As Toy Story 5 goes into general release on Friday (June 19), awards-minded pop fans will start gauging the chances that Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You,” the song that plays over the Disney Pixar film’s closing credits, will receive an Oscar nomination next January. Let’s just say its chances are very good.
Randy Newman was nominated for best original song for tunes he wrote for each of the first four installments in this franchise – “You’ve Got a Friend In Me” from Toy Story, “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2, “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 and “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from Toy Story 4.
Swift and Jack Antonoff, who were 5 and 11, respectively, when the first Toy Story film was released in 1995, co-wrote the new song.
Let’s peer a bit further into the future: If “I Knew It, I Knew You” wins the Oscar on March 14, it will become the second song from a Toy Story film to walk off with that honor. “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 won in 2011. Toy Story would join three other film franchises or series of related films in spawning multiple best original song Oscar winners.
We’ll break it all down for you, but first we’ll remind you of the Oscar schedule for this year. Oscar shortlists in 10 categories will be revealed on Tuesday, Dec. 15. The shortlist for best original song, determined by members of the music branch, will show the 15 songs that will go forward. From that list, members of the music branch will vote again to determine the five nominees. Those nominations will be announced on Jan. 21. All voting members of the Academy will vote to determine the final winners, which will be announced at the 99th Oscars on March 14.
Here, as promised, are the film franchises or series of related films that have spawned multiple best original song Oscar winners. (The year shown throughout is the year of the Oscar ceremony.)
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Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Musicals
1935: “The Continental” from The Gay Divorcee
1937: “The Way You Look Tonight” from Swing Time
Notes: These films were the second and sixth pairings of the celebrated dance duo Astaire and Rogers (out of 10 total). The Astaire/Rogers films provided escapism and entertainment during the Great Depression and are credited with lifting Americans’ spirits during that troubled time.
Remarkably, seven of the 10 Astaire/Rogers films spawned an Oscar-nominated song. The five other Oscar-nominated songs to originate in Astaire/Rogers films include two how-could-that-not-have won classics – “Cheek to Cheek” from Top Hat (1936) and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me” from Shall We Dance (1938). The others are “The Carioca” from Flying Down to Rio (1935), “Lovely To Look At” from Roberta (1936) and “Change Partners” From Carefree (1939).
Astaire died in 1987 at age 88. Rogers died in 1995 at age 83.
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A Star Is Born Remakes
1977: “Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born)” (Barbra Streisand)
2019: “Shallow” (Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper)
Notes: Judy Garland’s classic torch ballad “The Man That Got Away” from the first musical version of A Star Is Born was nominated in 1955 but didn’t win.
Janet Gaynor and Fredric March starred in the first film version of A Star Is Born in 1937, but it was a drama, not a musical.
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James Bond Films
2013: “Skyfall” from Skyfall (Adele)
2016: “The Writing’s on the Wall” from Spectre (Sam Smith)
2022: “No Time To Die” from No Time To Die (Billie Eilish)
Notes: Three songs from official James Bond films (those made by Eon Productions) were nominated before “Skyfall” became the first to bring home the gold. The nominees that fell short were “Live and Let Die” from the film of the same name (1974), “Nobody Does It Better” from The Spy Who Loved Me (1978)and “For Your Eyes Only” from the film of the same name (1982).
Even before those three nominees, a song from an unofficial Bond film – one not made by Eon Productions – was nominated. That was the seriously sensuous “The Look of Love” from Casino Royale (1968).