Although the global pandemic accelerated a shift of top
composing talent to the small screen, 2022 proved to be a year of
satisfying recovery for feature films in cinemas. With box office
success came major film scores that brought a semblance of normalcy to
the genre, including a wealth of strong music from both expected and
unexpected projects. The year was a definite improvement over 2021,
which remains one of the weakest for film scores in the 21st Century.
While major franchises notably turned their extravagance to television
audiences in 2022, cinemas still managed to offer superior music from a
wide variety of genres and countries. Sequels and adaptations fared
pretty well during the year, though their scores did not always come
from the most obvious of concepts. An unusual number of works contained
engagingly fantastic singular moments even if their totality wasn't
strong enough to merit an award for the full score, making the "Top Cue"
award particularly challenging.
The highlights of 2022 come from a healthy spread of animations,
comedies, documentaries, dramas, mysteries, and the typical fantasy
adventures. It was a remarkable year for composer Simon Franglen, whose
five nominations and domination of each category places him far above
the competition. Alan Williams and Dominic Lewis also had fantastic
years with three nominations apiece, and John Debney, Pinar Toprak,
Christoph Zirngibl, and Michael Giacchino all receive multiple
nominations. More than half a dozen composers are nominated at
Filmtracks for the first time.
There was never any serious competition for
Filmtracks' top award in 2022, Franglen's
Avatar: The Way of
Water prevailing with ease as a faithful masterpiece of evolution
for James Horner's franchise sound. Few scores so thoroughly shatter
expectations, and Franglen's ability to channel Horner's mannerisms
years after his tragic death make this sequel an overwhelming
sentimental favorite beyond even its technical mastery. It's the second
year in a row during which a top score lovingly channeling a famous
composer of yesteryear prevailed, confirming the nostalgia factor.
None of the remaining nominees will be widely considered classics, but
each offered an immense amount of heart, character, and sometimes humor
to their films. Both Debney's
Luck and Lewis'
Violent
Night execute their game plans brilliantly,
Luck a tonally
perfect animation score and
Violent Night outrageously clever in
its pilfering of holiday cheer. Confidently flying into fourth place is
Zirngibl's
Mia and Me: The Hero of Centopia, a wild romp that
substantially overachieves in the genre. Three scores battled for the
fifth spot up to the very end, Alan Williams'
Serengeti: A Journey to
the Heart of Africa earning the nomination due to the strength of
its gorgeous themes.
The runner-up position for 2022 was also a tough decision between John
Lunn's impressively robust
Downton Abbey: A New Era and Leo
Birenberg and Zach Robinson's exceptional parody score for
Weird: The
Al Yankovic Story, the former barely prevailing. Other honorable
mentions for 2022 include James Newton Howard's continuation of genre
mastery in
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Patrick
Doyle's alluring and tense
Death on the Nile, and Toprak's
Slumberland, which boasts a phenomenally resounding final third.
Just missing the top ten are Williams' exotic and respectful
Legend
of the Forest and Nathan Johnson's much improved sense of style in
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
For soundtrack listeners considering television
and video game scores in their calculus, Bear McCreary once again
experienced a highly competitive year, but he did not factor into 2022's
best film music. The only widely known name receiving a nomination in
this category is Giacchino, who provided four major blockbuster scores
in the first half of the year but whose output in some of those works
remains overrated. Still, for the highlights of
Thor: Love and
Thunder,
Lightyear, and
Jurassic World: Dominion, he
earns a nomination. It's difficult to argue that anyone had a more
revelatory year than Franglen, though, who not only excelled
spectacularly with
Avatar: The Way of Water but also provided the
often gripping and melancholy score for
Notre-Dame on Fire
(Notre-Dame Brûle).
Right behind Franglen in this category is veteran industry workhorse
Alan Williams, whose drama and IMAX documentary music reached new
heights in 2022 with the splendor of
Serengeti: A Journey to the
Heart of Africa, gravity of
Legend of the Forest, and ease of
Secrets of the Sea. Also emerging this year was Lewis, whose work
varied wildly but often struck the right humorous attitude in
Violent
Night,
Bullet Train, and
Spirited. Finally, the
ascendant Toprak provided a pair of entertaining genre journeys with
distinct highlights in
Slumberland and
The Lost City. An
honorable mention goes to Daniel Pemberton, whose music for
The Bad
Guys and
Enola Holmes 2 reaffirms his reputation for
providing addictively snazzy themes. For his immense productivity and
ultimate chill-out score for
Ticket to Paradise, Lorne Balfe also
deserves a quick call-out.
The "Top Film Cue" category is restricted to twenty
nominees, with the number of runner-ups capped at ten. While the
quantity of honorable mentions was fifteen in prior years, the immense
breadth of quality cues this year expands that field to twenty. Also at
issue in 2022 is a Filmtracks rule that no single score can place more
than two cues in this category. Without that limit, Franglen's
Avatar: The Way of Water would have placed a whopping four cues
in the top twenty. While two of them were relegated to runner-up status
because of the rules, you can consider all four worthy of a nomination.
