This year’s Oscars are highly anticipated. Seasoned and fresh actors and actresses who led this year’s industry will be in the building from Adrien Brody to Mikey Madison. I want to bring attention specifically to the nominees for best score; The Wild Robot, Emilia Pèrez, Conclave, The Brutalist, and Wicked. One collective is lost from that list and therefore will not be in attendance, the cast and crew of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers. This tennis-erotica film was so well received when it hit theatres in part because of the original score by Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor–a duo known for their pieces in The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and Soul (2020), to name a few. The pair have won Grammys, Academy Awards, along with numerous nominations for their compositions, yet Challengers is arguably their magnum opus, and the Academy has refused to recognize it.

An amassed confusion has stemmed from the critical acclaim it has gained from every other major organization; The Golden Globes, Society of Composers and Lyricists, and the Critics’ Choice Awards. The pure sound in Challengers moved the plot along and created the much-loved tension surrounding the characters of Patrick, Tashi, and Art. The game mirrored the relationships, and the sounds carried the game through the fluidity of motion and emotion. The title track, Challengers, guided the audience through every stress-point up until the final scene where we are met with its sibling, Challengers: Match Point.

Ross and Reznor composed something that no other original score this season could–a timeless track list that exists co-dependently with a storyline, while simultaneously standing on its own as techno-beat staples in individuals’ playlists. My personal favorites are Yeahx10, Compress/Repress, and Brutalizer.

It will remain nothing but a wonder what happened during the voting this year. The “road to the Oscars” was cut far too short and we will watch sub-par films reap the benefits on March 2nd. The only thing left to do is stream Challengers through screen and speaker, mourning what could have been.