These are the nominees for the 25th World Soundtrack Awards

Volker Bertelmann is an internationally acclaimed pianist, composer and experimental musician. In 2023 he won a BAFTA and Oscar in the Best Original Score category for All Quiet on the Western Front. Most recently, he received his first Primetime Emmy nomination in the Original Main Title Theme Music category for his work on the main title theme for HBO’s Dune: Prophecy. Bertelmann is an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Daniel Blumberg is a musician and artist from London. Blumberg has released three solo albums on Mute - Gut (2023), On&On (2020) and Minus (2018) and composed two film scores, The World To Come (dir. Mona Fastvold, 2020) and The Brutalist (dir. Brady Corbet) - forthcoming films are The Testament of Ann Lee (dir. Mona Fastvold) and Sotto le Nuvole (dir. Gianfranco Rosi).

Kris Bowers is an Academy Award® winning filmmaker and composer. He most recently received an Oscar nomination for his score for The Wild Robot, and in 2023 co-directed The Last Repair Shop, a documentary which spotlights some of the individuals working at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s music instrument repair shop.

Camille, born in Paris, has crafted an extraordinary musical world over two decades, blending poetry, rhythm, and voice. Her 2002 debut, “Le Sac des Filles", introduced her lyrical style. Since then, she’s collaborated with legends, from David Byrne to Hans Zimmer. Clément Ducol is a Golden Globe-winning French composer, arranger, and music producer, renowned for his film scores and collaborations across classical and contemporary pop genres. Together, they recently scored “Emilia Perez” for which they won a Golden Globe for Best Song “El Mal”. They have also received 3 Academy Award nominations for the film in the Best Score category and Best Song for “El Mal” and “Mi Camino”.

Alberto Iglesias is one of Spain’s most celebrated and internationally acclaimed film composers. With a career spanning over three decades, he has composed the original scores for more than 40 feature films, collaborating with some of the world’s most renowned directors. Iglesias won the Best Soundtrack Award at the Cannes Film Festival, three European Film Awards, two World Soundtrack Awards for Composer of the Year. Furthermore, he has been nominated for four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and three BAFTA Awards. Widely admired for the emotional depth, harmonic richness, and refined textures of his music, Iglesias is also a classically trained composer with a background in electronic and avant-garde music.

John Powell began his career writing music and assisting composer Patrick Doyle. Powell was catapulted into the realm of A-list composers with the entirely original voice of the first installment of Bourne trilogy, The Bourne Identity. Since then, he has been a leading composer in animation, with credits in the Ice Age-, Happy Feet-, and Kung Fu Panda franchises. The iconic score for the animated How to Train Your Dragon earned him his first Academy Award nomination. Recently, he scored the first part of Jon M. Chu’s Wicked and is currently working on the upcoming sequel, Wicked: For Good.

Volker Bertelmann is an internationally acclaimed pianist, composer and experimental musician. In 2023 he won a BAFTA and Oscar in the Best Original Score category for All Quiet on the Western Front. Most recently, he received his first Primetime Emmy nomination in the Original Main Title Theme Music category for his work on the main title theme for HBO’s Dune: Prophecy. Bertelmann is an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

David Fleming is an Emmy-winning American composer who has written music for film and television including most recently, Season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us, collaborating once again with Gustavo Santaolalla, and James Gunn’s upcoming DC film Superman. Gustavo Santaolalla, a two-time Oscar winning multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and composer, is recognized as one of the most highly acclaimed and prolific contemporary Argentine musicians in the world.

An Emmy-nominated composer Ariel Marx draws from many genres and often combines orchestral and rare instruments with electronics. Her scores have premiered in films at Sundance, TIFF, SXSW, Tribeca, Woodstock, Criterion Channel, as well as films and shows on Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, FX, HBO, Mubi, Discovery+ and more. She is a member of the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Television Academy, and is a Sundance Film Music and Sound Design Lab alumni. In 2025, Ariel received two Emmy nominations for her original scores for the FX series Dying For Sex and Black Mirror: Hotel Reverie.

Bear McCreary has won three Emmy Awards and has won twelve International Film Music Critics Association Awards, including the award for Score of the Year in 2024. Project highlights include The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Foundation, the beloved series Outlander, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, The Walking Dead and Netflix’s Academy Award–nominated documentary Crip Camp. McCreary’s celebrated scores for Sony PlayStation’s blockbusters God of War and God of War Ragnarök have earned him two BAFTA Awards and two Grammy nominations.

Since scoring his first TV drama, Eureka Street in 2002, Martin Phipps has won 2 BAFTAs, 5 Ivor Novello Awards and received multiple Emmy nominations for writing music to many of the most interesting series of recent years. These include the BBC’s War and Peace, Hugo Blick’s The Honourable Woman, Peaky Blinders, Black Mirror and season 3 through 6 of the acclaimed Netflix series The Crown. Recently Martin has scored Sir Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, Ed Perkins’ The Princess, and Amazon Studios’ series Solos starring Morgan Freeman.

