Best Original Scores
Formerly Soviet
100

Though she originated the role on broadway, Julie Andrews was passed up for the movie adaptation of My Fair Lady; she found her spoonful of sugar by singing the lead part in this Oscar winner that same year

Mary Poppins (1964)

100

Former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan famously demanded "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!", referring to the physical partition that divided this major European city

Berlin

200

This iconic synthesizer-saturated score by John Williams might have been a shoo-in for the prize, if his work for Star Wars hadn't won that year instead!

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

200

The ushanka, a furry cap strongly associated with Soviet fashion, derives its name from the Slavic word for these appendages it is designed to protect

Ears

300

Last year, Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir became only the fourth woman to win the Oscar for her work on this much-talked-about drama

Joker

300

In Nagorno-Karabakh, a former USSR autonomous oblast and long-disputed territory in the South Caucasus region, war recently reignited between Armenia and this country

Azerbaijan

400

Midnight Express took the 1978 Oscar for its score by this pioneer in electronic music; today he might be best known for his guest appearance on a Daft Punk record

Giorgio Moroder

400

During WWII, this Russian city was the site of a pivotal battle with possibly the greatest casualty figures in the history of human warfare; known today as Volgograd, at the time the city was called this

Stalingrad

500

Ready for your close-up? The insanities of Hollywood are center-focus in this film noir, which was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won three.

Sunset Boulevard

500

This country borders Afghanistan, Iran, and the Caspian Sea to the South and West. (see picture)

Turkmenistan