- Title: FILE: A look at the 2026 Oscar nominated score composers
- Date: 9th March 2026
- Summary: BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (RECENT - FEBRUARY 10, 2026) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMPOSER AND BEST SCORE NOMINEE FOR "FRANKENSTEIN", ALEXANDRE DESPLAT, ON HOW HE BEGINS TO SCORE FOR FILMS, SAYING: "It's a matter of instinct, but also a matter of following the dramaturgy, you know, follow the hills and valleys of the film and how the actors who are play
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: 98th Academy Awards Alexandre Desplat Jerskin Fendrix Jonny Greenwood Ludwig Goransson Max Richter best original score Oscar nominees composers
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA008334106022026RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Composers Alexandre Desplat, Ludwig Goransson, Max Richter, Jonny Greenwood and Jerskin Fendrix are in the running for the best original score Oscar at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15.
Desplat, who reunited with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro on the score for "Frankenstein," after winning the same category's golden statuette for del Toro's "The Shape of Water" in 2018, told Reuters recently that the Mexican filmmaker opens up "the largest canvas to paint" with music.
"It's a matter of instinct, but also a matter of following the dramaturgy, you know, follow the hills and valleys of the film and the actors who are playing the scenes and how you can respect what they are doing, respect their voices, the way they giev out their lines - soft or loud," said Desplat.
Directed and written by Oscar-winning del Toro, the new adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic novel sees ambitious and arrogant scientist Victor Frankenstein, played by Oscar Isaac, piecing a creature together from body parts and bringing to life an indestructible but gentle giant (Jacob Elordi).
Goransson scored the multi-Oscar-nominated film "Sinners," again working with filmmaker Ryan Coogler on the vampire thriller, after winning the Oscar for best original score in 2019 for Coogler's "Black Panther." The Swedish composer and musician also won in the same category in 2024 for nuclear drama "Oppenheimer."
Goransson told Reuters at the London premiere in April last year that he had Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich play drums on the "Sinners" score, a heavy metal band that "got him interested in music."
"I feel like it's so interesting because obviously Metallica and heavy metal, rock music, it all comes from the blues, right? And I feel like that's what I was kind of trying to tell also in this score as well," he said.
Set in Mississippi in 1932, "Sinners" sees identical twins Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan), return to their hometown after a seven-year stint in Chicago. Equipped with cash, guns and liquor, the entrepreneurial duo sets out to open a juke joint in an old saw mill, swiftly hiring old acquaintances as its workers and security. But when unexpected visitors turn up at the club's doors, the opening night party turns into a bloodbath.
Goransson has already scooped Grammys for best score soundtrack for visual media and best compilation soundtrack for visual media for the film. He has also won best score for "Sinners" at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards and the BAFTA Awards.
Composer Jerskin Fendrix, Oscar nominated for best score in 2024 for "Poor Things," teamed up again with filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos for "Bugonia".
The dark comic thriller follows two conspiracy-driven cousins, played by Jesse Plemons and newcomer Aidan Delbis, who kidnap a powerful pharmaceutical CEO, portrayed by Emma Stone, convinced she is an alien plotting humanity's destruction. It is an English-language remake of South Korean director Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 "Save the Green Planet!"
Max Richter is nominated for "Hamnet". The British-German composer of "Lore" recently won the Berlinale Camera award at the 76th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin for his contribution to cinema.
Directed by Academy Award-winning "Nomadland" filmmaker Chloe Zhao, "Hamnet" offers a fictional account of the relationship between William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes and the death of their 11-year-old son Hamnet in 1596.
Set in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, it sees the young Shakespeare, who is teaching Latin to pay off his father's debts, fall in love with the free-spirited Agnes. With a focus on their family life, the emotion-filled film tracks the highs and lows of their love story as well as the grief over the loss of their son, that leads Shakespeare to write "Hamlet."
British musician and lead guitarist of rock band Radiohead Jonny Greenwood scored Oscar-nominated filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson's action-packed dark comedy thriller "One Battle after Another," starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
The actor plays a washed-out political revolutionary who is forced out of retirement when an old adversary abducts his daughter. It co-stars Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti, who makes her feature film debut as DiCaprio’s onscreen daughter. The film is loosely based on Thomas Pynchon's 1990 postmodern satire novel "Vineland."
(Production: Sophie Royle, Lisa Giles-Keddie) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None