Justin Hurwitz has earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Original Score thanks to his impressive score for Damien Chazelle’s new film Babylon. Hurwitz won in this category at the BAFTAs six years ago for La La Land. This year’s awards will be presented at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, February 19.
In other BAFTA news, Todd Field’s hotly-tipped new epic Tár also received a number of nods. Those include Best Film, Leading Actress (Cate Blanchett), Best Director (Todd Field), Best Original Screenplay (Todd Field), and Best Sound (Deb Adair, Stephen Griffiths, Andy Shelley, Steve Single, Roland Winke).
Babylon, which contains over two hours of original music, was written and directed by Damien Chazelle (La La Land, Whiplash, First Man). The movie is an original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles, led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li, and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood. Babylon hit theaters across North America on December 23.
Upon the soundtrack’s announcement and the release of the first two singles, Justin Hurwitz said, “A huge part of my process in creating the music for Babylon was finding unique musicians to bring it to life. I especially want to thank Sean Jones and Jacob Scesney, who played the wailing trumpet and screaming sax solos respectively on ‘Voodoo Mama,’ and Leo Pellegrino who played the dance-y baritone sax part on ‘Call Me Manny.’”
Back in October, Deutsche Grammophon released Music From and Inspired by the Motion Picture TÁR, a concept album featuring new music by Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. A vinyl edition is slated for release tomorrow, January 20.
The film stars two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett as the fictional Lydia Tár, a queer, globally renowned composer-conductor who oversees a German orchestra with an iron fist and finds herself embroiled in a #MeToo scandal.
