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IFMCA Award Winners 2023
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2023 IFMCA AWARDS
JOHN WILLIAMS WINS SCORE OF THE YEAR FOR FIFTH INDIANA JONES FILM, DIAL OF DESTINY; CHRISTOPHER YOUNG WINS FOUR AWARDS FOR OUTSTANDING WORK IN HORROR FIELD; COMPOSERS FROM JAPAN AND POLAND ALSO TAKE HOME AWARDS
FEBRUARY 22, 2024 — The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of winners for excellence in musical scoring in 2023, in the 2023 IFMCA Awards.
The award for Score of the Year goes to American composer John Williams, for his score for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the fifth film in the beloved action-adventure series starring Harrison Ford as the eponymous globetrotting archaeologist. The score also won the award for its genre, being named Best Score for an Action/Adventure film.
IFMCA member James Southall praised Dial of Destiny as “a nostalgic throwback to those great times of the past – a set of meticulously-composed new music by one of the greatest film composers we’ve ever had – an exhibition in skill and technique with the orchestra which is guaranteed to go beyond almost any other film music we hear this year.” IFMCA member Christian Clemmensen said that the score was “an especially gratifying treat and an immense pleasure to hear in the 2020’s… it continues to espouse the uniquely superior aspects of Williams’s writing from decades past”. Similarly, IFMCA member Anton Smit said the score was “a fantastic listening experience from start to finish… a masterpiece… one of the highlights of this final phase of John Williams’ career.”
This is John Williams’s fifth Score of the Year victory, having previously won for Memoirs of a Geisha in 2005, War Horse in 2011, Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. These wins also take Williams’s all-time IFMCA win tally to 21, not including those for archival releases of his older scores, making him the most-awarded composer in IFMCA history. Read more…
BAFTA Winners 2023
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have announced the winners of the 77th British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2023.
In the Best Original Music category, the winner was Ludwig Göransson, who won the award for his score for Oppenheimer, director Christopher Nolan’s epic drama about the life and work of the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer whose work on the Manhattan Project in the 1940s led to the creation of the world’s first nuclear weapon. Accepting his award, Göransson said:
“Thank you to the BAFTA, and thank you Chris [Nolan] and Emma [Thomas], for all the love and dedication your poured into Oppenheimer. Chris, also thank you so much for spending so much time with me working on this music. All the time you allowed for experimentation, listening to my music over and over again, dissecting the score, talking about the sounds, the themes, and making it into the musical world of Oppenheimer meant… it meant everything to me. That was an incredible experience. I want to also thank all the musicians that poured their hearts into playing on this score and making the music come alive. Without them it wouldn’t be possible. And I also want to thank my partner in life and music, Serena, I love you.”
The other nominees were Jerskin Fendrix for Poor Things, Daniel Pemberton for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Robbie Robertson for Killers of the Flower Moon, and Anthony Willis for Saltburn.
SCL Award Winners 2023
The Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) has announced the winners of the fifth annual SCL Awards, honoring the best in film and television music in 2023. The SCL is the premier professional trade group for composers, lyricists, and songwriters working in the motion picture, television, and game music industry, and is headquartered in Los Angeles. The winners are:
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A STUDIO FILM
- LUDWIG GÖRANSSON for Oppenheimer
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN INDEPENDENT FILM
- JOHN POWELL for Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A TELEVISION OR STREAMING PRODUCTION
- NICHOLAS BRITELL for Succession
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL TITLE SEQUENCE FOR A TELEVISION PRODUCTION
- CARLOS RAFAEL RIVERA for Lessons in Chemistry
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG FOR VISUAL MEDIA – DRAMA/DOCUMENTARY
- OLIVIA RODRIGO and DAN NIGRO for “Can’t Catch Me Now” from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG FOR VISUAL MEDIA- MUSICAL/COMEDY
- BILLIE EILISH and FINNEAS O’CONNELL for “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA
- STEPHEN BARTON and GORDY HAAB for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
DAVID RAKSIN AWARD FOR EMERGING TALENT
- CATHERINE JOY
SPIRIT OF COLLABORATION AWARD
- MARTIN SCORSESE and ROBBIE ROBERTSON
IFMCA Award Nominations 2023
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARDS NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED
JOHN WILLIAMS AND CHRISTOPHER YOUNG LEAD LIST OF NOMINATED COMPOSERS WITH FOUR NOMINATIONS EACH;MULTIPLE COMPOSERS FROM JAPAN AND POLAND AMONG MAJOR NOMINEES
FEBRUARY 8, 2024. The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of nominees for excellence in musical scoring in 2023, for the 20th annual IFMCA Awards. Composers John Williams and Christopher Young lead the list of composer nominees with four nominations each, closely followed by Lorne Balfe, Stephen Barton, Ludwig Göransson, and Bear McCreary, who each have three.
