Gabor.
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21. The High And The Mighty - Dmitri Tiomkin
1955: This action-packed disaster movie has a busy score from Oscars regular Dmitri Tiomkin (picking up his second), and starred none other than John Wayne in the lead role.
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22. Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing - Alfred Newman
1956: Another nominations stalwart, Alfred Newman finally got his hand on an Oscar in 1956. His son, Thomas Newman, has currently been nominated 10 times for the same award - can he do it this year?
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23. Around The World In Eighty Days - Victor Young
1957: The first-ever posthumous award in this category went to the great Victor Young, veteran of several Broadway musicals. It beat the soundtracks to James Dean classic Giant, and The Rainmaker, scored by Alex North.
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24. The Bridge on the River Kwai - Malcolm Arnold
1958: The legendary Malcolm Arnold's signature angular motifs are deftly inserted into his score for this Alec Guinness classic, which earned him the Oscar in 1958.
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25. The Old Man and the Sea - Dmitri Tiomkin
1959: This adaptation of an Ernest Hemingway novel earned Spencer Tracy a Best Actor nomination, but Dmitri Tiomkin went one better and got the Oscar for Best Original Score.
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26. Ben-Hur - Miklós Rósza
1960: This was Rósza's third and final Oscar for Best Original Score, and it shows - it's endured throughout movie soundtrack history as one of the most exciting and involving scores on record.
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27. Exodus - Ernest Gold
1961: Kicking off the '60s with this war epic soundtrack, Ernest Gold bagged his first Oscar. The film itself was a controversial affair for several reasons, not least for its portrayal of the Arab-Israeli conflicts from 1947, and starred Paul Newman.
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28. Breakfast At Tiffany's - Henry Mancini
1962: With its superb score of lush, jazzy songs and more, Henry Mancini took his first Oscar with Breakfast At Tiffany's - he also beat the scores to El Cid and The Guns Of Navarone.
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29. Lawrence of Arabia - Maurice Jarre
1963: Maurice Jarre's hugely popular theme beat the likes of Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith to the Oscar in '63, and it's remained a favourite ever since.
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30. Tom Jones - John Addison
1964: Surrey-born composer John Addison became a bona-fide Oscar-winner with his score for the romping period comedy Tom Jones. Starring Albert Finney in the title role, Addison makes sure that the humour of the movie comes through in the score.
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31. Mary Poppins - Richard Sherman, Robert Sherman
1965: For sheer toe-tapping tunes, it's difficult to beat Mary Poppins. Very difficult indeed, it would seem - even Henry Mancini's score for The Pink Panther couldn't stop it taking the Oscar.
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32. Dr Zhivago - Maurice Jarre
1966: Jarre strikes again with another colossal-sounding epic soundtrack that matches the scope of its source material.
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33. Born Free - John Barry
1967: The legendary John Barry picked up his first Oscar with this gorgeous score that accompanied James Hill's Kenya-set drama about an orphaned lion cub.
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34. Thoroughly Modern Millie - Elmer Bernstein
1968: He found movie soundtrack immortality when he composed the score for The Great Escape, but Elmer Bernstein's work on Thoroughly Modern Millie won him his first Oscar, beating the likes of Lalo Schifrin and Quincy Jones.
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35. The Lion In Winter - John Barry
1969: Two years after winning his first Oscar, John Barry triumphed again with another lion-related score, this time for the Peter O'Toole (pictured) and Katherine Hepburn drama The Lion In Winter.
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36. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Burt Bacharach
1970: In a year that saw John Williams get his first nod for the Original Soundtrack gong (he'd previously been nominated in the Best Score Adaptation category), songwriting legend Burt Bacharach's score for this classic western was strong enough to triumph.
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37. Love Story - Francis Lai
1971: Kicking off the '70s in schmaltzy style, Francis Lai's score to the wildly successful romantic movie Love Story. Lai beat competition from some of the Oscar usuals - Henry Mancini, Alfred Newman and Jerry Goldsmith.
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38. Summer of '42 - Michel Legrand
1972: Michel Legrand (pictured) got his first Oscar with his wistful score to this coming-of-age drama.
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39. Limelight - Charlie Chaplin, Raymond Rasch, Larry Russell
1973: This posthumous Oscar was awarded to this Chaplin film from 1952, but subsequently fell out of circulation because of Charlie Chaplin being refused re-entry to the US when the film was originally touring. It received screenings in Los Angeles in 1972, making it eligible for the Oscars.
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40. The Way We Were - Marvin Hamlisch
1974: The late, great Marvin Hamlisch cemented his legendary film composing status with this fantastic score that won an Oscar against stiff competition from John Williams (by this point becoming an Oscars regular). Hamlisch also bagged the Oscar for Original Song Score and Adaptation, thanks to his work on The Sting in the same year.
