THE OSCAR RACE IS ON!!!
But in the all important music categories, songbird Diane Warren will go up against music legend Paul McCartney, perennial Academy Award nominee Randy Newman, pop-jazz icon Sting and new age poster girl Enya in the best original song category.
Warren received her sixth Academy Award nomination for "There You'll Be" from Pearl Harbor. Warren has yet to win but she has been in the race five times before for her work in such films as Music of the Heart, Armageddon, Con Air, Up Close and Personal and Mannequin.
McCartney's "Vanilla Sky" from the film of the same name is also vying for best song. The former Beatle has been nominated twice before for Live and Let Die and Let it Be, which won the Oscar in 1970.
Enduring Oscar darling Newman, in danger of becoming the Susan Lucci of the Oscars, received his 15th and 16th nomination (in both the song and score fields) for "If I Didn't Have You" from Monsters, Inc. Newman, who has yet to win, has previously been nominated for Meet the Parents, Toy Story2, Babe: Pig in the City, A Bug's Life, Pleasantville, Toy Story, The Paper, Avalon, Parenthood, The Natural and Ragtime.
Sting receives his second Academy Award nomination for "Until" from Kate & Leopold. Sting was previously nominated in 2000 for The Emperor's New Groove.
Enya's "May It Be," co-written by Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan from The Lord of the Rings, rounds out the song nominees.
In the score category, 41-time Oscar nominee (five-time winner) John Williams' A.I. Artificial Intelligence competes against his own Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Also nominated were James Horner's A Beautiful Mind, Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings and Newman's Monsters, Inc.
