New York, NY (Top40 Charts / ASCAP) ASCAP, the American Society of Composer, Authors and Publishers, the world leader in performing rights and advocacy for music creators, celebrated the composers of the past year's most performed music in TV, film and video games last night at the 33rd annual ASCAP Screen
Music Awards at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. John Powell, a prolific composer who has scored more than 60 films — including the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story — was awarded the ASCAP
Henry Mancini Award for his outstanding achievements and contributions to the world of film and television music.
Powell is best known for his scores for the Matt Damon Bourne trilogy and for his animated film scores, including How to
Train Your Dragon (for which he was nominated for an Oscar), FOX's Oscar-nominated Ferdinand, as well as Antz, Shrek, three Ice Age sequels, Rio and more. Onstage, Powell paid tribute to the late Henry Mancini, by conducting the orchestra in a thrilling medley of the composer's music, including "Lujon" (from the Mancini 1961 album Mr. Lucky Goes Latin), "A Shot in the Dark" (from the 1964 Pink Panther film of the same name) and "Something for Cat" (from 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's). Dean DeBlois, director of How to
Train Your Dragon and more, and Bruce Broughton, Emmy-winning TV and film composer, bestowed the award to Powell.
The night's other special honoree, Germaine Franco, was recognized with the ASCAP Shirley Walker Award, which honors those whose achievements have contributed to the diversity of film and television music. Franco, who was songwriter, co-orchestrator, arranger and producer for the Disney/Pixar film Coco, conducted the orchestra, along with vocalist Anthony Gonzalez (who voiced the role of
Miguel in the film) in moving renditions of the songs "Un Poco Loco" and "Proud Corazón," which she co-wrote for the film, as well as several of her works from the upcoming film TAG and new Starz series Vida. Adrian Molina, co-director, screenwriter and lyricist of Coco, and Erin Scully, Executive Vice President at New Line Pictures, were on hand to present the award to Franco.
The three ASCAP Composers' Choice winners were also unveiled. Always an audience favorite, the ASCAP Composers' Choice Awards were inaugurated by ASCAP in 2014 and are voted on exclusively by the ASCAP composer and songwriter community. Dave Porter won TV Composer of the Year for his work on Better Call Saul, The Blacklist, Preacher and more. Film Score of the Year was a tie between
Jonny Greenwood for Phantom Thread and
Hans Zimmer for Dunkirk. Video Game Score of the Year went to Gordy Haab for Star Wars Battlefront II.
Awards for Most Performed Themes and Underscore went to TV composers Joel Beckerman, Cat Gray, Jared Gutstadt, Jeffrey Lippencott, Didier Lean Rachou, Ed Robertson, Mark Snow,
David Vanacore, Mark T. Williams and Hans Zimmer. The award for Top Network TV Series went to Dan Romer for ABC's The Good Doctor; Top Box Office Film went to
Heitor Pereira for Despicable Me 3 and Top Cable Television Series went to Trent Reznor for his work on the PBS series, The Vietnam War.
In addition to music from Powell and Franco, the packed ASCAP Screen
Music Awards audience of composer and industry executives enjoyed live versions of top TV and movie themes from some of the evening's winners. Dan Romer conducted a medley of his themes from The Good Doctor and composer Michael Abels was joined by the Selah Gospel Choir for "Sikiliza Kwa Wahenga" from the Oscar-winning film Get Out.
About ASCAP
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP's mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world's best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business - from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more. The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With more than 660,000 members representing more than 11.5 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members. Learn more and stay in touch at www.ascap.com, on Twitter @ASCAP and on Facebook.