Legendary American composer Williams’s nominations are all for his work on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the fifth film in the beloved action-adventure series starring Harrison Ford as the eponymous globetrotting archaeologist. Dial of Destiny received nominations for Score of the Year, Best Action/Adventure score, and Composition of the Year for the score’s main theme, “Helena’s Theme,” while Williams himself was nominated for Composer of the Year.
IFMCA member James Southall praised Dial of Destiny as “a nostalgic throwback to those great times of the past – a set of meticulously-composed new music by one of the greatest film composers we’ve ever had – an exhibition in skill and technique with the orchestra which is guaranteed to go beyond almost any other film music we hear this year.” Similarly, IFMCA member Christian Clemmensen said that the score was “an especially gratifying treat and an immense pleasure to hear in the 2020’s. It extends the quality of the prior two [Indiana Jones] works and continues to espouse the uniquely superior aspects of Williams’s writing from decades past”. Read more…
Movie Music UK Awards 2023
This year was a fascinating year for me in terms of film music, mainly because for the majority of it there wasn’t one runaway winner for Score of the Year. In recent years there has been a Rings of Power or some other clear front runner, but that wasn’t the case this year – instead there were a very large group of four and four-and-a-half star scores, any of which could have taken top honors depending on the slightest vagaries of personal taste, composer affection, or film quality. I heard more than 700 scores in 2023 – either as a soundtrack album, in movie context, or both – and I ended up rating 84 of them **** or better.
There were an especially large number of excellent scores from outside the mainstream Hollywood system – especially China, France, Japan, and Poland – which again indicates that the world of film music remains as rich and vibrant as it ever was, provided you are willing to put in some effort and explore beyond the confines of the mainstream Hollywood system. There were also a large number of exceptional TV scores, video game scores, and even scores for animated short films that left a significantly positive impression. As such, as was the case last year, I decided to continue to allow television and video game scores to compete on an equal footing with film scores for my coveted ‘Score of the Year’ award –
So, without further ado, here are my choices for the best scores of 2023! Read more…
Academy Award Nominations 2023
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 96th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2023.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- JOSCELIN DENT-POOLEY (JERSKIN FENDRIX) for Poor Things
- LUDWIG GÖRANSSON for Oppenheimer
- LAURA KARPMAN for American Fiction
- ROBBIE ROBERTSON for Killers of the Flower Moon
- JOHN WILLIAMS for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
These are the first Oscar nominations for Dent-Pooley, Karpman, and Robertson; Robertson’s nomination is posthumous, as he died in August 2023, just weeks before Killers of the Flower Moon was released. This is the third Oscar nomination – the second in this category – for Göransson, who previously won for Black Panther in 2018.
Incredibly, this is the 54th Oscar nomination for John Williams, which breaks his own record for being the most nominated living person, and maintains his position as the second most nominated person of all time after Walt Disney (who had 59). He previously won Academy Awards for Fiddler on the Roof in 1971, Jaws in 1975, Star Wars in 1977, E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial in 1982, and Schindler’s List in 1993.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- JON BATISTE and DAN WILSON for “It Never Went Away” from American Symphony
- BILLIE EILISH and FINNEAS O’CONNELL for “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie
- SCOTT GEORGE for “Wahzhazhe – A Song for My People” from Killers of the Flower Moon
- MARK RONSON and ANDREW WYATT for “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie
- DIANE WARREN for “The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot
The winners of the 96th Academy Awards will be announced on March 10, 2024.
Laurie Johnson, 1927-2024
Composer Laurie Johnson died on January 16, 2024, at home in London after a short illness. He was 95.
Laurence Reginald Ward Johnson was born in London in February 1927. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music, where one of his tutors was Ralph Vaughan Williams. He undertook his national service, playing French horn with the Coldstream Guards, in the late 1940s, before moving to the entertainment industry in the 1950s.
He began his career as a composer and arranger in the West End theater, and he won an Ivor Novello Award in 1959 for his work on Lionel Bart’s Lock Up Your Daughters in 1959. He scored his first film, the British musical The Good Companions, in 1957, and went on to enjoy a long career in the British film music industry, writing for projects such as the swashbuckler The Moonraker (1958), the crime drama Tiger Bay (1959), Stanley Kubrick’s classic satire Dr. Strangelove (1964), the HG Wells science-fiction adaptation First Men in the Moon (1964), the cult Hammer horror Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1972), the nature drama The Belstone Fox (1973), and the literary drama Hedda (1975), as well as a series of 1980s TV movies based on the works of his long-time friend, novelist Dame Barbara Cartland. Read more…
BAFTA Nominations 2023
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 77th British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2023.
In the Best Original Music category, which is named in memory of the film director Anthony Asquith, the nominees are:
- JOSCELIN DENT-POOLEY (JERSKIN FENDRIX) for Poor Things
- LUDWIG GÖRANSSON for Oppenheimer
- DANIEL PEMBERTON for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- ROBBIE ROBERTSON for Killers of the Flower Moon
- ANTHONY WILLIS for Saltburn
This is the second BAFTA nomination for Pemberton, and the second nomination for Willis. All the other three nominees are first time nominees – although Göransson does have an Oscar, a Golden Globe, three Grammys and two Emmys – meaning that whoever wins will be a first time BAFTA winner. Robertson’s nomination is posthumous; he died in August 2023, just weeks before Killers of the Flower Moon was released.
The winners of the 77th BAFTA Awards will be announced on 18 February, 2024.
Golden Globe Winners 2023
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) have announced the winners of the 81st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2023.
In the Best Original Score category composer Ludwig Göransson won the award for his score for Oppenheimer, director Christopher Nolan’s epic drama about the life and work of the theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer whose work on the Manhattan Project in the 1940s led to the creation of the world’s first nuclear weapon. This is the first Golden Globe for Göransson, in his fourth nomination – he was previously nominated for Best Score for Black Panther in 2019, and Tenet in 2021, and for Best Song for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022. In his acceptance speech, Göransson said:
“Thank you to the HFPA, and thank you to Chris Nolan and Emma Thomas for inviting me on this journey, and for creating this masterpiece. Working with Christopher Nolan has been an incredible experience and I think the way that you use music in your films and your storytelling has inspired a lot of people. I want to also thank Cillian Murphy, I have been watching your face over and over and over again [laughs] – it’s been an incredible experience and thank you for inspiring me. I want thank all the musicians that played on this incredible score… on this score, they made an incredible effort. And I also want to thank my partner in life and partner in music, Serena, for helping me to realize this music. I love you.”
The other nominees were Joscelin Dent-Pooley (Jerskin Fendrix) for Poor Things, Joe Hisaishi for The Boy and the Heron, Mica Levi for The Zone of Interest, Daniel Pemberton for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Robbie Robertson for Killers of the Flower Moon
In the Best Original Song category, the winners were Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell for their song “What Was I Made For,” one of three nominees from the smash hit summer blockbuster Barbie.