Theodore Shapiro is an Emmy Award-winning composer with a prolific filmography. Most recently, Shapiro returned to score the second season of Apple TV+’s critically-acclaimed Severance. His haunting, atmospheric score has garnered wide praise for elevating the show’s unsettling tone, with critics dubbing it “iconic”, “perfect” and “eerily catchy”. Outside of Severance, Shapiro’s has built a reputation as a master of comedy scores, notably scoring iconic comedies like The Devil Wears Prada, 13 Going On 30 and Dodgeball. Beyond that, however, his extensive body of work spans a wide variety of films, with turns scoring the likes of The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and Bombshell.

written by Andrew Wyatt, Lykke Li, and Miley Cyrus | performed by Miley Cyrus, Andrew Wyatt, Matt Dunkley

written by Clément Ducol, - Camille -, & Jacques Audiard | performed by Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón

written by Ludwig Göransson, Raphael Saadiq | performed by Miles Caton

written by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Andrew Watt, Bernie Taupin | performed by Elton John, Brandi Carlile

written by Nicholas Britell, Steve McQueen, Taura Stinson | performed by Nicholas Britell, Saoirse Ronan

Daniel Blumberg is a musician and artist from London. Blumberg has released three solo albums on Mute - Gut (2023), On&On (2020) and Minus (2018) and composed two film scores, The World To Come (dir. Mona Fastvold, 2020) and The Brutalist (dir. Brady Corbet) - forthcoming films are The Testament of Ann Lee (dir. Mona Fastvold) and Sotto le Nuvole (dir. Gianfranco Rosi).

Robin Carolan is a British-Irish composer and music producer whose distinctive voice spans both film and music. Founder of the influential electronic label Tri Angle (2010), he has collaborated with artists including Björk, contributing as “the fifth ear” on her album Utopia (2017). Carolan made his film scoring debut with Robert Eggers’ The Northman (2022) and recently reunited with the director for Nosferatu (2025). Praised for his meticulous soundscapes, he has quickly established himself as a bold new force in contemporary film music.

Jung Jae-il is a South Korean composer, music director and multi-instrumentalist known for blending traditional Korean instrumentation with Western orchestration and contemporary sound design. He gained international acclaim for Bong Joon-ho’s Okja (2017) and the Academy Award-winning Parasite (2019), and for his haunting score to Netflix’s Squid Game (2021). A former jazz pianist who released his first solo album at 17, he recently scored Mickey 17 (2025) and released his latest solo album Listen (Decca, 2024).

Dave Metzger is a composer, arranger and orchestrator whose credits include Walt Disney Studios’ Mufasa: The Lion King, Wish, Once Upon a Studio, Brother Bear 2 and Tarzan 2. He is also a renowned song arranger, shaping hits for Frozen, Frozen 2, Moana, Tarzan, Spirited and Disney’s live-action Snow White. Many of these works have earned Academy, Grammy and Tony Awards. Metzger received a Tony nomination for The Lion King and has contributed to 11 Disney animated films, as well as projects for Marvel, DreamWorks and Warner Bros.

Hania Rani (1990) is a Polish pianist, composer and vocalist whose music blends classical, jazz and electronic influences. Trained in Warsaw and Berlin and now based in London, she has released acclaimed albums on Gondwana Records, from the solo piano Esja (2019) to the more electronic Ghosts (2023). She has also created award-winning film and theatre scores, duo recordings with cellist Dobrawa Czocher (Deutsche Grammophon) and art installations. Recently, she composed Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Values and her first piano concerto Non Fiction (2025).

David Cerquetti (27) is an Italian composer and songwriter based in Los Angeles whose career bridges Europe and the United States. He made his feature debut at 21 with Hunting Ava Bravo, a global hit on Amazon Prime, and has since scored more than ten films, including The Krampus Rises (recorded at Sony Pictures Studios) and Buio Come il Cuore. A frequent collaborator of Anna Drubich (The Master and Margarita), he is known for unconventional harmonies and eclectic electronic textures. Since 2025, he is CEO of Evander Productions.

Laetitia Pansanel-Garric is a French composer, orchestrator and conductor, winner of the 2023 U2C Award for Rochefort, Marielle, Noiret: les copains d'abord and the Revelation Composer Award at Les Arcs (2022). She recently scored two animated features: Hola Frida (2025) and Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake (Annecy 2025). Other credits include Pamfir (Directors’ Fortnight, Cannes 2022), A Point (César nomination, 2023) and L’Home dels Nassos (2024). Since 2013, she has also conducted the Lyon 2 University Symphony Orchestra in concerts and film concerts.

