Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score for Challengers might just be the best film score of the decade. (Sorry, Dune.) The relentless techno beats that accompanied sweaty games of tennis and heated looks were evocative, punchy, signature, and oh-so memorable. And yet, this morning, the Academy failed to even nominate this musical masterpiece for an Oscar for Best Score. Catch me chanting “No x10,” because—even if awards predictors saw it coming—this is a truly egregious snub. In fact, it’s more than egregious. It’s downright embarrassing.
Directed by Luca Guadagnino, with a screenplay by Justin Kuritzkes, Challengers—starring Zendaya as a young tennis champion, and Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor as best friends competing for her attention—was released back in April 2024. Unfortunately, that puts it at a disadvantage for awards season. Academy members are busy, and recency bias is real. It’s why so many Oscar-bait movies come out in the last three months of the year. So, even though the movie was an undeniable cultural phenomenon—earning over $15 million on opening weekend (a personal best for Guadagnino) and landing on countless best films of the year lists (including the No.1 spot here at Decider)—it was never considered a front-runner at the awards circuit… except for awards for the score.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross—once best known for their hard rock band Nine Inch Nails—have, in the last 15 years, become one of the most sought-after composers for movie music, right up there with Hans Zimmer. It started with their haunting score for 2010’s The Social Network, for which they were not only nominated, but won, the Oscar for Best Original Score. From there, the duo has gone onto to win a Grammy for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo score, another Oscar for the Soul score, and an Oscar nomination for the Mank score. Why, just earlier this month, they took home the Golden Globe win for Challengers. It’s not like the Academy, and other people who hand out awards, are unfamiliar with Reznor and Ross’s talent. A nomination should have been a lock; a win should have been likely.
So what the hell happened? Instead of nominating a heart-pounding, electrifying, techno masterpiece, the Academy nominated the score of a movie that went viral on TikTok because of how bad the music was. Not to mention, the Best Original Score nominations for two musicals—Emilia Pérez and Wicked—calls into question whether the Academy knows what the word “score” even means. You guys do know that “Defying Gravity” is from the soundtrack, not the score, right? If the song has words, it’s probably part of the soundtrack, not the score! (For what it’s worth, Challengers was also snubbed for Best Original Song. “Compress/Repress” was nominated at the Globes.)
You can’t tell me this Challengers snub the will of the people. The first song on the Challengers score currently has over 8.5 million streams on Spotify. Are you kidding me? For a film score? Those numbers are insane! Meanwhile, not a single song on the Wicked movie score (again, the score, people) has cracked 200,000 listens. Emilia Pérez‘s most popular song on the soundtrack, “Mi Camino” by pop star Selena Gomez, has just over a million streams. You see? Even the Selenators don’t like the Emilia Pérez music that much!
The Challengers score snub is just further proof that the Academy can’t be trusted when it comes to taste. If Reznor and Ross stop delivering us bangers, thanks to this humiliating oversight, I will never forgive the Hollywood elite. Now excuse me while I blast “Challengers: Match Point” on repeat for the rest of the day.