The actor, composer and scriptwriter of Puerto Rican descent, Lin-Manuel Miranda, considers the mere fact of being nominated for an Oscar in the Best Original Song category for the animated film "Moana" is already a prize.

"I feel super proud to be part of the conversation, but for me the prize is just being nominated and invited to the party," Miranda said in an interview with EFE.

"Being able to attend the awards and mix with people in evening dress and to take my mom who always watched the Academy Awards with me since I was a kid - that's the prize for me," said the Oscar nominee in the Best Original Song category for "How Far I'll Go" from the latest animated feature film from Disney Studios.

The song by the New Yorker, 37, shares the honor of being nominated for the golden trophy of Hollywood's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences along with "The Empty Chair" from the film "Jim: The James Foley Story," "Can't Stop the Feeling" from "Trolls," and "City of Stars" and "Audition," both from the musical "La La Land."

Being able to attend the awards and mix with people in evening dress and to take my mom ... - that's the prize for me

Should he win the statuette, Miranda will join the elite EGOT ranks, those who have won all the top showbiz prizes: the Emmy (television), Grammy (music), Oscar (film) and Tony (theater).

Up to now the EGOT list is composed of only 12 names: Rita Moreno, Helen Hayes, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Rodgers, Mel Brooks, Audrey Hepburn, Mike Nichols, John Gielgud, Marvin Hamlisch, Jonathan Tunick, Scott Rudin and Robert Lopez.

"(Rita Moreno) is the Latina in the EGOT club - she's the reason I got interested in the club - it doesn't make you any money but Rita is an EGOT. My heroine and my friend," the creator of the Broadway musicals "In the Heights" and "Hamilton" said.

Miranda in 2014 took the top prize for television, the Emmy, for the song "Bigger" that he composed for the 66th gala of the Tony prizes.

His honors also include two Grammys for "In the Heights" (2009) and "Hamilton" (2016), three Tony awards for the same works, and a Pulitzer for the "Hamilton" libretto.

In the production meetings of films like "Moana," Miranda said, "the team discusses which moments need music, which moments must be "unforgettable," because songs "help tell the story."

And his song nominated for an Oscar "was one of those moments, because Moana on her trip is not someone who hates where she lives - she loves her island, she loves her people, she loves her heritage - but at the same time she has a voice deep inside that calls her to do something greater," the composer said.

"I felt like that myself," he recalled. "I remember when I was 16 and I wanted a life in the entertainment business but I had no idea how to achieve it."

The Academy Awards ceremony will be held next Feb. 26 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, but this Monday more than 150 nominees in this 89th edition meet for the traditional lunch and get-together of actors, directors, scriptwriters, sound engineers and others.