Film Fest Ghent and the World Soundtrack Academy proudly reveal the nominations for the World Soundtrack Awards 2022 in the categories Film Composer of the Year, Television Composer of the Year and Best Original Song. Among the nominees are three composers who scored nominations in two different categories: Nicholas Britell, Daniel Hart and last year’s Film Composer of the Year Daniel Pemberton. In a sign of the increasing importance and popularity of television, the song “Strange Game” from the HBO series Slow Horses is the first ever song from a television series nominated for Best Original Song, since they were first made eligible in 2021.

The 22nd edition of the World Soundtrack Awards, the annual awards show-cum-concert that honours composers for screen, is the crowning event of Film Fest Ghent and takes place on 22 October in Ghent. Including both established and emerging talent, the categories Film Composer of the Year, Television Composer of the Year and Best Original Song all have six nominees.

Film Composer of the Year
Among the nominees for the coveted Film Composer of the Year is Germaine Franco, the first woman to score a Disney animated feature film with 2021’s Encanto, for which she received an Oscar nomination earlier this year. Multiple award-winning composer Jonny Greenwood scores a nod in the category with his music for two highly acclaimed features: The Power of the Dog and Spencer. Composer and performer Daniel Hart is nominated for his score for the epic fantasy film The Green Knight, continuing his long-standing collaboration with director David Lowery, and his score for the Jojo Moyes adaptation The Last Letter From Your Lover. Joining the competition are previous winners Alberto Iglesias (2006, The Constant Gardener) and Daniel Pemberton (2021, Enola Holmes, Rising Phoenix, The Trial of the Chicago 7). Alberto Iglesias is nominated for his emotional and tense score for long-time collaborator Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers, while last year’s Film Composer of the Year Daniel Pemberton convinced the World Soundtrack Academy members with four very different feature film scores. Pemberton’s nominated body of work includes the scores for National Geographic’s documentary film The Rescue, Aaron Sorkin’s Amazon Original Being the Ricardos, the animated film The Bad Guys and British comedy Brian and Charles. Multiple Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer is acknowledged for his innovative score for Dune together with his compositions for the latest James Bond entry No Time to Die and Barry Levinson’s The Survivor. It is Zimmer’s eighth nomination in the category Film Composer of the Year.

Television Composer of the Year
In the category Television Composer of the Year, consistent winner at the WSA Nicholas Britell returns, after winning the award in 2020 for the second season of Succession. This year, he is nominated for his work on that show’s third season. Natalie Holt and John Williams are both recognised for their compositions for the Disney+ show Obi-Wan Kenobi. Holt, who was a nominee for the 2021 Discovery of the Year Award and the Television Composer of the Year Award, became the first woman to score a live-action Star Wars project. The category is an exciting one to watch, with the inclusion of first-time nominees Jung Jae-il, Hesham Nazih, Theodore Shapiro and Cristobal Tapia de Veer. Jung Jae-il - whose career skyrocketed after working with Bong Joon-ho on Okja and Parasite - receives a nomination for his original score for the hit series Squid Game. Egyptian composer Hesham Nazih garnered worldwide acclaim with his music for the Marvel series Moon Knight, while Theodore Shapiro played a large part in the success of director Ben Stiller’s series Severance. With his outstanding tribal score for HBO’s The White Lotus, Chilean-born composer for screen Cristobal Tapia de Veer is also a contender for the Television Composer of the Year Award.

Best Original Song
Competing for Best Original Song is a mix of commercial hits and lesser-known tracks. Daniel Hart’s “Blome Swete Lilie Flour” from The Green Knight marks the composer’s second nomination this year. Among the nominees is also “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, written by Bloodpop and Stefani Germanotta, building on the pop music legacy of the original. Written by Nicholas Britell, Ariana Grande, Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi and Taura Stinson, “Just Look Up” from Adam McKay’s satire Don’t Look Up features in the category, alongside Oscar winner and James Bond song “No Time To Die”, written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell. “Strange Game” (from the series Slow Horses), written by Daniel Pemberton and Mick Jagger, is the first ever track from a TV series to be nominated for Best Original Song. Finally, the WSAcademy also showed love for the worldwide hit from Disney’s Encanto “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.