94 Songs, 149 Original Scores Eligible in Oscar Music Categories (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Jon Burlingame Ninety-four songs and 149 scores have been deemed eligible in the music categories for the 96th annual Academy Awards, Variety has learned.

Voting began this morning, with 390 members of the Academy music branch eligible to vote in this year’s competition. And for the first time in years, there appear to be no surprises or glaring omissions.

Any film can submit up to three songs, and the “Barbie” entries were as expected: Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made for,” Dua Lipa’s “Dance the Night” and the Mark Ronson-Andrew Wyatt song “I’m Just Ken.” Five other films submitted the maximum of three songs, including two from Disney: the live-action “The Little Mermaid,” with “For the First Time,” “The Scuttlebutt” and “Wild Uncharted Waters,” all by Alan Menken (who won Oscars for the original in 1989) and Lin-Manuel Miranda; and “Wish,” the Julia Michaels-Benjamin Rice tunes including “I’m a Star,” “This Is the Thanks I Get?!” and “This Wish.” The “Wish” score by Dave Metzger is also eligible, but “The Little Mermaid” score was deemed ineligible, sources tell Variety.

It ran afoul of the Oscar rule that disallows a score that has been “diluted by the use of pre-existing music.” Alexandre Desplat’s score for Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” was submitted but not deemed eligible.