IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT YOU HAVEN'T HEARD

The nominees are in for this year's Academy Awards. They are:

Avatar - James Horner
The Hurt Locker - Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders
Sherlock Homes - Hans Zimmer
Fantastic Mr. Fox - Alexandre Desplat
Up - Michael Giacchino

This year I've actually heard all five scores, though I have only seen two of the films. Fantastic Mr. Fox is enjoyably quirky, but I would have to go for Avatar or Up, both of which are entertaining enough on CD, as well as effective on film. However, as Horner does always repeat himself at some point in his scores, Up would be my personal pick - if only for the lengthy sequence that features just Giacchino's score against the images - a rare and brave choice - but the right one.