Awards
He received his first Academy Award nomination in 1979, for the score to Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978). He was later nominated for a further two awards; in 1986 for The Mission and in 1987 for The Untouchables. He later nominated for the score to Bugsy (Barry Levinson) (1991). His last nomination was for Malèna (2000).
Morricone and Alex North are the only composers to receive the Honorary Oscar since the award's introduction in 1928. North was nominated for fifteen Oscars, but like Morricone, he never won competitively.
Morricone received an honorary Academy Award on February 25, 2007, presented by Clint Eastwood, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." With the statuette came a standing ovation. Not only nominated five times, but also he received a lifetime achievement Oscar, five Baftas and two Golden Globes. In conjunction with the honor, Morricone released a tribute album, We All Love Ennio Morricone, that featured as its centerpiece Celine Dion's rendition of "I Knew I Loved You" (based on "Deborah's Theme" from Once Upon a Time in America), which she performed at the ceremony. Behind-the-scenes studio production and recording footage of "I Knew I Loved You" can be viewed in the debut episode of the QuincyJones.com Podcast. The lyric, as with Morricone's Love Affair, had been penned by Oscar-winning husband-and-wife duo Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Morricone's acceptance speech was in his native Italian tongue and was interpreted by Clint Eastwood, who stood to his left. Eastwood and Morricone had in fact met two days earlier—for the first time in 40 years—at a reception.
Read more about this topic: Ennio Morricone