AR Rahman’s work on the soundtrack of Pele: Birth of a Legend has won him recognition from the Academy Awards once again. The musician’s soundtrack for the 2016 sports film is in the Oscars’ first shortlist for Best Original Score. At present, the list, which was released by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday on its official website, contains 145 other scores, but only a handful will make it to the final nominations category. Pele focuses on the rise the football icon from the streets of Brazil to leading his team to victory in the World Cup in 1958.
Rahman’s acclaimed number Ginga from Pele, directed by Jeff Zimbalist and Michael Zimbalist, is in the running for Best Original Song. It is in first shortlist with 91 other songs. This is the third time the composer has been nominated in both the categories. In 2009, Rahman scored a double Oscar win for Best Original Score for Slumdog Millionaire and Best Original Song for Jai Ho, which had lyrics by Gulzar. In 2011, he reunited with his Slumdog director Danny Bolye for the survival flick127 Hours. The collaboration brought him nominations in the same categories for his musical score, but unfortunately he came home empty-handed.
Will the musician bring home the gold next year? We sure hope so! However, we’ll only get a hint of whether he’s nominated in both categories next year. The final list of nominations for 2017’s Oscars will be announced on January 24. The ceremony will take place on February 26 and this year’s host is US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. Other shortlists that have been announced by the Academy include the first cut for best documentary and best animated short.