The Life Ahead - 1 nomination

 

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
Diane Warren (music by/lyric by) 
Laura Pausini (lyric by) 

For song "Io Si (Seen)"

Mama Rosa is a Holocaust survivor running a sort of day care for local children of working women (generally, prostitutes).  She meets Momo, a Senegalese 12 old boy who is living with Rosa's doctor as a foster child when Momo robs her.  The doctor implores her to take in Momo and he pays her to do it.  Momo has a tough life working for drug dealers, with the wrong kind of influence in his world.  Over time, Rosa and Momo develop a strong bond and they both become better people thanks to this important relationship.  Rosa makes Momo promise that she will not die in a hospital, and when she is taken there for a health incident, he sneaks her out and hides her in the basement, where he dotes on her and cares for her as though she was a member of his own family.

The Life Ahead is a very sweet film and Sophia Loren still has her chops.  The song, which you can hear here, is beautiful and represents Diane Warren's 12th Oscars nomination with no wins.  I don't think this year will break her losing streak (and frankly, she should have won for Til It Happens to You, which she wrote for a documentary called The Hunting Ground), but you can see why Warren continues to earn accolades for her compositions.

Watch the trailer here.