After a somewhat disappointing year of film score quality in 2023, the selection of top-notch music improved significantly in 2024. Scores mostly from the West dominated in the animation, drama, and fantasy genres, with soundtracks for musicals and those aimed at children faring surprisingly well. Because of the impressive collection of scores in the year, Filmtracks exercises its occasional practice of nominating an additional entry for its top award.

Although theatrical releases have been steadily returning to their pre-pandemic quantities, a substantial portion of the year's best music resulted from projects aimed mainly at small screens. The immensity of Bear McCreary's continued involvement with second season of the television series "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" draws the most attention, but primarily streaming films were a source of continued mastery in film music, especially for Netflix offerings.

The nominees at Filmtracks this year are multi-generational, featuring composers popular since the 1980's and those just asserting their positions atop their field in the 2020's. Leading the field with four nominations each are Kris Bowers and John Powell, with Amelia Warner earning three. Receiving two nominations each are Lorne Balfe, Roc Chen, Alan Menken, Alan Silvestri, and Benjamin Wallfisch. Nine others are represented, and this year represents the first nominations for seven composers, including some exciting new names.

•	Here (Alan Silvestri)
•	Spellbound (Alan Menken)
•	That Christmas (John Powell)
•	Wicked (John Powell/Stephen Schwartz)
•	The Wild Robot (Kris Bowers)
	Young Woman and the Sea (Amelia Warner)

The robust quality of the year compelled six nominees and a wider selection of honorable mentions. The five-star scores from 2024 span a variety of compositional styles, though each work had the distinction of adding immense presence in their pictures. The dark horse winner this year is Warner's Young Woman and the Sea, which played a pivotal role for its film's story and stands to become one of the best respected, inspirational sports scores in the genre's history. Though it is certainly not the most complicated of compositions, Warner's score, with some production assistance from Balfe, is undeniably powerful reinforcement for the message of the movie.

Vying for second place and worthy winners in any weaker year were Bowers' extraordinarily accomplished The Wild Robot and Powell's adaptation of Schwartz's themes for the musical Wicked, which is brilliantly reverent and expansive in scope. The three following scores are led by Silvestri's heartbreakingly lovely Here, Powell's affably engaging That Christmas, and Menken's nostalgic Spellbound, which features an impressive slate of new songs. The runner-up this year is Andrew Lockington's largely forgotten Atlas, a score with a fantastic finish and far more intelligence throughout than one might think on first pass.

The rest of the top ten include Michael Giacchino's charmingly sensitive IF, Chen's diversely unpredictable but at times gorgeous Into the Mortal World, and David Fleming's superbly bookended Damsel. Additional honorable mentions go to John Debney's broadly painted Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1, Raphaël Dargent's rambunctious Why Dinosaurs?, and Balfe and team's highly amusing Argylle. A special shout-out this year also goes to a pair of notably pretty scores for short films: Ivan Palomares' Carmen and the Wooden Spoon and Romain Paillot's The Dove Secret.

•	Lorne Balfe
•	Kris Bowers
•	Roc Chen
	John Powell
•	Benjamin Wallfisch

Of the five nominees this year, three have won the award previously while one is featured in these awards for the first time. Despite winning several major awards at Filmtracks, Powell had not been nominated in this category since 2011, his last win coming the previous year. One cannot discount the combined strength of Wicked, That Christmas, and Thelma the Unicorn, all three very enjoyable and two of them among the year's top five. At the top of his game, Powell had no serious competition for this award in 2024. Both Bowers and Balfe were also nominated in this category in 2023, the former's production for The Wild Robot and Bob Marley: One Love continuing his rapid ascent.

Balfe's prolific production was highlighted by positive collaborative efforts for Argylle, Decoded, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, with peripheral involvement in Young Woman and the Sea. Appearing for the first time in Filmtracks' awards is Chen, a relatively young Chinese composer who impresses with his versatility with occasionally excellent results in the scores for Into the Mortal World and Pegasus 2. Reasserting his rising presence in the industry is Benjamin Wallfisch, whose year included notable franchise work for Alien: Romulus and Twisters. An honorable mention in this category goes to Debney, who continues his prolific career and capped 2024 with Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1.

•	Alien: Romulus (Benjamin Wallfisch)	"Raine"
•	Argylle (Lorne Balfe/Various)	"Argylle's Theme"
	Atlas (Andrew Lockington)	"Atlas Main Titles"
•	Damsel (David Fleming)	"Elodie's Maze"
•	The Dove Secret (Romain Paillot)	"Escaping the Covent"
•	Here (Alan Silvestri)	"This is Here"
•	Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1 (John Debney)	"Horizon Montage Begins/Closing Survey"
•	Into the Mortal World (Roc Chen)	"Truth of Mother"
•	Kensuke's Kingdom (Stuart Hancock)	"Kensuke's Kingdom (End Titles Suite)"
•	Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (John Paesano)	"We Will Rebuild"
•	Our Living World (Pinar Toprak)	"Life Blood"
•	Spellbound (Alan Menken)	"Journey Suite"
•	That Christmas (John Powell)	"Searching and Finding"
•	White Bird (Thomas Newman)	"White Bird"
•	Wicked (John Powell/Stephen Schwartz)	"Train to Emerald City"
•	The Wild Robot (Kris Bowers)	"I Could Use a Boost"
•	The Wild Robot (Kris Bowers)	"You Don't Have To"
•	Why Dinosaurs? (Raphaël Dargent)	"Why Dinosaurs?"
•	Young Woman and the Sea (Amelia Warner)	"Trudy Escapes"
•	Young Woman and the Sea (Amelia Warner)	"Gertrude Ederle's Legacy"

The "Top Film Cue" category is restricted to twenty nominees, with the number of runner-ups capped at ten and honorable mentions limited to twenty. No single score can receive more than two nominations in this field, and two of the year's "Top Film Score" entries were awarded multiple top cue nods. The top ten scores of the year produced twelve of the nominations for "Top Film Cue," showing those scores' consolidated strength atop the field.