The other nominees were Jack Black, Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Eric Osmond, and John Spiker for “Peaches” from The Super Mario Bros. Movie; Lenny Kravitz for “Road to Freedom” from Rustin; Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt for “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie; Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt, Dua Lipa, and Caroline Ailin for “Dance the Night” from Barbie; and Bruce Springsteen for “Addicted to Romance” from She Came to Me.
SCL Award Nominations 2023
The Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) has announced the nominations for the fifth annual SCL Awards, honoring the best in film and television music in 2023. The SCL is the premier professional trade group for composers, lyricists, and songwriters working in the motion picture, television, and game music industry, and is headquartered in Los Angeles. The nominees are:
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A STUDIO FILM
• LUDWIG GÖRANSSON for Oppenheimer
• JOE HISAISHI for The Boy and the Heron
• LAURA KARPMAN for American Fiction
• ROBBIE ROBERTSON for Killers of the Flower Moon
• ANTHONY WILLIS for Saltburn
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN INDEPENDENT FILM
• JON BATISTE for American Symphony
• MICA LEVI for The Zone of Interest
• FABRIZIO MANCINELLI and RICHARD M. SHERMAN for Mushka
• DANIEL PEMBERTON for Ferrari
• JOHN POWELL for Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Read more…
Golden Globe Nominations 2023
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 81st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2023.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- JOSCELIN DENT-POOLEY (JERSKIN FENDRIX) for Poor Things
- LUDWIG GÖRANSSON for Oppenheimer
- JOE HISAISHI for The Boy and the Heron
- MICA LEVI for The Zone of Interest
- DANIEL PEMBERTON for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
- ROBBIE ROBERTSON for Killers of the Flower Moon
These are the first nominations for Dent-Pooley, Hisaishi, Levi, and Robertson; Robertson’s nomination is posthumous, as he died in August. It is the third nomination for Göransson, and the third nomination for Pemberton. None of the composers have ever won a Golden Globe before.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- JACK BLACK, AARON HORVATH, MICHAEL JELENIC, ERIC OSMOND, and JOHN SPIKER for “Peaches” from The Super Mario Bros. Movie
- BILLIE EILISH O’CONNELL and FINNEAS O’CONNELL for “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie
- LENNY KRAVITZ for “Road to Freedom” from Rustin
- MARK RONSON and ANDREW WYATT for “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie
- MARK RONSON, ANDREW WYATT, DUA LIPA, and CAROLINE AILIN for “Dance the Night” from Barbie
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN for “Addicted to Romance” from She Came to Me
The winners of the 81st Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 7, 2024.
Carl Davis, 1936-2023
Composer Carl Davis died on August 3, 2023, at his home in Oxfordshire, England, following a brain haemorrhage. He was 86.
Davis was born in Brooklyn, New York, in October 1936, and studied composition there and in Copenhagen. He was working with the New York City Opera and the Robert Shaw Chorale, and writing music for off-Broadway productions, prior to traveling to the United Kingdom in 1961 to attend the Edinburgh Festival. It was while in Edinburgh that Davis was offered a job composing music for the satirical comedy series That Was The Week That Was; Davis subsequently spent the rest of his working career predominantly in the UK.
Over the next 30 years or so, Davis wrote hundreds of scores for British film and television. On the big screen, his works included The Bofors Gun (1968), I, Monster (1971), Up Pompeii (1971), Man Friday (1975), The Sailor’s Return (1978), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), Champions (1983), King David (1985), Scandal (1989), The Rainbow (1989), Frankenstein Unbound (1990), The Trial (1993), Widows’ Peak (1994), and Topsy-Turvy (1999), the latter of which saw him adapting music by Gilbert and Sullivan.
