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Golden Globe Winners 2017
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) have announced the winners of the 75th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2017.
In the Best Original Score category composer Alexandre Desplat won the award for his score for director Guillermo del Toro’s romantic fantasy The Shape of Water. This is Desplat’s second Golden Globe, him having won previously for The Painted Veil in 2006. In his acceptance speech, Desplat said:
“Thank you, merci, merci beaucoup. Different color from the previous one! Thank you Hollywood Foreign Press. Thanks to Fox Searchlight, to Miles Dale the producer, and Guillermo… you moved me. Your movie has moved me so much, inspired me so much, because it’s made of your humanity, your passion. I thank you also for all the dinners we have in Paris, and the ones to come. I want to thank all the musicians who recorded the score, they are marvelous. All the crew and cast: Richard [Jenkins], Sally [Hawkins], Doug [Jones]. The music department at Fox Searchlight, Queen Renee Fleming, Laura Engel, Ray Costa, my friend Katz, and Solrey – this is for you. Thank you very much!”
The other nominees were Carter Burwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Jonny Greenwood for Phantom Thread, John Williams for The Post, and Hans Zimmer for Dunkirk.
In the Best Original Song category, the winners were Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul for their song “This Is Me” from the screen musical The Greatest Showman.
The other nominees were Kristin Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez for “Remember Me” from Coco; Mariah Carey and Marc Shaiman for “The Star” from The Star; Nick Jonas, Justin Tranter, and Nick Monson for “Home” from Ferdinand; and Raphael Saadiq, Mary J. Blige, and Taura Stinson for “Mighty River” from Mudbound.
Dominic Frontiere, 1931-2017
Composer Dominic Frontiere died on December 21, 2017, in his home in Tesuque, New Mexico, after a short illness. He was 86.
Dominic Carmen Frontiere was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in June 1931. A classically trained accordion prodigy who performed at Carnegie Hall as a teenager, Frontiere went on to study at the Juilliard School before beginning a career in Hollywood that spanned more than four decades. He first gained recognition as musical director at 20th Century Fox, where he collaborated with Alfred Newman and contributed to a variety of studio productions.
His association with director and producer Leslie Stevens led to Frontiere scoring his first major film, The Marriage-Go-Round, in 1961. That relationship led Frontiere to became an executive of the television and film production company Daystar Productions, a company Stevens run. He composed several famous television themes of the 1960s, such as those for The Outer Limits, The Rat Patrol, Branded, and The Flying Nun, as well as The Invaders, The Fugitive, and 12 O’Clock High for producer Quinn Martin.
In cinema, he earned acclaim for his scores to films including Hang ‘Em High (1968), starring Clint Eastwood, and Freebie and the Bean (1974) while his score for The Stunt won a Golden Globe Award and earned him a Grammy nomination in 1980. Other notable films scored by Frontiere include On Any Sunday in 1971, Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold in 1975, Brannigan in 1975, The Aviator in 1985, and Color of Night in 1994, which was his final major work. Read more…
Golden Globe Nominations 2017
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 75th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2017.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- CARTER BURWELL for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for The Shape of Water
- JONNY GREENWOOD for Phantom Thread
- JOHN WILLIAMS for The Post
- HANS ZIMMER for Dunkirk
This is the first Golden Globe nomination for Greenwood, and just his second major film music award nomination – he was previously nominated for a BAFTA for There Will Be Blood in 2007 – although he has been a multiple Grammy award nominee and winner for his work as a member of the alternative rock group Radiohead.
This is the 3rd nomination for Burwell, and the 9th nomination for Desplat, who previously won the Globe for The Painted Veil in 2006. It’s also the 25th nomination for Williams – who previously won Globes in 1975 for Jaws, 1977 for Star Wars, 1982 for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and 2005 for Memoirs of a Geisha – and the 14th nomination for Zimmer, who previously won Globes for The Lion King in 1994 and Gladiator in 2000.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- KRISTIN ANDERSON-LOPEZ and ROBERT LOPEZ for “Remember Me” from Coco
- MARIAH CAREY and MARC SHAIMAN for “The Star” from The Star
- NICK JONAS, JUSTIN TRANTER, and NICK MONSON for “Home” from Ferdinand
- BENJ PASEK, and JUSTIN PAUL for “This Is Me” from The Greatest Showman
- RAPHAEL SAADIQ, MARY J. BLIGE, and TAURA STINSON for “Mighty River” from Mudbound
The winners of the 75th Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 7, 2018.
Luis Enríquez Bacalov, 1933-2017
Composer Luis Enríquez Bacalov died on November 15, 2017, at his home in Rome, Italy, after suffering a stroke. He was 84.
