The Dark Knight will be eligible for the best score gong at this year's Oscars after all - according to the Hollywood Reporter, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has reversed an earlier decision to disqualify it.

The score for Christopher Nolan's blockbusting Batman sequel had been deemed in November to be the work of too many composers. However, after reviewing the entry, the committee has decided that composers Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard are largely responsible for the score, and will allow it to be on the ballot for next February's awards.

The news will come as a relief to Zimmer and Howard, who had gone to some effort to avoid a repeat of the Academy's decision to disqualify the score for The Dark Knight's predecessor, Batman Begins, in 2005. They included their collaborators' names on the cue sheet (the list of people credited with composing the score) so that they would be entitled to royalty payments. But this time around, music editor Alex Gibson, ambient music designer Mel Wesson and composer Lorne Balfe all signed an affidavit stating that Zimmer and Howard were the prime composers of the work.

Zimmer and Howard have both been nominated for Oscars seven times before - Zimmer winning once for The Lion King in 1995.