One thing I'm certain of is that John Williams WON'T win. He is to the Oscars what Susan Lucci is to the Daytime Emmys.... a perpetually nominated loser (since 1993, anyway). I think a Lifetime Achievement Award will be his, at some point (or did he already get one?).
I am certain Robbertson or Goransson will win because Hollywood seems to have a la-di-da attitude towards more traditional Classical-based scores in more recent years (circa the late 70s). More recent proof of this was that NONE of his Star Wars prequel scores were nominated between 1999 and 2005...none of them. I suppose the assumption was that since they were prequel/sequels it would just be "more of the same". I almost think he was nominated for all three Star Wars sequel film scores, despite their less inspired content, out of embarrassment for the prequel snubs. He still lost, of course. LOL.
Williams only seems to win when NOT giving it to him would be too outrageous. Williams has frequently been nominated for multiple films in certain years, so split voting has probably cut down on his Oscar total as well. Still, his Superman loss to Giorgio Moroder's Midnight Express seems hard to fathom, looking back. I do think Vangelis beating out Williams for Raiders was not so unreasonable, because it was also a great and iconic score... all of it, not just the theme. I'm not saying he should have won e every time, but he SHOULD have much more than five Golden Boys on his shelf. John Barry won the same number, despite only have a fraction of the nominations. No disrespect intended to Barry, but you gotta wonder what the deal is.
Having said that, Williams' Dial of Destiny score isn't up to his Superman or Raiders standards either. The Helena Theme was nice, but the only thing that really stood out... and more impressive in its guise as a concert piece for violin and orchestra, especially when played by Anna-Sophie Mutter. Probably not enough to win this time, methinks. Hollywood might also be annoyed that he seems more preoccupied these days trying to secure some sort of foothold in the Classical pantheon in Vienna and Berlin than winning golden statues. Indeed, I suspect Helena's Theme is more a concert piece that got shoehorned into a movie than vice versa. Dial being a sequel (and a flop, to boot) are the final nails in the Oscar coffin.
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