Michael Giacchino wins for score to ‘Up’

Original score

“Up”

Michael Giacchino

Michael Giacchino, the celebrated composer for “Lost,” “Star Trek” and “Up,” had a personal way of figuring out what would soak the hankies for Disney’s tender look at mortality. “A lot of people have said to me, ‘You made me cry,’ and it was only because I cried myself,” he said backstage. “It was a pure reflection of how I was feeling when I watched the movie.”

But he favored understatement for evoking emotion instead of melodrama. When Ellie dies, “you may have a tendency to get really big with the orchestration . . . but when you’re in a room with somebody telling you about their most dramatic moment in life, it’s really quiet. . . . For me, it was about being as quiet and respectful as possible.”

This is the second nomination for the New Jersey-born composer, who often turns to vintage Italian music for inspiration. He was previously nominated in 2007 for his score to “Ratatouille,” another computer-animated film produced by Pixar.