Only three of the twenty nominated cues were truly competitive for the award, and for much of the year, the assumed winner was to be the incredibly emotional "I Could Use a Boost" from Bowers' The Wild Robot, followed by the sentimental historical powerhouse "This is Here" from Silvestri's Here. In the end, though, the resoundingly satisfying, melodic "Atlas Main Titles" from Lockington's Atlas raises all the best memories from 2012's top score, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and exemplifies the definition of an earned payoff cue.

In the tier just behind these fantastic cues is Warner's infectious free spirit theme in "Trudy Escapes" from Young Woman and the Sea, Fleming's culminating thematic force in "Elodie's Maze" from Damsel, Balfe and team's equivalent, excellent summary in "Argylle's Theme" from Argylle, and Pinar Toprak's rousing highlight, "Life Blood," from the documentary Our Living World. Not far behind is the sustained excellence of "Searching and Finding" from Powell's That Christmas and Debney's conclusive climax, "Horizon Montage Begins/Closing Survey," in Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1.

Among the additional cues from the year's top scores is Bowers' great closing integration with a song from The Wild Robot in "You Don't Have To," Powell's extremely intelligent adaptations in "Train to Emerald City" from Wicked, Warner's perfectly respectful epilogue in "Gertrude Ederle's Legacy" in Young Woman and the Sea, and Menken's spirited action romp in "Journey Suite" from Spellbound. While there are several beautiful highlights in the lyrical portions of Chen's Into the Mortal World, topping the list is the ethnic tenderness and grace of "Truth of Mother."

Rounding out the nominees for 2024 are Stuart Hancock's epic fantasy themes in "Kensuke's Kingdom (End Titles Suite)" from Kensuke's Kingdom, Thomas Newman's familiar but still soothingly delightful style of "White Bird" from White Bird, and Paillot's extremely wholesome "Escaping the Covent" from The Dove Secret. The group is completed by Dargent's loving tribute to yesteryear in "Why Dinosaurs?" from Why Dinosaurs?, Wallfisch's massive choral catharsis in "Raine" from Alien: Romulus, and John Paesano's propulsive and determined climax in "We Will Rebuild" from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

The list of runner-ups this year is extremely diverse but features a few additional cues from scores already nominated, including the immensely powerful "Transformations" from Powell's Wicked, the softly wonderful melodicism in the same composer's "Shop Romance" from That Christmas, and the tremendous respect of "End of Massacre" from Debney's Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1. Also from Powell is the engagingly rousing "Red Carpet" from Thelma the Unicorn. Not far behind that style is Henry Jackman's rockingly redemptive "Saving Christmas" from Red One.

Completing the runner-up group is the delicately pretty and eventually resounding "Il Était une Fois..." from Laurent Perez Del Mar's Bambi: A Life in the Woods, Jeymes Samuel's thought-provoking reverence in "They Always Take Our Babies" from The Book of Clarence, Dario Marianelli's nearly hypnotizing beauty of "In the Fabric of the Universe" from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Geoff Zanelli's action and fantasy heights in "I Hope This Helps" from Man and Witch: The Dance of a Thousand Steps, and Dave Metzger's monumental blend of old and new in the closing "A Story of a Great King" from Mufasa: The Lion King.

In contention but eliminated earlier in the selection process were the following cues receiving honorable mentions (listed alphabetically by film title): Perez Del Mar's impressive action burst in "La Chasse" from Bambi: A Life in the Woods, Fernando Velázquez's enthusiastic Western introduction in "The Arrival" from Buffalo Kids, Palomares' charming, creatively percussive "Carmen and the Wooden Spoon" from Carmen and the Wooden Spoon, Fleming's incredibly deceptive romantic fantasy in "Ever After" from Damsel, Balfe and Kevin Riepl's restrained but engrossing "Farewell" from Decoded, and Giuliano Taviani and Carmelo Travia's stoic but elegant melodicism in "Diamanti Theme (Extended)" from Diamanti.

Also contending but eliminated were Silvestri's summary of themes in "End Credits" from Here, Marco Beltrami's stylishly suspenseful action in "Graveyard Shootout" from The Killer, Wallfisch and team's guilty pleasure of a main theme in "Kraven the Hunter" from Kraven the Hunter, Chris Benstead's guitar and vocal-driven force of "Absconding With the Duquesa" from The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Sung-Woo Cho's classically restrained but alluring "A Normal Family" from A Normal Family, Robert Gulya's increasingly inspirational "You are the Spark" from Now or Never!, Marianelli's ambitiously layered "Chased" from Paddington in Peru, and John Coda's thrillingly propulsive, bass-dwelling anthem in "Agent T-10" from Reagan.

Completing the list of honorable mentions are Lauri Porra's elegantly swaying rhythmic tonalities in "Driftwood II" from Stormskerry Maja, Diego Navarro's heroic flourish in "Theme From SuperKlaus (End Credits)" from SuperKlaus, Powell's striking introductory action and character-building in "Meet Our Heroes" from That Christmas and his demonically romping "Monkey Mayhem" from Wicked, Robin Hoffmann's cheerful swashbuckling tones in "End Credits" from Treasure Tracker, and Anne-Kathrin Dern's top mystical fantasy mode, albeit with a low budget, in "Carag" from Woodwalkers.