Hans Zimmer says his Rain Man score was the “beginning of orchestras having to adapt” to synth-written movie scoresHans Zimmer feels his score for the 1988 film Rain Man marked the start of orchestras adapting to working with synthesizers for movies.
Rain Man won Best Picture at the 1989 Academy Awards, with Zimmer being nominated for Best Original Score. He went on to be Oscar-nominated for a number of other synth-laden scores, including Interstellar and Dune: Part One, the latter of which he won Best Score for in 2022.

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Speaking to Josh Horowitz for the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Hans Zimmer says, “I wrote Rain Man on a synthesiser with weird sounds and there’s an orchestra trying to play my music.
“Actually it’s really interesting that you say this because I’m only just realising as you’re saying it, it was the beginning of orchestras having to adapt. Like, ‘there’s this new guy in town and he works with weird electronic instruments, so we better have some stuff in the orchestra as well that can go and do that!’
“The following year I wasn’t up but Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture so they kept playing that tune over and over again, and then Gladiator won Best Picture and I was nominated but again it was like they played the tune over and over and over again… and then winning for Dune: Part One, I was so grumpy about the whole affair.”
Hans Zimmer goes on to recall what turned out to be his most-loved Oscars experience from his win in 2022, which didn’t actually involve his presence at the ceremony itself: “I phoned my PR people and said, ‘don’t bother me, I want to go to sleep’. I had my kids with me and they were downstairs doing whatever, and then the phone rings and it’s my publicist going, ‘It’s your category!’ and I’m going, ‘I told you I don’t want to be disturbed.’
“Two minutes later the phone rings again and I’m going, ‘I told you!’ and she goes, ‘But you won!’ At that moment the door burst open and I realised there was a devious plot between [my partner] and my children and they flew in and there’s a big party going on downstairs with the whole band. They didn’t care if I won or lost, they just wanted a great big party! That was the best Oscars I ever had.”
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