Academy Awards
Director Kathryn Bigelow (C), writer Mark Boal (L) and producer Greg Shapiro pose with their Oscars won for best picture for "Hurt Locker" at the 82nd Academy Awards in Hollywood March 7, 2010. Reuters

Four original musical scores of movies have been disqualified by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences this year for not meeting the exacting standards.

Black Swan by Clint Mansell and True Grit by Carter Burwell, were not considered because they used too much pre-existing material. Swan used cues from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake while True Grit has a number of 19th century hymns. The other disqualifications were The Kids Are All Right and The Fighter.

The Kids Are All Right is again a Burwell creation and Fighter is by Michael Brook. And what did the Academy find lacking in them. It seems both suffered from an overdose of song which the academy felt diminished the impact of the original scores.

This isn’t the first time the Academy has shunned popular films. The Dark Knight was disqualified in 2009 because it had five names associated with the original score which did not meet Academy rules.

However, there are the other movie scores, which will make it to the category, despite having pre-existing scores, including The Social Network with an adaptation of In The hall of the Mountain King. The King’s Speech has Beethoven’s 7th symphony.

Burwell's disqualification is disheartening as he has never been nominated for an Oscar although he has given some great scores for movies like Fargo, Being John Malkovich, No Country For Old Men and The Blind Side.

Some contenders in the category are Daft Punk in Tron: Legacy, Hans Zimmer for Inception, Never Let Me Go by Rachel Portman. Portman has been nominated twice before. A R Rehman for 127 Hours and of course Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for The Social Network.