Two nominations for Rahman at Oscars 2011

Bellevision Media Network

Los Angeles, 27 January 2011: After his double win at the 2009 Academy awards, music maestro A.R. Rahman has a chance to repeat the feat this year if he wins Oscars for his music in Danny Boyle’s film ‘127 Hours’. The song ‘If I Rise’, the 45-year-old singer-composer’s collaboration with British pop star Dido, has been nominated in the Best Song category.

 

Mr. Rahman will be competing for the Best Original Score trophy with John Powell (‘How to Train Your Dragon’), Hans Zimmer (‘Inception’), Alexandre Desplat (‘The King’s Speech’) and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (‘The Social Network’). The nominees in the Best Song category are ‘Coming home’ from ‘Country Strong’, ‘I see the light’ from ‘Tangled’, and ‘We belong together’ from ‘Toy Story 3’.

 

 

Mr. Rahman, known as the Mozart of Madras, first won the Oscar award for his music in Boyle’s Mumbai-based potboiler ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ in 2009. He had lost out on the golden trophy last year, after his song ‘Na Na’ (from ‘Couple’s Retreat’) failed to get a nomination.

 

Mr. Rahman has already won a Critics Choice award this year for the film, and is in the running for Best Original Music BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award for it. Mr. Rahman, who was honoured with a Padma Bhushan last year, enjoyed a golden run at the 52nd Grammy Awards, where he bagged two gramophones for his music in the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

 

After sweeping the maximum nominations at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, royal drama "The King’s Speech" is leading the Oscar race with as many as 12 nominations for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. "The King’s Speech" stars Colin Firth as King George VI and actor Geoffrey Rush as speech therapist Lionel Logue, who helped George VI overcome a stammer. The film traces the journey of the British monarch. It has been nominated in best motion picture, best actor (Colin Firth), director (Tom Hooper), supporting actor (Geoffrey Rush), supporting actress (Helena Bonham Carter) and original music (Alexandre Desplat) categories.

 

Other categories where it has been included are original screenplay (David Seidler), cinematography (Danny Cohen), editing (Tariq Anwar), costume design (Jenny Beavan) apart from sound mixing and art direction. "True Grit" is giving neck-to-neck competition to the "The King’s Speech" with 10 nominations, followed by "Inception" and "The Social Network" with eight nominations each.

 

 

This is the first time that as many as 10 films have been nominated in best motion picture category. Apart from "The King’s Speech", the list of competitors includes "Black Swan", "The Fighter", "Inception", "The Kids Are All Right", "127 Hours", "The Social Network", "Toy Story 3", "True Grit" and "Winter’s Bone".

 

Those vying for the best actor in a leading role trophy are Javier Bardem ("Biutiful"), Jeff Bridges ("True Grit"), Jesse Eisenberg ("The Social Network"), and James Franco ("127 Hours"), other than Colin Firth. The actresses in the run for the golden statuette this year include Annette Bening ("The Kids Are All Right"), Natalie Portman ("Black Swan"), Nicole Kidman ("Rabbit Hole"), Jennifer Lawrence ("Winter’s Bone") and Michelle Williams ("Blue Valentine").

 

Apart from Tom Hooper, the directors who have been considered for the best director Oscar are Darren Aronofsky ("Black Swan"), David Fincher ("The Social Network"), David O. Russell ("The Fighter") as well as Joel Coen and Ethan Coen ("True Grit"). Among the foreign language films competing for the prestigious honour are "Biutiful" (Mexico), "Dogtooth" (Greece), "In A Better World" (Denmark), "Incendies" (Canada) and "Outside The Law" (Algeria).

- PTI / IANS