Recognizing the musical storytellers scoring today’s top films, TV series and video games, The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers unveiled the winners of the 2023 ASCAP Screen Music Awards. ASCAP celebrated its full slate of award-winning composers at a recent intimate, invitation-only party in West Hollywood. As part of the celebration, the winners of the much anticipated 2023 ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards were revealed live among an audience of peers.
Chosen by the ASCAP composer and songwriter community, the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards are unique among US performing rights organizations. The 2023 winners, selected from an outstanding group of nominees, crafted the scores for a sweeping sci-fi horror film, a critically-acclaimed, satirical comedy-drama series, a cutting-edge docuseries exploring the super-senses of the world’s most extraordinary animals, a definitive documentary on Tony Hawk’s life and iconic career, and a Norse mythology-inspired action-adventure game:
- Film Score of the Year: Nope – Michael Abels
- Television Score of the Year: The White Lotus – Cristobal Tapia de Veer & Kim Neundorf
- Television Theme of the Year: The White Lotus – Cristobal Tapia de Veer
- Documentary Score of the Year: Super/Natural – Amanda Jones; Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off – Jeff Cardoni (tie)
- Video Game Score of the Year: God of War Ragnarök – Bear McCreary
Additional ASCAP Screen Music Award winners include composers of the past year’s hit streaming series and films, which continue to captivate audiences from the comfort of their homes. The Top Streaming Series winners include dynamic duo Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein for their work on global phenomenon Stranger Things, Natalie Holt for her musical storytelling in the live-action Star Wars project Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Siddhartha Khosla for his inventive music in hit comedy-drama Only Murders in the Building. Among the Top Streaming Films winners, John Debney was honored for his spooky score to Hocus Pocus 2 while Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Khiyon Hursey, Mark Sonnenblick and Sukari Jones were celebrated for their collective work on the hit holiday musical comedy Spirited.
In other categories, Simon Franglen won Top Box Office Film of the Year for his captivating score to the stunning blockbuster film Avatar: The Way of Water, and David Vanacore was named the top Most Performed Themes and Underscore winner for his work on shows including Survivor, The Kardashians and The Daily Show. Composers Matthew Hawkins, Maurice “m.0.” Jackson and Neil Martin earned Top Network Television Series for their main theme for NCIS, while John Sereda received Top Cable Television Series for his music in the historical drama When Calls the Heart.
The complete list of winners can be accessed here.
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Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More