Bacalov was born in August 1933 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to a Bulgarian Jewish family and studied music from an early age; his teachers included Enrique Barenboim, the father of famed conductor Daniel Barenboim, and pianist Berta Sujovolsky. Bacalov relocated from Argentina to Italy in the 1950s, and spent the majority of the rest of his life living and working there.
He scored his first film, a low-budget ghost story called Questi Fantasmi, in 1954, and then for many years fronted a rock group in the 1960s called Luis Enrique and His Electronic Men, but first came to prominence in 1964 when he arranged the music for Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film The Gospel According to St. Matthew, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Music Adaptation or Treatment when the film was released in the United States in 1967.
Bacalov quickly established himself as one of the most popular and successful composers in the Italian film industry in the 1960s and 70s; his most famous scores were for spaghetti westerns such as Django (1966), Sugar Colt (1966), Quién Sabe (1967), Lo Chiamavano King (1971), and Il Grande Duello (1972), and gritty crime thrillers such as The Summertime Killer (1972), Milano Calibro 9 (1972), Il Boss (1973), and I Padroni Della Città (1976). He scored Federico Fellini’s City of Women in 1980, Fellini’s first film after the death of Nino Rota, and then achieved arguably his most prominent international success when he won the Academy Award for Best Score in 1995 for Il Postino, The Postman. Read more…
MOVIE MUSIC UK – The First Twenty Years
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since I started Movie Music UK in the summer of 1997. In many ways, it feels like a lifetime ago, but in others I can barely believe that so much time has passed. Considering this milestone occasion, I thought it would be appropriate to set down a few thoughts about my site, my life in film music, and the people I have met over the past two decades who have helped make the site what it is and, perhaps most importantly, make me who I am. Settle in… this is a long read! Read more…
Academy Award Winners 2016
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the winners of the 89th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2016.
In the Best Original Score category composer Justin Hurwitz won the award for his score for director Damian Chazelle’s film La La Land, a modern day musical which celebrates the style of classic Hollywood updated to a contemporary setting. Hurwitz accepted the award by saying:
“Ok, wow! Thank you so much to the Academy. Thank you to my very, very good friend, Damian [Chazelle], I’m so glad I met you! Thank you to Marc Platt, Jordan Horowitz, Fred Berger. Thank you to everybody at Lionsgate. Thank you to all the LA musicians who played on this score. I just put notes on a page and they’re the ones who made it beautiful and sound the way it does. If I start going through names I could make, at most, twenty to thirty people happy but, I’ll make about a hundred – a couple of hundred million people really bored, so I’ll just leave it at everybody who’s work is on-screen in any way in this movie, I was looking at your work when I was scoring the picture, I was looking at what you did when I was scoring the picture, and that’s what inspired me, so thank you to everybody who worked on this movie. Thank you.”
The other nominees were Nicholas Britell for Moonlight, Mica Levi for Jackie, Dustin O’Halloran and Volker “Hauschka” Bertelmann for Lion, and Thomas Newman for Passengers.
In the Best Original Song category, the winners were Justin Hurwitz, Justin Paul, and Benj Pasek, for their song “City of Stars” from La La Land.
The other nominees were Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul for “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” from La La Land, Lin-Manuel Miranda for “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana, Joshua Ralph and Gordon Sumner (Sting) for “The Empty Chair” from Jim: The James Foley Story, and Justin Timberlake, Max Martin, and Karl Johan Schuster (Shellback) for “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” from Trolls.
IFMCA Award Winners 2016
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2016 IFMCA AWARDS; “ARRIVAL” TAKES SCORE OF THE YEAR, JUSTIN HURWITZ AND “LA LA LAND” WINS THREE OTHERS
The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of winners for excellence in musical scoring in 2016, in the 2016 IFMCA Awards.
The award for Score of the Year goes to Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson for his work on the critically acclaimed science fiction drama “Arrival,” directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. IFMCA member Jon Broxton said that “Jóhannsson’s approach to solving the film’s musical problems [is] absolutely fascinating, and the way he was able to musically convey some of the film’s more challenging cerebral ideas involving language and communication is astonishingly accomplished,” while IFMCA member Daniel Schweiger said that Jóhannsson “brilliantly captures both a sense of wonder and fear with beholding the mind-boggling, verbally-scrambled unknown, as whale cry motifs join with alternately moaning and chattering voices, backed by a strong orchestral sound that serves as a powerful universal musical translator in a way that’s both harmonically understandable, and profoundly strange.” This is the first IFMCA Award win of Jóhannsson’s career, him having previously been nominated for Best Original Score for a Drama Film for “The Theory of Everything” in 2014. Read more…
BAFTA Winners 2016
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have announced the winners of the 70th British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2016.