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41. The Godfather Part II - Nino Rota, Carmine Coppola
1975: Nino Rota was originally nominated for the Original Dramatic Score Oscar for the first Godfather movie in 1972, until it emerged that Rota had used portions of another earlier score. So he made double sure when the second film came around, heading off Jerry Goldsmith's score for Chinatown and John Williams' music for The Towering Inferno.
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42. Jaws - John Williams
1976: Finally, after several nominations, John Williams got his first Oscar for the classic Spielberg thriller Jaws. Here he is signing a Jaws poster when Classic FM interviewed him last year.
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43. The Omen - Jerry Goldsmith
1977: Horror classic The Omen has its share of iconic scenes (pane of glass decapitation, anyone?) but it wouldn't have worked half as well if it wasn't for Jerry Goldsmith's haunting choral score.
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44. Star Wars - John Williams
1978: If anyone was in any doubt about whether John Williams had truly arrived on the movie soundtrack scene, Star Wars sealed the deal. Simply one of the most iconic soundtracks ever written, it became a blueprint for all the heroic film scores that followed.
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45. Midnight Express - Giorgio Moroder
1979: In a year that saw the reigning champ John Williams return with another rousing score for Superman, Giorgio Moroder's electronic score to Midnight Express was a surprise winner.
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46. A Little Romance - Georges Delerue
1980: Georges Delerue picked up his first and only Oscar for Original Score with his score for this light-hearted romance.
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47. Fame - Michael Gore
1981: Michael Gore's music for the global hit Fame was a sensation, and so it proved when he was given the soundtrack Oscar, beating the likes of veteran John Williams with The Empire Strikes Back and more left-field fare like Altered States by John Corigliano.
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48. Chariots Of Fire - Vangelis
1982: Recently the subject of a Mr. Bean-related revival, Vangelis score for athletics drama Chariots Of Fire marked another significant change in the fortunes of electronic music at the Oscars.
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49. ET The Extra-Terrestrial - John Williams
1983: Just proving that a traditional symphonic score with soaring melodies could do just as well as an electronic soundtrack, John Williams picked up another Oscar for ET.
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50. The Right Stuff - Bill Conti
1984: Bill Conti (pictured) regularly appears as the conductor at the Oscar ceremony itself, so this was a doubly special Oscar win for him.
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51. A Passage To India - Maurice Jarre
1985: Here's Maurice Jarre collecting the third Oscar of his career, thanks to the sumptuous score for David Lean's drama.
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52. Out Of Africa - John Barry
1986: Another John Barry triumph, and another British soundtrack Oscar (despite the movie's reliance on Mozart's Clarinet Concerto). Barry beat the previous year's winner, Maurice Jarre, whose soundtrack for Witness couldn't quite pip him to the post.
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53. Round Midnight - Herbie Hancock
1987: Round Midnight was another stylistic landmark for the Best Original Score Oscar, being an especially jazzy affair. Jazz-based scores had been nominated before (Bernard Herrmann's Taxi Driver, for instance), but this was a notable non-symphonic win for Herbie Hancock.
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54. The Last Emperor - Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Byrne, Cong Su
1988: Bernardo Bertolucci (pictured) enlisted Ryuichi Sakamoto to compose the incidental music for The Last Emperor, and also managed to get Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and Cong Su to contribute songs too. Another interesting non-traditional choice for the Academy, but when would the symphonists get another look-in?
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55. The Milagro Beanfield War - Dave Grusin
1989: Directed by the great Robert Redford, this is perhaps one of the more forgotten Best Original Score winners - particularly when you consider who Dave Grusin was up against. He managed to beat John Williams (The Accidental Tourist), George Fenton (Dangerous Liaisons), Maurice Jarre (Gorillas In The Mist) and Hans Zimmer (Rain Man).
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56. The Little Mermaid - Alan Menken
1990: Disney are back! Not since Pinnochio back in the '40s had a Disney animation won in the Best Original Score category, so newcomer Alan Menken's first Oscar was a bit of a coup.
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57. Dances With Wolves - John Barry
1991: It's a fourth for John Barry! Dances With Wolves was the Bond composer's third Oscar for Best Original Score, fourth overall when added to the Best Original Song Oscar he won for Born Free. John Williams was nominated again, but couldn't quite manage another - which means Barry was, for a time, even with Williams.
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58. Beauty and the Beast - Alan Menken
1992: Alan Menken grabbed a second Oscar with his score to Beauty and the Beast, at the time one of the films that reignited interest in Disney animations.
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59. Aladdin - Alan Menken
1993: Menken made it an Oscar hat-trick with Aladdin, the following year to his triumph with Beauty and the Beast. It ushered in a hey-day of Disney animations and, notably, fantastic songs and scores.
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60. Schindler's List - John Williams
1994: John Williams bagged his fifth and most recent Oscar with his haunting violin theme to Steven Spielberg's holocaust drama Schindler's List
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61. The Lion King - Hans Zimmer
1995: A first-time Oscar-winner, Hans Zimmer's score for The Lion King was the fourth Disney film to win the Best Original Score award in five years - a remarkable dominance in the category.
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62. Il Postino - Luis Bacalov
1996: Disney's reign had to end, and Luis Bacalov's Il Postino was the soundtrack to end it with an Oscar for Dramatic Score (the Musical or Comedy Score was won by Alan Menken again, for Pocahontas - so it wasn't all bad news for Disney). Remarkably, James Horner was nominated twice in the same category for his work on Apollo 13 and Braveheart, but it wasn't enough to topple Bacalov.
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63. The English Patient - Gabriel Yared
1997: The English Patient rejuvenated interest in the British film industry, and Gabriel Yared's score managed to bag the Oscar for Dramatic Score - Rachel Portman's score for Emma won in the Musical or Comedy category.
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64. Titanic - James Horner
1998: James Horner got his first ever Oscar with the multi-award-winning epic that was Titanic, which won a massive 11 awards. That's not to detract from Horner's achievement - he was up against John Williams, Danny Elfman, Philip Glass and Jerry Goldsmith. Meanwhile, in the Musical or Comedy category, Anne Dudley's music for The Full Monty took an Oscar back to Britain.
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65. Life Is Beautiful - Nicola Piovani
1999: The Italian movie Life Is Beautiful was a surprise success story at the Oscars in 1999, but Nicola Piovani's score also managed to fend off competition from John Williams (again... this is getting silly now...) and Hans Zimmer.
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66. The Red Violin - John Corigliano
2000: Not content with winning an Oscar for the soundtrack to the Samuel L. Jackson drama The Red Violin, John Corigliano took portions of the score and turned them into his violin concerto. How's that for resourceful?
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67. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - Tan Dun
2001: Kicking off the millennium with a martial arts epic, the music from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a great mesh of western symphonic and traditional eastern sounds.
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68. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - Howard Shore
2002: The tradition of grand fantasy trilogies in cinema returned with a vengeance in 2002 with the first Lord of the Rings movie. Just as iconic as the visuals and the story was Howard Shore's soaring score, which beat a double nomination for John Williams.
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69. Frida - Eliot Goldenthal
2003: Salma Hayek (pictured) starred as artist Frida Kahlo in this 2002 biopic, but it was composer Eliot Goldenthal who brought home the Oscar for his soundtrack.
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70. The Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King - Howard Shore
2004: Well, two out of three ain't bad... Howard Shore's Oscar for Original Score was just one of 11 Oscars that Return Of The King picked up in 2004, and his second after three scores for the series.
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71. Finding Neverland - Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
2005: An Oscar newcomer, Jan A. P. Kaczmarek's score for this Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet fantasy drama about JM Barrie was strong enough to fend off both John Williams and Thomas Newman.
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72. Brokeback Mountain - Gustavo Santaolalla
2006: Ang Lee's drama about the relationship between two cowboys was much admired in 2006, not least for its haunting soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla - it was his first, and saw him head off two rival nominations from John Williams.
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73. Babel - Gustavo Santaolalla
2007: Gustavo Santaolalla strikes again, making it two years in a row winning the Oscar for Best Original Music - this time for the multi-layered Brad Pitt drama Babel.
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74. Atonement - Dario Marianelli
2008: Marianelli's music for the film version of Ian McEwan's novel Atonement won plaudits from all quarters in a rare John Williams-free year.
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75. Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman
2009: Another Oscars first - a Bollywood-influenced score taking the gong for Best Original Music. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire was a huge awards hit.
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76. Up - Michael Giacchino
2010: Disney returned to the Oscar soundtracks category with Giacchino's charming score to the animated classic Up, which managed to beat Hans Zimmer, James Horner and Alexandre Desplat to the prize.
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77. The Social Network - Trent Renor, Atticus Ross
2011: A largely electronic score suited the social media drama The Social Network perfectly, and the Academy acknowledged it as such in a strong year for the category, featuring Hans Zimmer's music for Inception and Alexandre Desplat's for The King's Speech.
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78. The Artist - Ludovic Bource
2012: In a film where sound (or lack of) was one of the most important elements, the music has to be exceptional. Fortunately, Ludovic Bource's characterful work was exactly that, and beat yet another double John Williams nomination. Will 2013 be the year for him?
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79. Life Of Pi - Mychael Danna
2013: Canadian composer Mychael Danna beat a strong field to win his first ever soundtrack Oscar with his Indian-influenced score for Ang Lee's Life Of Pi. Also nominated were John Williams (surely his time will come again soon?), Thomas Newman, Alexandre Desplat and Dario Marianelli.
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80. Gravity - Steven Price
Composer Steven Price accepts the Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score award for 'Gravity' on stage during the Oscars
