Daniel Pemberton, 'Golden' Songwriters Top World Soundtrack Awards — SkimNews
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- Daniel Pemberton won Film Composer of the Year for "Project Hail Mary," "The Drama," "The Bad Guys 2" and "Masters of the Universe" — his third Ghent win after taking the top prize in 2021 and Discovery of the Year in 2014
- For "Project Hail Mary," Pemberton said he "threw every crazy idea" into the score, experimenting with wood, metal, and glass sounds and drawing inspiration from a friend's leaky faucet
- EJAE and Mark Sonnenblick took Best Original Song for "Golden" from "KPop Demon Hunters," adding to a haul that already includes an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy — though neither was present at the gala to collect
- Jeff Russo won Television Composer of the Year for "Alien: Earth," "Cape Fear" and "Citadel," incorporating themes from Bernard Herrmann's original 1962 "Cape Fear" score and lifting a delayed horn motif from Goldsmith's "Alien" as a franchise easter egg
- Hannah Peel won Discovery of the Year for "Midwinter Break" and is now scoring Netflix's series adaptation of "Assassin's Creed"
- Kevin Smithers took the Public Choice Award for the Mexican stop-motion "Soy Frankelda" and is developing a new musical stop-motion feature with directors Arturo and Roy Ambriz
- Conductor Dirk Brossé and the Brussels Philharmonic performed selections at the closing gala for guest of honor Hildur Guðnadóttir and lifetime achievement recipient Trevor Jones
Why it matters: The Ghent ceremony cements Pemberton as a repeat industry favorite and shows Russo's franchise-referential scoring (Herrmann callbacks, Goldsmith easter eggs) becoming a recognized craft approach, while Peel's Discovery win feeds directly into Netflix's prestige push with its "Assassin's Creed" adaptation — making the pipeline from independent festival scores to tentpole streaming commissions explicit in a single night.
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