The Best Oscar-Winning Scores

Updated July 27, 2020 10.1k votes 694 voters 36.5k views127 items

List RulesVote 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.

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Star Wars
Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
Released: 1977
Directed by: George Lucas
John Williams
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185
83
The Lion King
Whoopi Goldberg, Jeremy Irons
Released: 1994
Directed by: Rob Minkoff, Roger Allers
Hans Zimmer
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3
148
57
Jaws
Steven Spielberg, Richard Dreyfuss
Released: 1975
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
John Williams
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4
210
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Titanic
Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet
Released: 1997
Directed by: James Cameron
James Horner
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5
175
86
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen
Released: 2001
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Howard Shore
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62
The Wizard of Oz
Judy Garland, Margaret Hamilton
Released: 1939
Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy, Norman Taurog, King Vidor, George Cukor, Victor Fleming
Herbert Stothart
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46
Beauty and the Beast
Angela Lansbury, Frank Welker
Released: 1991
Directed by: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Alan Menken
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8
121
58
The Sound of Music
Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer
Released: 1965
Directed by: Robert Wise
Irwin Kostal
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53
Schindler's List
Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes
Released: 1993
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
John Williams
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10
96
43
West Side Story
Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno
Released: 1961
Directed by: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
Saul Chaplin, Johnny Green, Sid Ramin, Irwin Kostal
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73
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen
Released: 2003
Directed by: Peter Jackson
Howard Shore
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51
Mary Poppins
Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke
Released: 1964
Directed by: Robert Stevenson
Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman
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13
101
53
The Little Mermaid
Jodi Benson, Christopher Daniel Barnes
Released: 1989
Directed by: Ron Clements, John Musker
Alan Menken
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14
101
54
The Godfather Part II
Al Pacino, Robert De Niro
Released: 1974
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Nino Rota, Carmine Coppola
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15
84
46
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Drew Barrymore, Erika Eleniak
Released: 1982
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
John Williams
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Up
Christopher Plummer, Ed Asner
Released: 2009
Directed by: Pete Docter
Michael Giacchino
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Chariots of Fire
Stephen Fry, Kenneth Branagh
Released: 1981
Directed by: Hugh Hudson
Vangelis
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18
82
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Breakfast at Tiffany's
Audrey Hepburn, Mickey Rooney
Released: 1961
Directed by: Blake Edwards
Henry Mancini
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Lawrence of Arabia
Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole
Released: 1962
Directed by: David Lean
Maurice Jarre
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Finding Neverland
Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet
Released: 2004
Directed by: Marc Forster
Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
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Around the World in 80 Days
Frank Sinatra, Shirley MacLaine
Released: 1956
Directed by: Michael Anderson
Victor Young
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22
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The Best Years of Our Lives
Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright
Released: 1946
Directed by: William Wyler
Hugo Friedhofer
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62
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Fiddler on the Roof
Paul Michael Glaser, Chaim Topol
Released: 1971
Directed by: Norman Jewison
John Williams
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The King and I
Deborah Kerr, Yul Brynner
Released: 1956
Directed by: Walter Lang
Alfred Newman, Ken Darby
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Dances with Wolves
Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell
Released: 1990
Directed by: Kevin Costner
John Barry
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