The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has been reluctant to bestow the Oscar Award posthumously.
Cult composer Bernard Hermann, best-known for his multiple and brilliant scores for Hitchcock (Vertigo and Psycho among them), received two posthumous nominations in the same year, 1976, for Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and for Brian De Palma’s Obsession (the latter film was a tribute to Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Vertigo).
It was a fitting swang song for Hermann’s distinguished career, though the Academy decided to honor Jerry Goldsmith for The Omen (which happened to be another Hitchcock-inspired thriller).
