He also thanked fellow nominees: Carter Burwell for Carol, Jóhann Jóhannsson for Sicario, Thomas Newman for Bridge of Spies, and John Williams for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.
This follows both a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for the same score, which partially utilises unused work from one of his most famous scores, for John Carpenter`s 1982 sci-fi The Thing.
Morricone had previously been nominated five times for the Academy Award; for his scores to Days of Heaven (1978), The Mission (1986), The Untouchables (1987), Bugsy (1991), and Malèna (2000). However, the 87-year-old composer had received an honorary Oscar for his lifetime contribution in 2007.
Though several decades too late, perhaps, it`s fitting at least to see Morricone win for the genre he`s most been associated with; having scored Sergio Leone`s iconic western trilogy: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966).
It`s a win which will surely bring Tarantino great pleasure as well, with an original Morricone score fulfilling a real ambition within the director`s own filmography. Morricone had previously declined scoring Inglorious Basterds (2009), though later agreeing to provide a single, new piece for Django Unchained (2012).