In the Best Original Score category composer Justin Hurwitz won the award for his score for the contemporary screen music La La Land. In accepting his award, Hurwitz said:
“Thank you to the Academy. I wanted to share this as well with our incredible lyricists, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote all the words. I remember talking a couple of years ago to somebody who came to the BAFTAs as a part of a movie that had multiple nominations and they were saying that one of the coolest things was getting to know other people who worked on the movie who you may not have known, and that’s not the experience I’m having because this was such an unusually collaborative movie where from the very beginning we were working under one roof, and I got to see these other artists work up close. I got to see Mary Zophres designing the costumes, and watch the Wascos work, and watch Linus (Sandgren) shoot it, and I was constantly inspired by the work of these other artists, which is a cool experience for a composer in general, but to see it under the direction of Damian (Chazelle), who’s so masterful, is really something I’ll never forget. This is very cool trophy, by the way, I really like it. Beautiful Thank you!”
The other nominees were Jóhann Jóhannsson for Arrival, Abel Korzeniowski for Nocturnal Animals, Mica Levi for Jackie, and Dustin O’Halloran and Volker “Hauschka” Bertelmann for Lion.
IFMCA Award Nominations 2016
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARD NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED; MICHAEL GIACCHINO AND “LA LA LAND” COMPOSER JUSTIN HURWITZ LEAD THE PACK
The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of nominees for excellence in musical scoring in 2016, for the 13th annual IFMCA Awards. In a wide open field, the most nominated composers are Michael Giacchino and Justin Hurwitz, with five nominations each, and Abel Korzeniowski, with four nominations.
Giacchino is nominated for his work on two scores; the action-packed comic book fantasy film “Doctor Strange,” and the popular and socially aware Disney animated film “Zootopia,” as well as for the “Night on the Yorktown” cue from his score for “Star Trek Beyond”. In addition, his score for the first of the Star Wars spinoff films, “Rogue One,” helped him secure a nomination for Composer of the Year. Giacchino is a 36-time IFMCA Award nominee who previously received Score of the Year honors in 2004 for “The Incredibles,” and in 2009 for “Up”. Read more…
Movie Music UK Awards 2016
I know I have said this year after year, but this year it seems to be truer than ever: choosing the best scores of 2016 was an incredibly difficult task. The issue, for me, was the lack of a clear 5-star masterpiece score, combined with a whole host of very good-but-not-great scores.I keep a running tally of every score I hear throughout the year, and I have ended up with an astonishing 58 scores which, if I were still giving out star ratings, I would have rated either **** or ****½.
Putting these in any kind of hierarchical order is virtually impossible task considering the tiny margins of quality between each score but, nevertheless, it’s something I had to do. So, after much deliberation, here are my choices for the Best Scores of 2016! Read more…
Academy Award Nominations 2016
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 89th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2016.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- NICHOLAS BRITELL for Moonlight
- JUSTIN HURWITZ for La La Land
- MICA LEVI for Jackie
- DUSTIN O’HALLORAN and VOLKER “HAUSCHKA” BERTELMANN for Lion
- THOMAS NEWMAN for Passengers
These are the first Oscar nominations for Britell, Hurwitz, Levi, O’Halloran and Bertelmann, although Hurwitz did win the Golden Globe for Best Original Score earlier during the season. It is the 14th Oscar nomination for Newman, but he has never won, thus ensuring that this year’s winner will be a first time Oscar champion.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- JUSTIN HURWITZ, BENJ PASEK, and JUSTIN PAUL for “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” from La La Land
- JUSTIN HURWITZ, BENJ PASEK, and JUSTIN PAUL for “City of Stars” from La La Land
- LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA for “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana
- JOSHUA RALPH and GORDON SUMNER (STING) for “The Empty Chair” from Jim: The James Foley Story
- JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, MAX MARTIN, and KARL JOHAN SCHUSTER (SHELLBACK) for “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” from Trolls
The winners of the 89th Academy Awards will be announced on February 26, 2017.
BAFTA Nominations 2016
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 70th British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2016.
In the Best Original Music category, which is named in memory of the film director Anthony Asquith, the nominees are:
- JUSTIN HURWITZ for La La Land
- JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON for Arrival
- ABEL KORZENIOWSKI for Nocturnal Animals
- MICA LEVI for Jackie
- DUSTIN O’HALLORAN and VOLKER “HAUSCHKA” BERTELMANN for Lion
This is the third BAFTA nomination for Jóhannsson, and the second nomination for Levi. All the other four nominees are first-time recipients, although Korzeniowski did win a BAFTA TV Award in 2015 for his television score Penny Dreadful. None of the nominees have previously won a British Academy Film Award.
The winners of the 70th BAFTA Awards will be announced on February 12, 2017.
Golden Globe Winners 2016
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) have announced the winners of the 74th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2016.
