The 84th Academy Awards announced its Oscar winners during their annual telecast on Sunday, February 26, which was hosted by Billy Crystal and aired on ABC. The Best Picture award was given to The Artist, which won in five awards out of the ten nominations it received.
Ludovic Bource won the Oscar for Best Original Score for his work on The Artist. In his acceptance speech, he thanked fellow nominees John Williams (War Horse and Adventures of Tintin), Howard Shore (Hugo) and Alberto Iglesias (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).
Bource also thanked fellow composer Hans Zimmer for sitting out of this year's Oscar race. To be eligible for a nomination and award, a composer must personally submit his name to the Academy. In October, Zimmer told The Hollywood Reporter he was sitting out of the race in order to focus on current projects, and because most of his work in 2011 was on sequels. However, Zimmer did serve as music consultant for this year's awards, along with songwriter Pharrell Williams.
In the Original Song category, Rio's "Real in Rio" (Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, Siedah Garrett) lost to The Muppets' "Man or Muppet" (Bret McKenzie). McKenzie thanked many of the people he worked with as well as "Disney, for making movies with songs in them."
This year there were only two nominees named out of 39 total eligible songs (See our previous article on The Academy Award's Original Song nomination process). McKenzie's other song from The Muppets, "Life's a Happy Song," didn't make the cut. "I love [both songs] but ["Man or Muppet"] is more successful because it's such a crucial turning point [in the movie]," McKenzie noted in a Q&A with reporters shortly after he received his award.
During the show itself, a live 60-piece orchestra played much of the background music and was conducted by composer Nick Glennie-Smith.
The soundtrack album The 84th Academy Awards - Celebrate the Music has been made available for purchase by the Academy and features music by Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams.
For a complete list Oscar nominees and winners in all categories, visit the 84th Academy Award official site.