The Best Oscar-Winning Scores
List Rules
Vote up the best film scores that have won an Oscar for Best Score
What is best Oscar-winning musical film score? This list includes every film score that has won an Academy Award. Oscar-winning scores have come from films such as “Chariots of Fire,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s," “The Sound of Music,” and “The Lion King.” The award for Best Score was first awarded in 1934 at the 7th Academy Awards.
Movies have the ability to make us feel. They make us want to believe, be inspired, and live vicariously through the stories we see on screen. The best of these movies are bestowed with an Academy Award nomination, and those that are truly the best take home the Oscar.
Film scores have the ability to enhance these feelings in films. They often make the movie more emotional, intense, suspenseful, or gut-wrenching. The score tells us, as viewers, what to feel and when to feel it. These best Oscar-winning film scores have done this the best. They are moving, saddening, or comical. Vote up the best Academy Award-winning scores below - based on the quality of the score, not just the quality of the film.Ranked by
- Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
- Released: 1977
- Directed by: George Lucas
John WilliamsThe Imperial Forces -- under orders from cruel Darth Vader (David Prowse) -- hold Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) hostage, in their efforts to quell the rebellion against the Galactic Empire. Luke ...more - Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
- Released: 1975
- Directed by: Steven Spielberg
John WilliamsWhen a young woman is killed by a shark while skinny-dipping near the New England tourist town of Amity Island, police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) wants to close the beaches, but mayor Larry ...more - Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger
- Released: 1939
- Directed by: Victor Fleming
Herbert StothartWhen a tornado rips through Kansas, Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her dog, Toto, are whisked away in their house to the magical land of Oz. They follow the Yellow Brick Road toward the Emerald City to ...more - Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler
- Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones
- Released: 1994
- Directed by: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
Hans ZimmerThis Disney animated feature follows the adventures of the young lion Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas), the heir of his father, Mufasa (James Earl Jones). Simba's wicked uncle, Scar (Jeremy Irons), ...more - Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White