The four cues from
Avatar: The Way of Water originally considered
for nomination are "Sanctuary," "Into the Water," "The Tulkun Return,"
and "The Hunt," the first two shifted to the runner-up list but
remaining superior to some of the nominees in this category. Competing
for the 2022 award to the very end were "The Tulkun Return," Panu
Aaltio's dramatic finale, "Phillip's Wish," from
5,000 Blankets,
Zirngibl's rousingly fanciful "Iko Flies" from
Mia and Me: The Hero
of Centopia, and Birenberg and Robinson's incredibly funny "LSD
Trip" from
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Ultimately, it was
impossible to overcome the inspiring triumph of "The Tulkun Return,"
affording Franglen a sweep of Filmtracks' awards this year.
In the second tier of 2022 cues is Toprak's gorgeously thematic "Flip
Wakes Up" from
Slumberland, Lewis' apocalyptically humorous
"Winter's Night" from
Violent Night, Doyle's heartbreakingly
romantic "The Cost of Love" from
Death on the Nile, Alan
Williams' culmination of melody in "Back Home on the Plains" from
Serengeti: A Journey to the Heart of Africa, Henry Jackman's
throwback harmonies of "Strange World Overture" from
Strange
World, Ludwig Göransson's cool blend of cultures in "Welcome
Home" from
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Lunn's choral
lament in "Cortege" from
Downton Abbey: A New Era.
Rounding out the nominees for 2022 are Brian Tyler and Breton Vivian's
utterly lovely "Sunrise" from
Redeeming Love, Edward Farmer and
Martin Phipps' propulsive and victorious "Evacuation Kids" from
The
Railway Children Return, Debney's overflowing exuberance in "Bad
Luck is Good/Fixing the Randomizer" from
Luck, Johnson's
ambitiously rollicking "Ransacking" from
Glass Onion: A Knives Out
Mystery, Balfe's retro, lively, and hip "Secret Headquarters" from
Secret Headquarters, Franglen's solemnly respectful "The Fire is
Out" from
Notre-Dame on Fire (Notre-Dame Brûle),
Giacchino's tone-perfect "Infinite MOEtion" from
Lightyear, and,
as a purely sentimental final choice, John Williams' vintage "Mother and
Son" from
The Fabelmans.
Joining "Sanctuary" and "Into the Water" from
Avatar: The Way of
Water on the list of ten runner-ups for this category in 2022 are a
handful of other cues that were originally slated for nominations. These
include the initially unreleased film version of Howard's "Fantastic
Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" end credits arrangement from
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Pemberton's
undeniably infectious "Meet the Bad Guys" from
The Bad Guys, and
Alan Williams' weighty "Modern Logging" from
Legend of the
Forest.
Also runner-ups this year are Oscar M. Leanizbarrutia's dramatically
poignant "Petra de San José (Final)" from
Petra de San
José, Carlo Siliotto's equally impressive "The Eagle" from
Qazaq History of the Golden Man, Theodore Shapiro's diverse range
in "Family Duel and Sophie's Dream Waltz" from
The School for Good
and Evil, Terence Blanchard's ethnic blend in "The Woman King" from
The Woman King, and Franglen's thematic closure in "End Titles"
from
Notre-Dame on Fire (Notre-Dame Brûle).
In contention but eliminated earlier in the selection process were the
following cues receiving honorable mentions (listed alphabetically by
film title): Arnau Bataller's quietly gripping "The End" from
The
Antares Paradox, Pemberton's villainous crescendo in "Evil
Masterplan" from
The Bad Guys, Giacchino's noir appeal for
"Catwoman" from
The Batman, John Frizzell's parody finale of "We
Celebrate!" from
Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe,
Göransson's momentous "Vengeance Has Consumed Us" from
Black
Panther: Wakanda Forever, and Anne-Kathrin Dern's rhythmically
cheery "Prison Break" from
The Claus Family 3.
Also contending but eliminated were Steve Jablonsky's rousingly
appropriate "Krypto the Superdog" from
DC League of Super-Pets,
Naoki Sato's genre-defying "Awakening" from
Dragon Ball Super: Super
Hero, Guillaume Roussel's symphonic chasing in "Arène" from
King, John Coda's lightly pretty "Graced With Wings" from
The
King's Daughter, Ian Rees and Garrett Crosby's lengthy romp in "The
Chase" from
Maika: The Girl From Another Galaxy, Mychael Danna
and Jeff Danna's gorgeous vocals in "Elmer's Dream" from
My Father's
Dragon, and Tyler Bates and Timothy Williams' closing melodrama in
"I'm So Happy You're Home" from
Pearl.
Finishing the list of honorable mentions are Alan Silvestri's spritely
and upbeat "Pinocchio Main Title" from
Pinocchio, Harry
Gregson-Williams' dramatic reverence in "Great Survivors" from
Polar
Bear, Alan Williams' resurrection of John Barry once again in "Lake
Natron" from
Serengeti: A Journey to the Heart of Africa,
Toprak's thematic summary in "Slumberland" from
Slumberland,
Lewis' redemptive holiday grace in "Spirited" from
Spirited,
Philippe Rombi's fanciful innocence in "Ouverture Valse Des Secrets"
from
Le Temps des Secrets, and Abel Korzeniowski's flowing
resolution in "I'm Ready To Go" from
Till.
