The pandemic of 2020 caused significant disruptions in the
release of major studio films during the year, with many entries pushed
off until theatres could reopen. Some collectors maintain that the year
was relatively poor as a whole for film music as a result, and while the
breadth of solid soundtracks may have diminished to a degree, the year
still produced a few outstanding entries worthy of these awards. At the
least, it opened the doors for the music from more obscure international
projects to shine.
Another byproduct of the pandemic is the acceleration of a migration of
film scoring talent to studios affiliated with streaming services. In
prior years, Filmtracks had not substantially considered scores for
streaming films in its awards, but 2020 necessitated the inclusion of
these works. With the long-term future of theatre sustainability in
doubt, it is becoming more likely that an increasing portion of the best
film music of the year will never experience the big sound systems of
theatres as they did before.
Along with a more eclectic field of selections in 2020 comes a momentary
shift away from dominant sequel scores for blockbuster concepts, only
one such peripheral entry figuring in Filmtracks' awards. The top scores
of the year stray from the usual fantasy mould to include lighter
dramas, historical comedies, and a children's documentary. Still, John
Powell continues his prominence in these awards, swapping places with
John Williams in recent years as the creator of the most reliably
fantastic music of this era.
The diverse field of 2020 is headlined by the ever-popular and
controversial Hans Zimmer, however, who returns after a long absence
from Filmtracks' awards for five nominations. Zimmer last received a
solo nomination from the site in 2006. Closely behind him this year is
Argentinian Federico Jusid with four nominations and an ascendant Ramin
Djawadi with three. Powell, Craig Armstrong, and Daniel Pemberton each
receive two nominations. A total of eighteen composers are recognized,
almost half of them for the first time at Filmtracks.
Anthropomorphized animals figured strongly in 2020's
best music, an oddball collection of dogs, elephants, and gorillas
inspiring fantasy, drama, and comedy music that topped the year in
soundtracks. The trio of Powell's
The Call of the Wild, Djawadi's
Elephant, and Armstrong's
The One and Only Ivan offer
symphonic redemption of intimate, exciting, and exotic passion, their
melodies pulling on the heart strings and their intelligence in
construct impressing on an intellectual level.
The race for the top award was particularly challenging in 2020,
The
Call of the Wild and
Elephant long battling for the award and
tempting a rare tie. But while Djawadi's work contains more glorious
highlights worthy of the "Top Film Cue" award, Powell's score exhibits
technical mastery and a consistently superior thematic cohesion that,
while abrasive in its instrumentation for some listeners, is a
remarkably unique listening experience. Falling a few steps behind is
the lovely and often pensive
The One and Only Ivan.
Zimmer's
Wonder Woman 1984 represents a fantastic pivot by the
veteran composer to a broader superhero sound, and Jusid's
El Verano
Que Vivimos is an elegant romance work with several heartbreaking
passages. Rachel Portman's nostalgically affectionate
Godmothered
is the year's runner-up. The honorable mentions for 2020 include
Pemberton's infectiously bright
Enola Holmes, Taro Iwashiro's
solemnly respectful
Fukushima 50, George Kallis' dramatically
diverse
Lev Yashin: The Dream Goalkeeper, and Christopher Willis'
classically ambitious
The Personal History of David Copperfield.
Just outside the top ten are Alan Silvestri's spirited
The
Witches and Philip Klein's momentous
The Last Full
Measure.
| Federico Jusid | | |
| • | George Kallis | | |
| • | Daniel Pemberton | | |
| • | Hans Zimmer | | |
While the fraudulent mainstream awarding bodies
fawned over the contributions of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in 2020,
their work paled in comparison to that of a variety of composers who
actually delivered strong music for multiple projects during the year.
Jusid's duo of
El Verano Que Vivimos and
Origenes Secretos
conveys the depth of his talents and offers some of the year's most
mesmerizing single cues, fueling hopes that the composer can break
through with the major studio assignments he merits.
Also nominated for this award are Zimmer, whose comeback for
Wonder
Woman 1984 is joined by an engaging, co-written score for
Hillbilly Elegy. Kallis returns to this award for his
overachieving production for
Lev Yashin: The Dream Goalkeeper and
Sadan Hanim, and Pemberton gained significant respect during the
year with the quality and maturation of
Enola Holmes and
The
Trial of the Chicago 7. No composer earns an honorable mention this
year, in part because there was less opportunity for individuals to
excel on multiple films given the pandemic's havoc on release
schedules.
The "Top Film Cue" category is restricted to twenty
nominees, with the number of runner-ups and honorable mentions remaining
the same as 2019 with ten and fifteen, respectively. While the year's
top scores placed a significant number of cues in this list of nominees,
many of the most competitive entries came from unexpected works not
otherwise recognized. The year's top scores tended to be lifted by their
overall quality from start to finish rather than immense highlights in
just a few cues, allowing a large number of generally lesser scores to
put forth singular cues of high quality for these awards.
The year's best cues are led by Iwashiro's remarkably pretty "Symphonic
Suite F - 1st Chapter: All Life" from
Fukushima 50, Marco
Beltrami and Marcus Trumpp's outrageously campy "End Credits" from
Love and Monsters, James Newton Howard's summary of highlights in
"End Titles (From News of the World)" from
News of the World,
Jusid's awesome fantasy scope in "Overture/Hero's Journey" from
Origenes Secretos, and Zimmer's vivaciously bold "Themyscira"
from
Wonder Woman 1984. These entries could not overcome the
opening and closing cues from Djawadi's
Elephant, though, both
"Elephant Prologue" and "An Unforgettable Journey" offering the score's
African vocals and main theme with grandiose passion. Either cue could
have easily prevailed.
In the second tier of nominees are Powell's frenetically driving "Buck
Takes the Lead" from
The Call of the Wild, Klein's immensely
respectful "The Last Full Measure" from
The Last Full Measure,
Anne-Kathrin Dern's adventurous bravado in "Lightspeed" from
Fearless, Benjamin Wallfisch's eerily gripping tribute to Bernard
Herrmann in "Denouement" from
The Invisible Man, Armstrong's
stupendously redeeming "Ivan is Set Free" from
The One and Only Ivan
, and Jusid's playful and frolicking "Carreras en la Playa" from
El Verano Que Vivimos.
The final nominees to make the cut include Willis' beautifully
culminating "David's Writings" from
The Personal History of David
Copperfield, Pemberton's shamelessly optimistic "Enola Holmes (The
Future is Up to Us)" from
Enola Holmes, Portman's whimsical magic
in "Who's Your True Love?" from
Godmothered, Zimmer and David
Fleming's yearningly thoughtful "Rust" from
Hillbilly Elegy, Alan
Silvestri's enticingly devious "Witches Are Real" from
The
Witches, and Zimmer's other fantastic highlight of the year, the
buoyant "1984" from
Wonder Woman 1984.
The ten runner-ups for this category in 2020 include perhaps the most
diverse grouping, aside from Powell's powerfully closing "The Call of
the Wild" from
The Call of the Wild and Djawadi and Brandon
Campbell's brief but delightful "Palm Island" from
Elephant. The
remaining runner-ups include Michael Giacchino's extremely amusing
"Pickles, Suite or Sour" from
An American Pickle, Danny Elfman's
wildly entertaining "Betsy Chase" from
Dolittle, Kallis' reverent
"Alone by the Goalpost" from
Lev Yashin: The Dream Goalkeeper,
Amelia Warner's lyrical "Welcome to Ireland" from
Wild Mountain Thyme
, Terence Blanchard's broad "Finding the Gold" from
Da 5
Bloods, Thomas Clay's sincere "Fanny Lye Deliver'd" from
Fanny
Lye Deliver'd, Andrew Lockington's flowingly romantic "Solace" from
The Kindness of Strangers, and Mark Mothersbaugh's manic yodeling
in "Chase/Rainbow Zeppelin" from
The Willoughbys.
In contention but eliminated earlier in the selection process were the
following cues receiving honorable mentions (listed alphabetically by
film title): Patrick Doyle's determined "Bring Him Back" from
Artemis
Fowl, Powell's exuberant "Buck & Thornton's Big Adventure" and
charming "We Carry Love" from
The Call of the Wild, Steven
Price's expansive "We Must Rewild the World" from
David Attenborough:
A Life on Our Plant, Djawadi's exotic "Leaving the Delta" from
Elephant, Pemberton's gorgeous "An Old Friend" from
Enola
Holmes, Blake Neely's dramatic "But At What Cost?" from
Greyhound, and Ralf Wengenmayr's soaring "Emma Fliegt" from
Jim Knopf und die Wilde 13.
Also contending but eliminated were Wallfisch's astonishingly creepy
"The Suit" from
The Invisible Man, Reznor and Ross' golden "All
This Time (Happily Ever After)" from
Mank, Harry
Gregson-Williams' alluring "The Lesson of the Phoenix" from
Mulan, Armstrong's inspiring "Ivan Orchestral Suite" from
The
One and Only Ivan, Willis' summarizing "These Pages Must Show (End
Credits)" from
The Personal History of David Copperfield, Kallis'
introspective "Sadan Hanim" from
Sadan Hanim, and Zimmer's
surprisingly refined villain's identity in "Black Gold" from
Wonder
Woman 1984.
