Guide to Oscar: Best Original Score

The Best Original Score category was introduced in 1934. The category has taken various shapes since then, at one point allowing for as many as 17 nominees (as in 1940), and at various points splitting the category into two. From 1942 until 1961, the category was split into "Dramatic or Comedy Picture" and "Musical Picture;" from 1962 until 1969 and then off and on through the early 80s, it was split into "Original" and "Adaptation or treatment;" and from 1995 until 1998 it was split into "Dramatic Score" and "Musical or Comedy Score." Since 1998 all scores have been considered together in one category with five nominees.

This year's nominees:

Ludovic Bource, The Artist
First nomination

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Alberto Iglasias, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
3rd nomination. Previously nominated for The Constant Gardener and The Kite Runner

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Howard Shore, Hugo
3rd nomination for Best Original Score, 2 previous wins for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King.

He also won for Best Original Song for "Into the West" from Return of the King.

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John Williams, The Adventures of Tin Tin and War Horse
41st and 42nd nominations.

5 previous wins for Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. and Schindler's List, and nominations for Valley of the Dolls, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Reivers, Images, The Poseidon Adventure, Cinderella Liberty, Tom Sawyer, The Towering Inferno, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The River, Empire of the Sun, The Witches of Eastwick, The Accidental Tourist, Born on the Fourth of July, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Home Alone, JFK, Nixon, Sabrina, Sleepers, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, Angela's Ashes, The Patriot, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Catch Me If You Can, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Munich

Listen to Clip from War Horse

Listen to Clip from The Adventures of Tin Tin