For the first time in over twenty years, a female music composer has won the Oscar for Best Original Score. Hildur Guðnadóttir, who previously had won awards at the Golden Globes, BAFTA, and the Critics’ Choice awards, broke the long streak last night when she accepted the Oscar for her perfectly haunting, anxiety-inducing score for Joker.

The last woman to win for Best Original Score was Anne Dudley, whose score for 1997’s The Full Monty earned her the golden statue. Throughout the 92 year existence of the Academy Awards, only seven women have been nominated for the original score category. Last night, Guðnadóttir concluded her speech with there following:

“To the girls, to the women, to the mothers, to the daughters who hear the music bubbling within, please speak up. We need to hear your voices.”

Related – The Results Of The 92nd Annual Academy Awards

Before Joker, Guðnadóttir was already chalking up the award victories. She earned both a Grammy and an Emmy for her score for HBO’s hit limited series, Chernobyl, and lent a hand on the late Jóhann Jóhannsson’s scores for Arrival and Sicario. Guðnadóttir also composed her own original solo scores early in her career before creating the score for Mary Magdalene alongside Jóhannsson.

In an interview with the LA Times last year, Guðnadóttir described her approach to creating the brooding and highly tense score for Joker, and how it reflected what Arthur Fleck was experiencing in his mind:

“Those are the kind of forces that are trying to push through. … Those are the forces that he hasn’t really figured out yet. The last time we hear this theme is the most angry version of it — it has massive drums, and the whole orchestra’s just like suffocated the cello. It’s still there, but the anger has taken over Arthur.”

Guðnadóttir succeeded in doing just that. Her score creates an uneasiness throughout the entirety of the film. A way of saying “don’t get comfortable, because it’s about to get real dark real soon.” At only 37 years of age, Guðnadóttir has already achieved great success in her work. She not only won the Oscar for Original Score, but she did so against legends like Thomas Newman, Randy Newman, Alexandre Desplat, and the great John Williams. Referring to Guðnadóttir as highly talented is an understatement, to say the least.

Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait another twenty years until the next great female composer walks away with the Oscar.

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.

—–

Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcast feed yet The LRM Online Podcast Network, which includes our flagship podcast Los Fanboys, our premiere podcast Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, and our morning show LRMornings? Check it out by listening below. It’s also available on all your favorite podcast apps!

Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts |  Spotify  |  SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play

Source: LA Times.

  FOR FANBOYS, BY FANBOYS Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcasts and videos on The Genreverse Podcast Network? Available on YouTube and all your favorite podcast apps, This multimedia empire includes The Daily CoG, Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, GeekScholars Movie News, Anime-Versal Review Podcast, and our Star Wars dedicated podcast The Cantina. Check it out by listening on all your favorite podcast apps, or watching on YouTube! Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts |  Spotify |  SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play