The musical maestro won an Oscar last year. It wasn't for his own original music, though. It was for his role in a movie about music. "The Last Repair Shop" told the story of what it takes to keep music in L.A. schools from the place where the instruments are lovingly repaired for the students who love to play them.
For their co-directing, Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot won Oscars last year in the Best Documentary Short category. This year, Bowers is nominated for composing the original score for the animated film, "The Wild Robot."
"It means a lot because when I was a kid, this is the category that I paid attention to. It's the one I learned who my favorite composers were from studying that list, and also it's voted on by my peers -- that's weird to say -- people I admire, respect, have been studying for years. It's amazing to be nominated by them," said Bowers.
Since there's not that much dialogue in the movie, director Chris Sanders has called the musical element of "The Wild Robot" the heart and soul of the film.
"I feel like I'm a method composer in a way. I have to feel something for me to write the music. It's the way that I know something is right," said Bowers. "I'm not an emotional person in my everyday life, but I'm incredibly emotional when it comes to the music I make and in the art I create."
Bowers had just moved back into his house after the Southern California wildfires, when some good news came his way.
"The day I found out I was nominated was an amazing moment, but also the rest of that day was texting to a toxicologist about whether or not it was safe for my pregnant wife or our daughter to be in our area or outside or for her to go back to school. And my wife's going to have a baby in about almost five weeks and so that's also an amazing, an amazing and exciting thing."