Nominees for the Hollywood Music in Media Awards are being unveiled Friday, with a packed slate of songs and scores in film, TV and videogame categories. Names in contention range from Alexandre Desplat, James Newton Howard and Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross as returning veterans in the score divisions to stars like Taylor Swift, H.E.R., Brandi Carlile, Travis Scott, Haim and Janelle Monae as nominated songwriters for feature film themes.
Kenny Loggins has been tagged for the HMMAs; Career Achievement in Music honor, which has previously gone to figures including Diane Warren, Smokey Robinson and composer John Debney.
Loggins will perform on the livestreamed awards show, which has been set for 7 p.m. PT on Jan. 27, to be webcast on the HMMA site in lieu of the traditional live ceremony (which last year took place at Avalon in Hollywood). He’ll be joined in the performance ranks by Andra Day, Rita Wilson, Celeste, Kris Bowers and Laura Pausini.
The HMMAs are in some ways seen as a bellwether of what might make it into contention in the music categories at upcoming awards show — but more of a bellwether for the shortlists, due to the high number of nominees in multiple genre subcategories. For example, the HMMAs cast a very wide net with 34 nominees just for film scores, due to breaking competitions down by feature films (i.e., studio efforts), independent films, animated films, documentary and entries from sci-fi and horror genres. The net is cast almost equally wide with an entire range of song competitions.
Other song nominees of note include such famous names as Mary J. Blige, John Legend, Aloee Black and Justin Timberlake. An indie favorite who hasn’t previously been featured as much in the awards conversation is Sharon Van Etten. At the HMMAs, unlike the Oscars or Globes, song performers are nominated as well, which allows a spot in contention for artists who sang but did not co-write movie themes, like Sinead O’Connor and “Eurovision’s” Rachel McAdams.
Music supervisors for film, television and videogames also have their own competitions at the HMMAs, unlike most other shows, which have been slower to recognize that as an artform worthy of qualitative judgments by peers.
Nominations are chosen by the org’s advisory board special selection committee. The final ballot goes out to a wide range of voters who include members of the Motion Picture and Television Academies. Grammy voters, the Society of Composers & Lyricists, and music execs and journalists.
The full list of nominees: