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Published: Tuesday, 07 January 2025 at 17:37 PM
The Godfather music: why was Nino Rota’s score disqualified from the 1972 Oscars?
In 1972, the composer Nino Rota received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score for his work on The Godfather. No surprise to anyone, surely, as Rota’s music for The Godfather score to that iconic film is one of the most recognizable and celebrated film scores in history.
The score plays a pivotal role in creating that haunting, nostalgic, and emotionally rich atmosphere that pervades The Godfather and makes it such an iconic landmark of world cinema. Rota’s compositions seamlessly blend themes of family, love, betrayal, and the brutal reality of organized crime.
Given all this, The Godfather was surely a shoo-in for the Best Original Score medal thay year. But it didn’t win. What went wrong?
Why was the Godfather score disqualified from the Oscars?
Nino Rota’s music for The Godfather was deemed ineligible for the award for Best Original Score because it was revealed that part of the film’s famous ‘love theme’ had already been used in Rota’s score for the 1958 Italian comedy film, Fortunella. For that reason, the score was not deemed ‘original’: it was previously existing material, despite being performed in a different style.
See what you think. Here’s the Fortunella theme, coming in at around 0:55:
And here’s the iconic ‘love theme’ from The Godfather:
The nomination was then passed to a new nominee: John Addison’s score for Sleuth, which didn’t end up winning the Oscar. The winner was Charlie Chaplin’s score for the 1952 film Limelight, which received a delayed release in Los Angeles in 1972.
Fortunately, it wasn’t the end for Nino Rota, who went on to win the Oscar for Best Original Score two years later for his work on the film’s sequel: The Godfather Part II. But The Godfather music had a storied journey to get there.
What are the criteria for a Best Original Score Oscar?
The rules were changed in 2020 to allow film scores that included a minimum of 60% original material to be nominated for an Oscar. Sequels and franchise films have to include a minimum of 80% new material. Films can appeal to the Academy Awards if they do not meet the exact percentage criteria. The committee will then make a decision on whether the film is eligible based on its arguments.
The Academy Awards have listed the following criteria for film scores to be considered:
- The score must not be diluted with the use of pre-existing music
- The score cannot be diminished in impact by the predominant use of songs/music not originally composed for the film
- The score must not be assembled from the music of more than one composer
Nino Rota: a life in scores
Alongside his iconic work on The Godfather parts 1 and 2, Nino Rota provided atmospheric soundtracks to some great movies of the mid-to-late 20th century. Perhaps most famously, he collaborated frequently with his fellow Italian, the movie director Federico Fellini. Rota scored a number of classic Fellini films including 1954’s La Strada, where his bittersweet and poignant score reflected the film’s themes of innocence and heartbreak. Later, his playful and surreal score for Fellini’s 8½ (1963) complements that film’s exploration of creativity and chaos.
A decade later, the two were united again for Amarcord (1973). This time, an evocative score from Nino Rota captured the nostalgia and whimsy of Fellini’s semi-autobiographical story. Rota’s scores for Fellini often featured circus-like motifs, waltzes, and whimsical melodies, enhancing the director’s unique storytelling style. Have a listen to the delightful, nostalgic theme from Amarcord:
Other iconic Nino Rota scores include those for Romeo and Juliet (1968), directed by Franco Zeffirelli – a much-loved score, including the famous Love Theme (‘A Time for Us’). Another place to hear ROta at his best is the 1956 film adaptation of the Leo Tolstoy novel War and Peace.
Nino Rota didn’t confined himself to the movie world, however: he also wrote several operas, including Il cappello di paglia di Firenze (The Florentine Straw Hat), which showcased the wit and melodic genius you could hear in his Coppola and Fellini scores. Elsewhere, several ballets and choral works demonstrate his versatility as a composer.
Rota also composed symphonies, piano concertos, and chamber music, in a style that blends neoclassicism with Italian lyricism.
Image credit: Getty Images