In the Best Original Score category composer Justin Hurwitz won the award for his score for the original musical La La Land. In his acceptance speech, Hurwitz said:
“Thank you, thank you. HFPA, everybody who worked on the movie, everybody at Lionsgate, all the LA musicians. I could start going through names, but I would have to pick and choose and leave so many names out, and then I would feel bad and then I would also start imagining that people were angry at me for not saying their names, so, just kind of across the board everyone who worked on the movie. I feel like it was the kind of movie where … well, first of all I was lucky to get to work, because it was a musical, I got to work with or at least know, pretty much all the departments, and there was just this spirit across the movie where people kind of worked harder than I think they’re used to working, and went to bed later than they’re used to going to bed, and wore more hats than they’re used to, and because I think we were all … we didn’t believe that this movie was getting made, and we didn’t believe that Damien had created something so unique that allowed us to put so much of ourselves into it, so, we didn’t want to take it for granted, and everybody worked so hard, and so passionately, so thank you to everybody, and this is very much appreciated.”
The other nominees were Nicholas Britell for Moonlight, Jóhann Jóhannsson for Arrival, Dustin O’Halloran and Volker “Hauschka” Bertelmann for Lion, and Hans Zimmer, Pharrell Williams, and Benjamin Wallfisch for Hidden Figures.
In the Best Original Song category, the winners were Justin Hurwitz, Benj Pasek, and Justin Paul for their song “City of Stars” from La La Land.
The other nominees were Lin-Manuel Miranda for “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana, James Osterberg (Iggy Pop), Daniel Pemberton, Stephen Gaghan, and Brian Burton (Danger Mouse) for “Gold” from Gold, Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Schuster (Shellback) for “Can’t Stop the Feeling” from Trolls, and Stevie Wonder, Ryan Tedder, and Francis Farewell Starlite for “Faith” from Sing.
Golden Globe Nominations 2016
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 74th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2016.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- NICHOLAS BRITELL for Moonlight
- JUSTIN HURWITZ for La La Land
- JÓHANN JÓHANNSSON for Arrival
- DUSTIN O’HALLORAN and VOLKER BERTELMANN (“HAUSCHKA”) for Lion
- HANS ZIMMER, PHARRELL WILLIAMS, and BENJAMIN WALLFISCH for Hidden Figures
These are the first major film music award nominations for Britell, Bertelmann, and Wallfisch; Hurwitz was previously nominated for a Grammy for his score for Whiplash, and O’Halloran won an Emmy for his work on the TV series Transparent, while Pharrell is a multiple award nominee and winner for his work as a solo recording artist.
This is the 2nd nomination for Jóhannsson (who won the Globe in 2015 for The Theory of Everything), and the 13th nomination for Zimmer (who previously won Globes for The Lion King in 1994 and Gladiator in 2000).
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- JUSTIN HURWITZ, BENJ PASEK, and JUSTIN PAUL for “City of Stars” from La La Land
- LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA for “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana
- JAMES OSTERBERG (IGGY POP), DANIEL PEMBERTON, STEPHEN GAGHAN, and BRIAN BURTON (DANGER MOUSE) for “Gold” from Gold
- JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, MAX MARTIN and KARL SCHUSTER (SHELLBACK) for “Can’t Stop the Feeling” from Trolls
- STEVIE WONDER, RYAN TEDDER, and FRANCIS FAREWELL STARLITE for “Faith” from Sing
The winners of the 74th Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 8, 2017.
Academy Award Winners 2015
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the winners of the 88th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2015.
In the Best Original Score category 87-year-old Italian composer Ennio Morricone won the award for his score for director Quentin Tarantino’s dark, violent western The Hateful Eight. Speaking in Italian, with his son Giovanni translating into English, Morricone accepted the award by saying:
“Buona sera, signore, buona sera. Thank you to the Academy for this prestigious acknowledgement. My tribute goes to the other nominees, and in particular to the esteemed John Williams. There isn’t a great soundtrack without a great movie that inspires it. I want to thank Quentin Tarantino for having chosen me, Harvey Weinstein, and the entire team who made this extraordinary film. I dedicate this award to my wife Maria, who is there watching me. Thank you. Grazie.”
The other nominees were Carter Burwell for Carol, Jóhann Jóhannsson for Sicario, Thomas Newman for Bridge of Spies, and John Williams for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
In the Best Original Song category, the winners were Sam Smith and James Napier for their song “Writing’s On the Wall” from James Bond film Spectre.
The other nominees were Ahmad Balshe (Belly), Stephan Moccio, Jason Daheala Quenneville and Abel Tesfaye (The Weeknd) for “Earned It” from Fifty Shades of Grey; Stefani Germanotta (Lady Gaga) and Diane Warren for “Til It Happens To You” from The Hunting Ground; Antony Hegarty and Joshua Ralph for “Manta Ray” from Racing Extinction; and David Lang for “Simple Song #3” from Youth.
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