The Oscar Hunt: Pinning Academy Award Hopes on a Powerful Song

The Oscar Hunt: Pinning Academy Award Hopes on a Powerful Song

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The motives of the artists are, perhaps, another question.

“I’ve talked to a lot of other composers,” said the Emmy-winning Joel Goodman, whose credits include the “Being Elmo” and “An Honest Liar” scores, “and we agree that for some people it’s like ‘Let’s go out and get the award’” — especially for artists who have won everything but an Oscar. “But if it raises awareness, I think it’s great.”

The journalist James Foley in “Jim: The James Foley Story.” He was killed by the Islamic State in 2014.

Credit
Nicole Tung, via HBO

The money is definitely not the lure. Mr. Ralph said he and Sting were not paid for their work on “Jim,” about the journalist James Foley, who was executed by Islamic State jihadists in 2014. Mr. Ralph, a specialist in documentary scores, has been nominated twice for best original song (“Manta Ray” from “Racing Extinction,” and “Before My Time” from “Chasing Ice,” performed by Scarlett Johansson and Joshua Bell). For “Jim,” he said he and Sting donated their time as well as the song. “It was just something we both wanted to help,” he said.

J. Ralph, left, and Sting, who jointly wrote “The Empty Chair” for the movie “Jim: The James Foley Story.” The song is on the Oscar shortlist.

Credit
Dikayl Rimmasch

Sting concurred. “I think it’s a very, very important movie,” he said, “and my support of it is really because I want more people to see it.”

Mr. Cogan said that in any case, money wasn’t enough of a draw for stars at Sting’s level. “There has to be an affinity for the issue, or it’s not going to work.”

When Netflix was making “Audrie & Daisy,” Ms. Amos was an obvious choice: She has worked with RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, since 1994.

Tori Amos, who recorded “Flicker” for the film “Audrie & Daisy.” The song is on the Oscar shortlist.

Credit
Des Wellie/Netflix

“Netflix sent me the film to look at to see if I could hear music,” Ms. Amos said, “but after watching it I was completely silenced.” She said she had to watch it again and speak to the directors, who hoped her song would address issues surrounding internet shaming, including “the culpability of the people in the towns, the schools, people who didn’t want to get involved.”

Like most of the documentary songs, “Flicker” was always intended to play over the end credits, Ms. Amos said, but not as a balm to anyone’s emotional wounds.

Daisy Coleman in “Audrie & Daisy,” which delves into sexual assault and the internet shaming of young women.

Credit
Netflix

“We said, ‘Look, the job is not to make people feel better,’” she recalled. “It’s to make them cry and be shocked and realize someone died. I know it’s a tough watch. But what I was driven to do was honor these girls and their families and get people to really feel about this issue — because so many were so desensitized to what was happening around them.”

In writing the music and lyrics for “The Empty Chair,” Mr. Ralph and Sting had another objective.

“We were both devastated by the film,” Mr. Ralph said, “and I said, ‘This movie needs to end with a song with hope’ — or as Sting puts it, a song ‘to help them get their coats on.’ Otherwise, you’d be crawling out of the theater.”

For Sting, the power of the film presented an obstacle to the songwriting. “I first said I didn’t think it was within my powers to write something commensurate with the emotions I’d just felt,” he said. “I was afraid it would be mawkish, and normally when you write a song for the end of a movie, you’re comforting people in a kind of bromide, love is everywhere, love, love, love — this demanded more weight. But I collated the lyrics from what people said in the movie about Jim, and when his family and friends saw the movie, they recognized their quotes. In a way, we recreated him for them in our song.”

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