New York, NY (Top40 Charts) ASCAP raises the curtain on its second virtual celebration of annual award winners today through June 25, recognizing its top film, television and video game composers as recipients of 2020 ASCAP Screen
Music Awards. The accolades will take place with the hashtag #ASCAPAwards on ASCAP's Facebook, Twitter, and on Instagram @ASCAP and @ASCAPScreen. Each winner will be honored in a post that enables fans, friends and peers to join in congratulating the music creators that bring their favorite onscreen entertainment to life. ASCAP will share exclusive photos and videos from the winning composers - and special celebrity guests - as part of the event.
Top Box Office Film goes to
Hans Zimmer for The Lion King. Other Top Box Office winners include Pinar Toprak (Captain Marvel), who will appear on video on ASCAP social media providing a tour of her home studio, and Lorne Balfe (Gemini Man), who created a special video documenting the receipt of his award.
David Vanacore, the top winner in the Most Performed Themes and Underscore category and whose work includes music for CBS's
Survivor and NBC's Deal or No Deal, will accept his award on video and receive special shout-outs from the shows' hosts Jeff Probst and Howie Mandel. Other Most Performed Themes and Underscore winners were Michael Giacchino, Cat Gray, Jared Gutstadt, Russell Howard, Didier Lean Rachou, Ed Robertson, Mark Snow,
Hans Zimmer and ASCAP composer Board member Joel Beckerman, who will express gratitude for his award by video. Actor
Dennis Quaid will appear by video in a personal congratulatory message for Gutstadt, with whom he collaborates on the Bear and a Banjo podcast.
The Top Network Television Series Award is presented to Siddhartha Khosla who will accept his award for NBC's This Is Us by video. Also winning in the Top Television Series category and expected to appear by video are ASCAP composer Board members Dan Foliart for The Conners and Bruce Broughton for The Orville. Composer Ruth Barrett will accept the award for Top Cable Television Series for PBS's
Victoria with a celebratory video message for all her collaborators.
The ASCAP Composers' Choice Awards, voted on exclusively by the ASCAP composer and songwriter community, are presented to John Powell for Film Score of the Year for How To
Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World; to Bear McCreary for TV Composer of the Year; and to Gordy Haab for Video Game Score of the Year for his work on Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. Haab, McCreary and Powell will all thank their peers by video on @ASCAP social media.
ASCAP Chairman of the Board and President Paul Williams has provided a video introduction to this year's ASCAP Screen Awards: "...The more I watch and listen, the more I believe that screen music today is the best it's ever been... Congratulations to all of this year's winners for your wonderful musical achievements. We are faced with a challenging moment right now. But we believe that your music — and the stories accompanied by it — will meet this moment by giving us hope, and inspiring change."
On June 25, ASCAP will also host special programming on ASCAP Experience: Home Edition with two of its top 2020 Screen Awards winners: "Maverick:
Hans Zimmer in Conversation with Mitchell Leib," Walt Disney Studios' head of music; and "This Is Us: A Conversation with Siddhartha Khosla." The latter panel will feature Khosla with Chris Sullivan, who plays Toby on This Is Us and is also a musician/singer-songwriter.
The complete list of 2020 ASCAP Screen
Music Award winners is available at: www.ascap.com/screenawards20.
