'Mountain,' 'Rings' Lead Oscar Music Nominations

The scores and songs from "Cold Mountain" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" lead the nominations in the music categories for the 76th Annual Academy Awards. The awards ceremony will be held Feb. 29 at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre and broadcast live on ABC.

Gabriel Yared's "Cold Mountain" score and Howard Shore's work on "Return of the King" will compete against the scores for "Big Fish" (Danny Elfman), "House of Sand and Fog" (James Horner) and "Finding Nemo" (Thomas Newman). Shore previously won best original score in 2001 for his work on "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." Yared took home the prize in 1996 for his score for "The English Patient." Neither three-time nominee Elfman nor six-time nominee Newman have ever taken home the best original score Oscar, but Horner won in 1997 for "Titanic."

Two songs from the "Cold Mountain" soundtrack contend in the best original song category -- "You Will Be My Ain True Love" by Sting (his third nomination) and "Scarlet Tide" by Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett (the first Academy Award nod for both). They will compete with "Into the West" by Shore, Fran Walsh and Annie Lennox (from "Return of the King"), "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" by Michael McKean and Annette O'Toole (from "A Mighty Wind") and "The Triplets of Belleville" by Benoit Charest and Sylvain Chomet (from "The Triplets of Belleville").

Shore took home awards in both musical categories at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night (Jan. 25), besting the likes of Yared, Elfman, Sting and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder.