Before we even get wind of the Oscar Nominations, a handful of restrictions have already disqualified a number of films from consideration.
the scores for Black Swan and True Grit have been disqualified due to “the use of tracked themes or other pre-existing music.” In addition, The Fighter and The Kids Are All Right have also been taken out of competition as they are “diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs.”
Now I could see Black Swan being eliminated because of its use of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, but they couldn’t rightfully have had a film revolving around that particular Ballet production without it. Granted Clint Mansell’s version was not an exact score of Swan Lake but derrivitves are considered grounds for disqualification as well. Where is his recognition for that beautifully haunting score? He doesn’t get any from Oscar.
I am still trying to grasp exactly what “diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs” is supposed to mean.
The Oscars have so many rules that it diminishes the value of these efforts to disqualify them over something so obscure. It should be simple. If the score of the film (existing music or not) is effective and impacting on the movie, then it should be considered for an Oscar. But there are strange rules that appear to have no bearing on the works that shoot down valid efforts like if too many people work on the score (The Dark Knight).
I am not saying there shouldn’t be rules, but these seem a bit extreme and disqualify truly great efforts from even having a shot at the award.
