Best Original Song Oscar 2012 longlist: Elton John in, Madonna out
Thirty-nine songs from eligible movies are in the running for nominations in the 2012 Oscars’ Best Original Song category. Madonna’s Golden Globe-nominated “Masterpiece,” from W.E., is nowhere to be found on the longlist as it has been deemed ineligible (see further below), but Elton John was included for “Hello Hello,” from Gnomeo & Juliet.
In fact, as it’s usually the case, kiddie flicks dominate the list, with Gnomeo & Juliet, Rio, Happy Feet Two, Winnie the Pooh, and The Muppets featuring multiple contenders.
Also worth noting, several of the songs are not in English, e.g., Sohan Roy’s thriller DAM999, with three entries on the list, is in Hindi and Malayalam; “Já Não Estar,” from Miguel Gonçalves Mendes’ biographical documentary José and Pilar, is in Portuguese; and “Coeur Volant,” from Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, is in French.
The original songs and their respective movies are listed below in alphabetical order by film.
Oscar 2012 Best Original Song longlist
“The World I Knew,” African Cats.
“Lay Your Head Down,” Albert Nobbs.
“Star Spangled Man,” Captain America: The First Avenger.
“Collision of Worlds,” Cars 2.
“Dakkanaga Dugu Dugu,” DAM999.
“DAM999 Theme Song,” DAM999.
“Mujhe Chod Ke,” DAM999.
“Rainbird,” Dirty Girl.
“Keep On Walking,” The First Grader.
“Where the River Goes,” Footloose.
“Hello Hello,” Gnomeo & Juliet.
“Love Builds a Garden,” Gnomeo & Juliet.
“Bridge of Light,” Happy Feet Two.
“The Mighty Sven,” Happy Feet Two.
“Never Be Daunted,” happythankyoumoreplease.
“Hell and Back,” Hell and Back Again.
“The Living Proof,” The Help.
“Coeur Volant,” Hugo.
“It’s How We Play,” I Don’t Know How She Does It.
“When the Heart Dies,” In the Land of Blood and Honey.
“Já Não Estar,” José and Pilar.
“The Keeper,” Machine Gun Preacher.
“Life’s a Happy Song,” The Muppets.
“Man or Muppet,” The Muppets.
“Pictures in My Head,” The Muppets.
“Summer Song,” The Music Never Stopped.
“Imaginary Friends,” Olive.
“Sparkling Day,” One Day.
“Taking You with Me,” Our Idiot Brother.
“The Greatest Song I Ever Heard,” POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.
“Hot Wings,” Rio.
“Let Me Take You to Rio,” Rio.
“Real in Rio,” Rio.
“Shelter,” Take Shelter.
“Gathering Stories,” We Bought a Zoo.
“Pop,” White Irish Drinkers.
“Think You Can Wait,” Win Win.
“The Backson Song,” Winnie the Pooh.
“So Long,” Winnie the Pooh.
Up to five nominees & no more than two songs per film
According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ press release, on Jan. 5 the Academy’s Music Branch “will screen clips featuring each song, in random order, for voting members of the Music Branch in Los Angeles. Following the screenings, members will determine the nominees by an averaged point system of voting.”
How does that average point system work? Well, the release adds the following:
“If no song receives an average score of 8.25 or more, there will be no nominees in the category. If only one song achieves that score, it and the song receiving the next highest score shall be the two nominees. If two or more songs (up to five) achieve that score, they shall be the nominees. …
“Under Academy rules, a maximum of two songs may be nominated from any one film. If more than two songs from a film achieve a score of 8.25 or more, the two songs with the highest scores will be the nominees.”
For those Music Branch members unable to attend the screening, a DVD copy of the song clips will be made available by mail.
And finally, the Academy adds that in order to be eligible…
“…a song must consist of words and music, both of which are original and written specifically for the film. A clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition of both lyric and melody must be used in the body of the film or as the first music cue in the end credits.”
This last rule explains why Madonna’s “Masterpiece” was deemed ineligible for the Best Original Song Oscar.
The 2012 Academy Award nominations will be announced on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 5:30 a.m. PST in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The 2012 Oscar ceremony will take place on Sunday, Feb. 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.
The Smurfs with Katy Perry providing the voice for the blonde, blue-bodied Smurfette. Directed by Raja Gosnell, The Smurfs marks Katy Perry’s narrative feature film debut – even though the “Thinking of You” and “Waking Up in Vegas” singer can be heard but not seen in this mix of live action and animation, which, by the way, has been disqualified for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. Budgeted at a reported $110 million (not including marketing and distribution expenses), The Smurfs collected a relatively disappointing $142.6 million in the U.S. and Canada. Internationally, however, it has been a huge blockbuster, grossing $421.1 million.
The Smurfs reportedly disqualified from Best Animated Feature Oscar
According to TheWrap’s Steve Pond, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has removed Raja Gosnell’s international box office hit The Smurfs from the list of Best Animated Feature Oscar contenders.
A live action/animation hybrid in which tiny blue creatures that sound like Katy Perry, Paul Reubens, and Jonathan Winters frolic about with the likes of Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria, and Sofia Vergara, The Smurfs has apparently not met the Academy’s qualification requirement that “a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture’s running time.”
Seventeen animated films are still in the running, which means that there’ll be five Academy Award nominees for Best Animated Feature of 2011. That is, unless there are two more disqualifications and the list of contenders falls below 16. In that case, only three movies would receive a nomination.
Still in the race are, among others:
- Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin
- George Miller’s Happy Feet Two
- Carlos Saldanha’s Rio
- Gore Verbinski’s Rango
Best Visual Effects Oscar 2012 semifinalists
It’s not often that you find a heavy family drama listed among the year’s semifinalists for the Best Visual Effects Academy Award. But that’s the case of Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, which has been shortlisted along with nine other movies, including Martin Scorsese’s period fantasy Hugo, David Yates/Daniel Radcliffe’s blockbuster Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the Tom Cruise box office hit Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and Johnny Depp’s most recent pirate movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Below is the full list of semi-finalists, in alphabetical order:
- Captain America: The First Avenger
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
- Hugo
- Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
- Real Steel
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon
- The Tree of Life
- X-Men: First Class
Absent from the roster are Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Thor, Green Lantern, Super 8, Cowboys & Aliens, Battle Los Angeles, Immortals, and Fast Five.
As per the Academy’s press release, “all members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the 10 shortlisted films on Thursday, Jan. 19. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.”
The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, Feb. 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the telecast will be broadcast live on ABC. The Oscarcast will also be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.
notes
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website.
Madonna W.E. image: StudioCanal | The Weinstein Company.
Katy Perry The Smurfs image: K.C. Bailey | Sony Pictures.
*last modified in May 2025.