Just days after the Golden Globes announced their nominees in the Best Original Song category, the Academy Awards revealed their 79-song shortlist of candidates that’ll vie for an Oscar at the 87th annual ceremony. Coldplay, Lana Del Rey, the Shins, Bon Iver, Lorde, Alicia Keys with Kendrick Lamar and Glen Campbell are all in the running before the Best Original Song nominees are officially announced along with the rest of the Oscar hopefuls on January 15th.
All five tracks nominated for the Best Original Song Golden Globe made the Oscar shortlist – Lana Del Rey’s “Big Eyes” from Big Eyes, John Legend and Common’s “Glory” from Selma, Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye’s “Mercy Is” from Noah, Sia’s Annie cut “Opportunity” and Lorde’s “Yellow Flicker Beat” from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – and are joined by over 70 more tracks.
Coldplay’s Unbroken cut “Miracles,” which premiered Thursday, made the Oscar shortlist, as did the Shins’ “So Now What” and Bon Iver’s “Heavenly Father” from the soundtrack of Zach Braff’s Wish I Was Here. Glen Campbell’s heartbreaking last song “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” from his documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me also landed on the shortlist. Tegan & Sara’s “Everything Is Awesome” featuring the Lonely Island from The Lego Movie also made the cut.
A.R. Rahman and Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie, both Best Original Song Oscar winners thanks to Slumdog Millionaire and The Muppets respectively, each notched three songs on the Oscar shortlist; Rahman for his work on Million Dollar Arm, McKenzie for his Muppets Most Wanted songs. Willamette Stone, a fictional band from the film If I Stay, also placed three tracks on the shortlist.
Rio 2 was the most represented film with four songs from various artists. However, Academy rules state that a maximum of two songs may be nominated from one film. In order to be eligible for the Best Original Song category, “a song must consist of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the film.” The 87th Academy Awards will take place February 22, 2015.
Other interesting longshots for Oscar glory: Fall Out Boy’s “Immortals” from Big Hero 6, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros’ “America for Me” from A Most Violent Year, Alicia Keys and Kendrick Lamar’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 cut “It’s On Again” and Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani’s still-unreleased Paddington track “Shine.” Visit Screen Daily for the complete list of shortlisted songs.
Notable snubs from the shortlist: Jonny Greenwood’s “Spooks” from Inherent Vice featuring members of Supergrass and Joanna Newsom and every non-Lorde track from the Hunger Games soundtrack that the Pure Heroine singer curated.
