This year's Oscar shortlists, part 1

This year's Oscar nominations will be soon upon us. In most categories, the voters are free to vote for any eligible film they choose but there are a few categories that, for various reasons, merit special treatment. For these categories, shortlists were created, which were announced on December 17. Among them are the music categories. Like we did last year, I will play for you all the eligible songs and scores that are available on Youtube. I will also mention which films made it to the other shortlists. I will present the lists in order of likelihood (in my opinion) for the film to proceed to a nomination. Then, on January 22, you will know whether I was right or not. Let's go!

The favorite in the Best Song category is a song that many of you probably know already: it's Shallow, from the movie A Star Is Born. Written by Lady Gaga, Andrew Wyatt, Anthony Rossomando, and Mark Ronson and performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, the song is the emotional center of the film and has already been a smash hit in most global markets. Here it is:

Another song that has been a big hit all over the world, coming from a hugely successful film, is All the Stars, from the movie Black Panther. Written by Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Sounwave, and Al Shux, performed by the former two and produced by the latter two, the song is the second favorite. This is it:

This year there were many documentaries that were not only critically acclaimed but also did great at the box-office. RBG was one of the most prominent. The song I'll Fight was written by Diane Warren, who has already received nine Oscar nominations without yet winning. Could this be the one? It is sung by an Oscar winner, Jennifer Hudson. Here it is:

It wouldn't be the Oscars without some old-fashioned musical numbers, would it? Mary Poppins Returns has it covered. The film's songs, written by veteran Marc Shaiman (five Oscar nominations, no wins) with the help of Scott Wittman (lyrics) are good. Maybe not unforgettable - but so few are these days. The one that has the biggest chance to appear on the final nomination list is the ballad, The Place Where Lost Things Go, performed by the film's star, Emily Blunt:

There's another song from Mary Poppins Returns in the shortlist but we'll listen to that next time. The fifth song that I chose, which means that I think it's highly probable for it to be present in the final five, is a song written and sung by two-time Oscar nominee, the fabulous Dolly Parton. The song is called Girl in the Movies and comes from a film called Dumplin', a feelgood movie with mixed reviews. The love for Dolly is strong, the song is quite good, so don't be surprised if it proceeds to the next level. Here it is:

As far as Best Score is concerned, I believe that the odds for the five favorites are very close to each other but the rest are tracking at a distance - which means that there is a strong possibility that the five presented today will be the eventual five nominees. We start off with the score for First Man, Damien Chazelle's Neil Armstrong biopic. The score is by La La Land Oscar winner and frequent Chazelle collaborator, Justin Hurwitz. Here is the score that accompanies the first landing on the Moon:

When Damien Chazelle was gunning for the Oscar with La La Land, his biggest rival was Barry Jenkins with Moonlight. We'll never forget how that battle played out, will we? Anyway, Moonlight's Oscar-nominated composer, Nicholas Britell, also wrote the score for Jenkins' latest, the screen adaptation of the great James Baldwin's novel If Beale Street Could Talk. The track I chose to present is called Agape:

It was a great year for black movies - and the most successful of them all was Black Panther. Ludwig Göransson wrote an amazing score - and I really wouldn't mind if he were the winner come Oscar night. I chose to present Spirit Lifting, vocals by Baaba Maal. This is it:

Marc Shaiman could end up with three nominations this year if both songs from Mary Poppins Returns make the final five, as well as the film's score. It is possible. This is the End Title Suite:

The fifth score presented today is from a movie that I saw recently and talked about it in my previous story, Isle of Dogs. Wes Anderson's intelligent and entertaining movie boasts Anderson's frequent collaborator, Alexandre Desplat, as its composer. Desplat, already a two-time Oscar winner and with seven more nominations, will most probably get his tenth nomination this year. This is the music during the end titles:

Now, let's talk about two more shortlists. This may be the first time ever that there will be only one Best Foreign Language nominee from Europe. So far there have been at least two European nominees every year, while it was not unusual to have all five nominees being European.

The one country that will possibly save Europe from embarrassment is Poland, with ten Oscar nominations, the last of which was a win; the film was Ida by Paweł Pawlikowski. It's the same director that does Poland proud this year with his new film, called Cold War. The film's biggest rival comes from a country that so far had eight Oscar nominations but no wins. This will probably change for Mexico this year with Alfonso Cuaron's Roma. We'll see how the battle of the two black & white movies turns out.

Even if no win comes out of it, this is certainly Asia's year. The other three films that will, in my opinion, complete this year's nomination roster, all come from the biggest continent of them all. Japan is no stranger to the Foreign Language Oscars. It has four wins and eleven more nominations. This year's submission, Shoplifters by Hirokazu Koreeda, will add to that number, with only four countries (France, Italy, Spain, and Germany) above it on the all-time list.

Lebanon has only had one nomination so far, while South Korea has had none. I think it's very possible that they both make the final five, Lebanon with Nadine Labaki's Capernaum and South Korea with Chang-dong Lee's Burning. The other four films in the shortlist fighting for a nomination are (in order of probability): Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Never Look Away (Germany), Gustav Möller's The Guilty (Denmark), Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra's Birds Of Passage (Colombia), and Sergey Dvortsevoy's Ayka (Kazakhstan).

One more list for today: the Documentary shortlist. As I mentioned earlier, this was a great year for documentaries, both the critics and the cinema-going public found a lot to love. The five that make it to the nominations will probably be the following: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Free Solo, RBG, Three Identical Strangers, and Minding the Gap. There are ten more fighting for a place in the sun, which are: Hale County This Morning, This Evening (this has a fair chance of making the five), Shirkers, Dark Money, Crime + Punishment, Of Fathers and Sons, The Silence of Others, The Distant Barking of Dogs, Charm City, Communion, and On Her Shoulders.

That's all for today. More songs, scores, and shortlists coming soon...