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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Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More