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Unlike the other years of the 2010's to this point, the greatest quantity of
interesting film music in 2013 came from outside the usual circle of Hollywood composers. The
drama genre especially benefitted from a wealth of solid music, especially in recordings made
outside of the United States. In the mainstream awards, John Williams continued to add to his
incredible sum of nominations, this time for The Book Thief, while the typical
"flavors of the moment" rounded out the popular selections.
Although it may seem for some film music collectors that 2013 was not as strong as the previous
year, such observations neglect to take into account the plethora of noteworthy scores from
the international arena. It was a year that featured few complete, well-rounded five-star
efforts but a tremendous number of entertaining four-star works anchored by great, individual
five-star cues. Due to the overwhelming quantity of worthy choices for the "Best Cue"
category in 2013, that award was truly difficult to narrow down to those nominees shown below.
The year was one of praiseworthy achievement for two composers in particular, both Brian Tyler
and Abel Korzeniowski receiving four nominations across the three categories. In the next
tier, John Ottman, Howard Shore, and Ingo Ludwig Frenzel earn three nominations apiece, while
Joe Hisaishi and Laurent Eyquem are represented twice. The nominations for Frenzel and Eyquem,
as well as those for Bartosz Chajdecki, Victor Reyes, Ramin Djawadi, and Benjamin Wallfisch,
are their first at Filmtracks. Other nominated composers previously recognized at these awards
are John Williams, Marco Beltrami, Andrew Lockington, and Craig Armstrong.
Three 2013 scores were easy selections in this field, the top award coming
down to a competition between Howard Shore's immensely complicated The Hobbit: The
Desolation of Smaug, John Ottman's equally challenging Jack the Giant Slayer, and
Abel Korzeniowski's fluidly fanciful Romeo & Juliet. The surprising inspiration and
consistent quality of Korzeniowski's score gives him the win despite lingering early curiosity
about the reportedly fantastic recording of the James Horner score for Romeo & Juliet
that was tossed. In the fourth and fifth positions, respectively, are Brian Tyler's unique
blend of caper and action in Now You See Me and Ingo Ludwig Frenzel's breakthrough
exoticism for the German film, The Physician (Der Medicus).
Of the composers nominated in this field, Shore has won the top award on more than one
occasion while Ottman has been nominated multiple times. This is Tyler's second top nomination
and the first for Korzeniowski and Frenzel. With the exception of Frenzel, all had been
nominated in one of the three Filmtracks award categories prior. The runner-up in 2013 is
Victor Reyes for his frantically brilliant Grand Piano, a score sadly unreleased as of
these awards. The honorable mentions rounding out the top ten for the year are John Williams'
nostalgically comforting The Book Thief, Philipp F. Kölmel's broadly entertaining
Ruby Red (Rubinrot), Bartosz Chajdecki's occasionally heart-breaking Baczynski,
and Benjamin Wallfisch's genuinely sentimental Summer in February.
This award at Filmtracks typically pits composers with great achievements in a couple of
scores against those who produced an immense quantity of music that is all merely better than
average. In 2013, Brian Tyler managed both feats, with four scores worthy of four-star
ratings. His output for Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Now You See Me,
and Standing Up is truly remarkable, and it gives him a solid footing above the second
place finisher, Abel Korzeniowski, whose duo of Romeo & Juliet and Escape From
Tomorrow is also worthy of praise. Rounding out this category are Joe Hisaishi, Laurent
Eyquem, and Marco Beltrami, all three of whom wrote multiple solid works during the year,
often for films from which you would not expect such quality.
Extremely difficult choices awaited this category in 2013, the standard
maximum of twenty nominated cues ultimately leaving another ten outstanding entries on the
outside this year. Multiple cues from Shore's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,
Ottman's Jack the Giant Slayer, and Frenzel's The Physician (Der Medicus) are
joined by a wide range of international selections. Those cues vying best for the win were
"Beyond the Forest" from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, "Grand Piano Concerto
- 2nd Movement" from Reyes' Grand Piano, "Eternal Love" from Romeo & Juliet,
and "Jack and Isabelle" from Jack the Giant Slayer, the Ottman cue ultimately taking
the prize due to its massively shameless throwback qualities.
Also receiving serious consideration for this award were Korzeniowski's "The Grand Finale"
from Escape From Tomorrow, Wallfisch's "Gilbert Returns" from Summer in
February, Tyler's "Into Eternity" from Thor: The Dark World, and "The New
King/Stories" from Jack the Giant Slayer. Several scores nearly received multiple cues
in the field but ultimately managed only one representation, including Chajdecki's
Baczynski, Tyler's Now You See Me, and Reyes' Grand Piano. The leading
guilty pleasures of the year, Djawadi's rocking title cue from Pacific Rim and
Lockington's usual fantasy tone in "Thalia's Story" from Percy Jackson: Sea of
Monsters, round out the list alongside cues from Armstrong's The Great Gatsby,
Hisaishi's Miracle Apples, Badalamenti's Stalingrad, and Eyquem's Winnie
Mandela.
A number of cues were on early versions of this nomination list, including "Travers Goff" from
Thomas Newman's Saving Mr. Banks, "Podroz (Transition)" from Chajdecki's
Baczynski, "Clary's Theme" from Atli Örvarsson's The Mortal Instruments: City of
Bones, "Ready When You Are" from Kölmel's Ruby Red (Rubinrot), and "Grand Piano
Concerto - 1st Movement" from Reyes' Grand Piano. Honorable mentions for this award in
2013 include "Breeze" from Tyler's Now You See Me, "Kirk Enterprises" from Michael
Giacchino's Star Trek Into Darkness, the "Agoraphobia/Tomorrow-Morrow" duo from
Fernando Velázquez's The Last Days (Los Últimos Días), and a pair
of cheeky ethnic favorites, "Dusty & Ishani" from Mark Mancina's Planes and "Afghan Trek"
from Theodore Shapiro's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. In a lesser year, any of
these great cues could have been nominated.
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