Two of the five Oscar nominees with the Best Original Score have musicals. But what is the real honor in this category? Songs in movies, background scores or all music in movies?

This question has bothered Oscar voters for years. Four of Alan Menken's eight Oscars were "original scores", all of which were Disney animated musicals. But did voters know that they weren't voting for Menken's songs, but films like "Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and Beast", but dramatic music between vocals?

This is the case again this year, with the original score nods of “Emelia Perez” and “Evil”. "Perez" also received nominations for two of its original songs ("El Mal" and "Mi Camino"), while "Wicked" is not, because all its songs are directly from Broadway shows and are not specifically for the film Written.

Musicals have been often disqualified in the Oscar rules in the past (“If the main use of songs reduces the impact, then “the score will not be qualified”). But in recent years, the Executive Committee of the Academy Music Branch, which dominates these issues, has been more tolerant. .

Both "Evil" and "Emilia Perez" were passed, partly because of the large amount of music involved.

In fact, in "Evil", only 33% of the music that has only two hours and 32 minutes in total consists of songs. The other 67% (about 101 minutes) are dramatic scores, a collaboration between songwriter Stephen Schwartz and composer John Powell (“How to Train Your Dragon”).

Powell said that creating the "evil" score involves "trying to absorb the shapes Stephen gave me, the harmonic language, but then trying to pass through the camera lens and (director) Jon Chu's point of view so that it always feels like it comes from the same A place, but for this new way of story.”

To reach the magical sound of the Wizard of Oz, they recorded 60 dance choirs in the Sony Score stage in Los Angeles, which was once the MGM stage, and recorded the original "Wirewell Oz" score in 1939. It's storytelling, and Jon really wants to keep that up. ” Powell reported.

The percentages in "Emilia Perez" differ in part because there are 11 songs in "Evil" but there are 14 original numbers in "Perez" with a total of 40 minutes. Compared to the underscore, the song accounts for 40% of the total music in "Perez" and 37% of the total (another 23% are other music or source music, not nominated composers).

The percentage of scores is enough to qualify under the Oscar rules, which requires that movies account for at least 35% of the music in the movie. Interestingly, the score of “Emilia Perez” also relies heavily on vocals, many of which are performed by Camille, and half of the nominated songwriting and grades make up Camille and Clément Ducol.

"It's me as a choir and I do a lot of things at work," she said. "Jacques (director Odiade) is a little worried about me too much because people in France know me, maybe they will recognize the sound. But I've been (indulging in) the story for many years and I know what dangers are. It's how you feel." The breath I heard on the soundtrack is also hers. In addition, the Mexican choir also appeared.

"This is probably the most challenging project in our lives," Camille added. "We need to be patient to be brave. We know we are doing things that won't happen every day."