Per usual there isn’t a whole lot in the Oscars for genre fans, though Inception did pretty well for itself with 8 nominations, including Best Picture. Christopher Nolan’s best director snub is making plenty of folks cranky, as is Daft Punk not getting a nod for their Tron: Legacy soundtrack. (Hell, Tron is only up for one award – Sound Editing. Ouch.)
And of course we have Star Wars alumni Natalie Portman up for Best Actress for Black Swan. Head over to StarWars.com for the full list of alumni, ILM, and Skywalker sound nods. Iron Man 2 is ILM’s sole nominee for the VFX – it’ll face Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Hereafter and, naturally, Inception.
Also interesting is the supporting nomination for True Grit’s Hailee Steinfeld. It’s not a genre film, but Steinfeld is increasingly being talked up as a possibility to play Katniss in The Hunger Games adaption — even if she doesn’t get the Oscar this ups her profile considerably.
As someone who has collected and listened to all the major soundtracks that came out this year, I can definitely say Daft Punk’s Tron score stands out as one of the best by far. Particularly because you can listen to it repeatedly without tiring from it. That’s the mark of a good score.