The Society of Composers & Lyricists has announced the nominations for its fourth annual honors for music in films, TV and video games, with French composer Alexandre Desplat and American composer Bear McCreary each scoring double nominations.
SCL, the primary organization for professional media composers, will present its awards Feb. 15 at the Skirball Cultural Center, with singer-actor-songwriter Darren Criss as host.
Voting ended Wednesday night in seven categories, just hours after the Motion Picture Academy announced its shortlists for song and score for 2022 films. The contrast between the lists is striking, with only five score nominees and six song contenders matching those on the 15-title Oscar shortlists.
The SCL nominees for outstanding score for a studio or independent film that also made Oscar’s shortlist on Wednesday are Alexandre Desplat (“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”), Carter Burwell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”), Michael Abels (“Nope”), John Powell (“Don’t Worry Darling”) and Son Lux’s Ryan Lott (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”).
But SCL voters also nominated several scores that were missing from the Oscar list: Michael Giacchino’s “The Batman,” Rob Simonsen’s “The Whale,” Sharon Farber’s “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power,” Mark Smythe’s “The Reef: Stalked” and Leo Birenberg and Zach Robinson’s “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”
Six of the 10 songs nominated in two categories matched those of the Oscar shortlist: Desplat’s “Ciao Papa” from “Pinocchio,” Benj Pasek and Justin Paul’s “Good Afternoon” from “Spirited,” Diane Warren’s “Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman,” Taylor Swift’s “Carolina” from “Where the Crawdads Sing,” Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick” and Rhianna’s “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
SCL voters also nominated Danny Elfman’s “Light the Match” from “Central Park,” Marc Shaiman and Billy Eichner’s “Love Is Not Love” from “Bros,” Weird Al Yankovic’s “Now You Know” from “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s “(You Made It Feel Like) Home” from “Bones and All.”
Two of SCL’s five nominees for TV score have already won Emmys: Theodore Shapiro for “Severance” and Cristobal Tapia de Veer for “The White Lotus.” Also nominated were McCreary for “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and “Andor,” neither of which were Emmy-eligible this year, and Siddhartha Khosla’s “Only Murders in the Building.”
Women composers made a particularly big splash in the categories for interactive media and the David Raksin award for “emerging talent.” Three of the five nominees for interactive score were women: Nainita Desai for “Immortality,” Stephanie Economou for “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok” and Winifred Phillips for “Jurassic World Primal Ops.”
They will compete against McCreary’s “God of War: Ragnarok” and Christopher Willis’s “Cat Burglar.”
Four of the five nominees for the Raksin award for emerging talent — named after the legendary composer of “Laura” who taught and encouraged young composers for decades — are women: Dara Taylor for “The Invitation,” Anna Drubich for “Barbarian,” Esin Aydingoz for “Simchas and Sorrows” and Nami Melumad for “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” Their competition is DeAndre James Allen-Toole for “God’s Country.”
Approximately two-thirds of the 3,000 SCL members — all composers, songwriters and other professionals in the business of creating music for media — were eligible to vote for the awards.
The full list of nominees:
Outstanding Score for a Studio Film:
Alexandre Desplat, “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
Carter Burwell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”
Michael Abels, “Nope”
Michael Giacchino, “The Batman”
John Powell, “Don’t Worry Darling”
Outstanding Score for an Independent Film:
Leo Birenberg, Zach Robinson, “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”
Sharon Farber, “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power”
Ryan Lott, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”
Rob Simonsen, “The Whale”
Mark Smythe, “The Reef: Stalked”
Outstanding Song for a Musical / Comedy:
Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, Guillermo Del Toro, “Ciao Papa” from “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”
Khiyon Hursey, Sukari Jones, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Mark Sonnenblick, “Good Afternoon” from “Spirited”
Danny Elfman, “Light the Match” from “Central Park”
Billy Eichner, Marc Shaiman, “Love Is Not Love” from “Bros”
Weird Al Yankovic, “Now You Know” from “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”
Outstanding Song for a Drama / Documentary:
Diane Warren, “Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman”
Taylor Swift, “Carolina” from “Where the Crawdads Sing”
Lady Gaga, Bloodpop, “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick”
Tems, Rhianna, Ludwig Goransson, Ryan Coogler, “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, “(You Made It Feel Like) Home” from “Bones and All”
Outstanding Score for Television:
Nicholas Britell, “Andor”
Siddhartha Khosla, “Only Murders in the Building”
Bear McCreary, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”
Theodore Shapiro, “Severance”
Cristobal Tapia de Veer, “The White Lotus”
Outstanding Score for Interactive Media:
Nainita Desai, “Immortality”
Stephanie Economou, “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok”
Bear McCreary, “God of War: Ragnarok”
Winifred Phillips, “Jurassic World Primal Ops”
Christopher Willis, “Cat Burglar”
David Raksin Award for Emerging Talent:
Dara Taylor, “The Invitation”
Anna Drubich, “Barbarian”
DeAndre James Allen-Toole, “God’s Country”
Esin Aydingoz, “Simchas and Sorrows”
Nami Melumad, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”