On the small screen, his works included The Naked Civil Servant (1975), Oppenheimer (1980), Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1982), The Far Pavilions (1984), The Pickwick Papers (1985), Hotel du Lac (1986), Silas Marner (1986), Pride and Prejudice (1995), Anne Frank Remembered (1995), and Cranford (2008), as well as the groundbreaking documentary series The World at War (1973). He won the BAFTA Award for Film Music for The French Lieutenant’s Woman, and was nominated on six other occasions between 1981 and 2008. He also received two Emmy nominations, in 1972 and 1993, and a Grammy nomination in 1983, again for The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Read more…
Mark Thomas, 1956-2023
Composer Mark Thomas died on July 19, 2013, at his home in Wales, after a long illness. He was 67.
Thomas was born in Penclawdd, near Swansea, Wales, in April 1956. He attended Gowerton Grammar School, and studied music composition and orchestration at university, before starting his musical career as a professional violinist, working mostly as a session musician in London. He played on countless film soundtracks in the late 1970s and 1980s, working with composers including John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner and John Barry, and was one of the violinists in the orchestra pit on the opening night of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s legendary musical The Phantom of the Opera in 1986.
Thomas began writing his own music for film in the early 1990s and quickly established himself as one of the most in-demand composers in the British film and television industry; Thomas took extra pride in writing music for Welsh cinema and television, and intentionally sought out Welsh-language projects. His most profile work included films such as Daisies in December (2005), Twin Town (1997), The Big Tease (1999), Dog Soldiers (2002), Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004), Shadows in the Sun (2005), and The Magic Roundabout (2005), while his TV work included writing for acclaimed mini-series such as Aristocrats (1999), and episodes of Shaun the Sheep, Doc Martin, Benidorm, and Dalziel and Pascoe. He was nominated for an Emmy in 2011 for his main title music for the TV series Episodes, and won a BAFTA Cymru Award in 1998 for his score for Twin Town.
Thomas leaves behind his wife, Luz Marie, and children Imogen, Rosana and Tristam.
Ryuichi Sakamoto, 1952-2023
Composer Ryuichi Sakamoto died on March 28, 2023, in hospital in Tokyo, after a long battle with cancer. He was 71.
Sakamoto was born in Tokyo, Japan, in January 1952. He studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, earning a B.A. in music composition and an M.A. with special emphasis on both electronic and ethnic music. He studied ethnomusicology there with the intention of becoming a researcher in the field, due to his interest in various world music traditions, particularly the Japanese (especially Okinawan), Indian and African musical traditions.
Sakamoto began his musical career while at university as a session musician, producer, and arranger. His first major success came in 1978 as co-founder of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), and with bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres. He concurrently pursued a solo career, releasing the experimental electronic fusion album Thousand Knives in 1978, and then the influential B-2 Unit in 1980.
Sakamoto began working in films, as a composer and actor, in Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence in 1983. Sakamoto won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music for his score – which was hugely popular in the UK. Then in 1987 Sakamoto wrote the score for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor with fellow composers David Byrne and Cong Su, and won the Academy Award, the Golden Globe, and a Grammy. Read more…
Christopher Gunning, 1944-2023
Composer Christopher Gunning died on March 25, 2023, at his home in Hertfordshire, England, after a short illness. He was 78.
Christopher Gunning was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, in August 1944, and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where his tutors included Edmund Rubbra and Richard Rodney Bennett.
Gunning beganm writing for film in the early 1970s, and his important early works included Goodbye Gemini (1970), the Hammer horror film Hands of the Ripper (1971), the film version of the smash hit sitcom Man About the House (1974), and Porterhouse Blue (1987), which which he received his first BAFTA Television Award.
Gunning’s most enduring contribution to film music came in 1989, when he composed the iconic theme tune for the TV series Poirot, starring David Suchet, for which he received his second BAFTA Television Award. Gunning would go on to score nearly all of the subsequent 70 Poirot TV films between 1989 and 2013. Read more…
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