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News October 27, 2015

U2, Pharrell, Karen O up for Oscars; Taylor, Coldplay, all Gatsby songs snubbed

U2, Pharrell Williams, Yeah Yeah Yeahs Karen O and Arcade Fire bassist William Butler are among the rock names up for an Academy Award.

U2 and Danger Mouse’s Ordinary Love from the Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom documentary scored itself an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. U2 received a nomination for Best Original Song in 2002 but their The Hands That Built America from Gangs of New York lost out to Eminem’s Lose Yourself from his 8 Mile movie. The Ordinary Love nomination comes just days after U2 won their second Golden Globe Award for best song at a ceremony on Sunday.

Also nominated in that category were Karen O collaboration with Spike Jonze, The Moon Song from Her, Pharrell Williams’ chart topping Happy from Despicable Me 2, Idina Menzel’s Let It Go from the animated hit Frozen and the Joni Eareckson Tada-sung Alone Yet Not Alone from the Christian movie of the same name.

The five were selected from 75 original ‘film songs’. Snubbed were Taylor Swift’s Sweeter Than Fiction from One Chance, Coldplay’s Atlas from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Ed Sheeran’s I See Fire from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Five songs from Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby were eligible, including Lana Del Rey’s Young And Beautiful and Jay Z’s 100 $ Bill. But none of them were given any recognition from the Academy Award nomination board.

Arcade Fire’s William Butler and former Final Fantasy member Owen Pallett’s work on Her is up in the Best Original Score category against veteran composer John Williams’s The Book Thief, Steven Price’s Gravity, Alexandre Desplat ‘s Philomena and Thomas Newman’s Saving Mr. Banks.

Among Best Documentary Feature noms was Morgan Neville’s documentary on backup singers, Twenty Feet From Stardom.

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