Amine Bouhafa is a Tunisian-born, Paris-based composer with over 100 credits for film and television. He won the César for Best Original Music for Timbuktu and scored The Man Who Sold His Skin and Four Daughters, both Academy Award nominees. His work also includes Class Act (BAFTA winner for Best Foreign TV Show) and The Adventures of Paddington (two Emmy Awards). A versatile multi-instrumentalist, Bouhafa moves between classical, world music, independent and mainstream cinema. Recent projects include Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister (Cannes 2025), HBO’s Privilèges and the video game Apheleon.

John Coda is an award-winning composer, songwriter and music artist with over three decades of experience in film, television and multimedia. He is best known for creating the theme songs and music for Disney’s hit series That’s So Raven and Even Stevens. His work on The King’s Daughter won the Public Choice Award at the 2022 World Soundtrack Awards. Recent scores include the biopic Reagan and Bau Artist at War (2025). Based in Los Angeles, he also performs nyckelharpa with his Cliff Jammers ensemble.

Stephen Gallagher is an award-winning composer and Emmy-winning music editor based in Wellington, New Zealand. He recently scored The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024), with other credits including Insider (2020), Mystic (2020–2022), Puppet Killer, Conquering Cancer and Kimana Tuskers (IFFFM nomination, 2021). He co-composed the Emmy-winning series INSiDE and Mystic with David Long. As music editor, he worked on Avatar: The Way of Water, District 9 and The Hobbit trilogy, winning a Golden Reel and Emmy for The Beatles: Get Back.

French composer Lorien Testard made his video game debut with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, writing over ten hours of original music across five years of development. Discovered by director Guillaume Broche, he crafted a score praised for its diversity, emotional power and narrative vision. Blending chanson vocals, orchestral and choral arrangements, jazz ensembles, lo-fi, ambient and electronic pieces, folk duets and prog rock suites - including a 33-minute climactic opus - Testard established himself as a distinctive new voice in video game music.

Finishing Move is a composer collective shaping some of the most iconic scores in modern gaming. Founded in 2013 by Brian Trifon and Brian Lee White, and later joined by Alex Klingle and Jay Wiltzen, the group is best known for DOOM: The Dark Ages, The Callisto Protocol, Borderlands 3, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020, 2024), Grounded (1 & 2), Crackdown 3 and Halo Wars 2. Whether scoring apocalyptic sci-fi or surreal backyard adventures, their work brings a signature intensity and atmosphere that resonates with both fans and critics across the industry.

Knut Avenstroup Haugen is an award-winning Norwegian composer best known for his iconic scores for Dune: Awakening, Lords of the Fallen, Conan Exiles, Age of Conan and the popular Louis & Luca films. Trained in classical composition, he blends orchestral, folk, jazz and electronic elements into distinctive soundscapes, ranging from intimate themes to epic hybrid scores. His work has earned numerous international awards and has been performed by leading European orchestras.

John Konsolakis is a Greek composer writing for film, television, video games and the concert stage. His work has been performed by renowned ensembles worldwide and has earned international recognition from an early age. He was nominated for the SABAM Award for Best Original Composition by a Young Composer at the 2022 World Soundtrack Awards, won the Best Original Music Award at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival (2023) and the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra Prize (2024), and received the 2025 Ivor Novello for Farewell North.

Vincent Cahay (1973) is a Belgian composer, musician and actor. Trained at the Liège Conservatory in dramatic arts, he began writing music for theatre and cinema in the 2000s. On stage, he created live scores with Pierre Kissling for Anne-Cécile Vandalem’s Tristesses and Kingdom. In film, he is best known for his long-standing collaboration with Fabrice du Welz (Calvaire, Alleluia, Adoration, Inexorable), continuing in 2024 with Maldoror. He also worked with Frédéric Fonteyne, Just Philippot and Liliana Cavani.

Ruben De Gheselle (1991) is a Belgian composer known for his intimate, minimal and hypnotic scores. He has written for acclaimed international productions such as Young Hearts (Berlinale), Clara Sola (Cannes), There Was, There Was Not (True/False, DOC NYC), A Cops & Robbers Story (DOC NYC), Rashid (Visions du Réel) and The Tiong Bahru Social Club (Busan). For television, he composed Northern Lights (TG4, ZDF, Streamz), Showkids (TG4), Patience (Channel 4, PBS) and the upcoming German series Naked (WDR).

Frédéric Vercheval is a Belgian composer and arranger of film music. President of the Belgian Screen Composer Guild, he also taught film music analysis at IAD (2011–2018). His score for Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border (2025) won a Magritte for Best Original Score, while his work on Olivier Masset-Depasse’s Duelles earned a World Soundtrack Award (2019) and another Magritte (2020). Vercheval has been nominated seven times for the Magritte du Cinéma, including for Diamant 13, Pas son genre, Melody and Chez Nous.