What is old is new again. That was the theme of the top film scores of 2025, with arrangements and sequels of prior music dominating the best of the year. There was no truly new and inventive classic score to dominate the field in this cycle, but a generous amount of four-star music across all genres provided for more than enough entertainment. Strength in the thriller and horror genres highlighted the year's top music, and scores for large-scale musicals continue to impress.

Despite increasingly impressive music originating from small screen films and series in the early 2020's, this year was defined by major theatrical productions aimed at the big screen. The majority of the year's top scores belong to well-known franchises, composers both new and old guiding those concepts to renewed heights. The lack of originality is concerning to a degree, though something must be said in favor of quality music breathing new life from yesterday's favorites.

Many familiar composers offered admirable output in 2025, most of them continuing to fine-tune their craft for superior results. Dominating the field with six nominations is John Powell, with Brian Tyler earning an impressive four as well. Alexandre Desplat's notable year netted him three nominations, followed by Simon Franglen, Michael Giacchino, Steven Price, and Tim Wynn each receiving two. Like last year, nine others are represented, and 2025 provides the first nominations at Filmtracks for five composers, several based outside of America.

•	Avatar: Fire and Ash (Simon Franglen)
•	Final Destination Bloodlines (Tim Wynn)
	How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)
•	Now You See Me: Now You Don't (Brian Tyler)
•	Wicked: For Good (John Powell/Stephen Schwartz)

This was an extremely unusual year for the Filmtracks awards for two reasons: The presence of a controversial but dominant remake in How to Train Your Dragon and indecision for months about the fifth nominee for Top Film Score and subsequent ordering for the remainder of the site's top ten. In the end, 2025's revised, rearranged, reorchestrated, and rerecorded version of Powell's score was treated as if it were an all-new composition worthy of full awards consideration. While many disagree with that assessment, the fact remains that this score's music, whether old or new, was the best for any new 2025 film.

Also challenging to reconcile this year was a shift of the #5 selection several times, with five works occupying that position for some period of time in early 2026 after everything was considered. It's rare that the #5 to #9 scores of a year are so closely matched in quality, each with extremely distinct appeal and all their composers deserving of the recognition. Their differences are immense, which is a positive for all listeners. Ultimately, Tyler's rowdy escapism of Now You See Me: Now You Don't triumphed in that spot at the very end, providing a snazzy and enthusiastic relief valve for the heightened melodrama of the competition.

For listeners who disqualify How to Train Your Dragon from consideration, the race for all-new scores at Filmtracks in 2025 came down to Franglen's Avatar: Fire and Ash and Powell and Stephen Schwartz's Wicked: For Good. Both are slightly less attractive than their predecessors, though the latter prevails to earn the #2 position by a slim margin due to its outstanding final act. Locked into fourth place for most of the year was Wynn's surprisingly engaging and deviously smart Final Destination Bloodlines, proof that some of 2025's best music can come from very unexpected places courtesy of a breakthrough from a composer making the best of a mainstream opportunity.

The year's runner-up is Neal Acree's rousing ethnic blend for Three Kingdoms: Starlit Heroes. The rest of the top ten features Desplat's jilted, gothic romanticism in Frankenstein, Òscar M. Leanizbarrutia's superb interpolations of faith-based source material in Descalzos, Price's well-balanced thrills and stellar themes in Long Distance, and Desplat's immense and precise adventurism in Jurassic World Rebirth. Additional honorable mentions go to David Fleming's hilariously addictive Anaconda and Gordy Haab's continued mastery of the East-West blend in Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force, with peripheral kudos to Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli for Red Sonja and John Lunn for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.

•	Alexandre Desplat
	John Powell
•	Steven Price
•	Alan Silvestri
•	Brian Tyler

The field for the Top Composer category this year was extremely broad, with no less than seven score writers worthy of serious consideration for a nomination. Four of the five nominees have been recognized widely in Filmtracks awards through the years, with one new addition marking his breakthrough. The top two options were Powell and Desplat, the latter composer a historically frequent nominee and winner of the category multiple times. Powell won the award in 2024, his first nomination in the category in thirteen years, and he once again prevails due to the strength of his incredible adaptation work for How to Train Your Dragon and Wicked: For Good.

For Desplat, the year likewise included two scores in the top ten overall, Frankenstein and Jurassic World Rebirth confirming his versatility. Also nominated are Tyler, who prevailed over medical adversity and finished third in this category with quality music across Now You See Me: Now You Don't and Nuremberg. Price's busy year was highlighted by Long Distance and Ocean with David Attenborough while industry veteran Alan Silvestri played the nostalgia card in Play Dirty and The Electric State. Earning honorable mentions in this category are Fleming, whose Anaconda headlined a quality year aside from the misfire with Superman, and Michael Giacchino, who wrote some of the best music of 2025 in scores restrained by weak halves.

•	Anaconda (David Fleming)	"EPK"
•	Avatar: Fire and Ash (Simon Franglen)	"The Windtraders"
•	Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force (Gordy Haab)	"Defend Xiqi"
•	Descalzos (Òscar M. Leanizbarrutia)	"El Sentido de la Maravilla"
•	Dracula: A Love Tale (Danny Elfman)	"End Credits"
•	The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Michael Giacchino)	"Out to Launch"
•	Final Destination Bloodlines (Tim Wynn)	"Bloodlines (End Titles)"
•	Frankenstein (Alexandre Desplat)	"Fire"
•	How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)	"Test Driving Toothless"
•	How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)	"We Have Dragons"
•	Jay Kelly (Nicholas Britell)	"The Tribute"
•	Jurassic World Rebirth (Alexandre Desplat)	"Boat Chase"
•	Long Distance (Steven Price)	"Distant"
•	Now You See Me: Now You Don't (Brian Tyler)	"Now You See Me"
•	Nuremberg (Brian Tyler)	"Modesty vs Vanity"
•	Red Sonja (Sonya Belousova/Giona Ostinelli)	"I Want to See More of This World"
•	Spermageddon (Christian Wibe)	"Happy Ending"
•	Three Kingdoms: Starlit Heroes (Neal Acree)	"Starlit Heroes"
•	Wicked: For Good (John Powell/Stephen Schwartz)	"Lies in the Sky"
	Zootopia 2 (Michael Giacchino)	"Zootopia 2 Suite"

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. Due to the quality of 2025 across the international film music scene, an additional twenty honorable mentions are included at the end. No single score can receive more than two nominations in this field, and only one of the year's Top Film Score entries was awarded multiple top cue nods. Half of the nominations for Top Film Cue feature music from one of the top ten scores of the year, a comparatively low number showing that great cues came from otherwise lesser scores.

While five cues were seriously considered for the award, one ran away with the win, its lengthy quality blowing away the competition. The first half of Giacchino's Zootopia 2 reprised all the challenging abrasion of the prior score, but its second half is spectacularly thematic, and the composer's "Zootopia 2 Suite" surveys all the score's motifs with brilliant instrumental coloration and exotic beauty for the win. Among the other top contenders, Price's "Distant" from Long Distance offers outstanding melodic development while Powell's "We Have Dragons" from How to Train Your Dragon improves significantly upon a classic cue.

Tyler's "Now You See Me" from Now You See Me: Now You Don't is an excellent rendering of that franchise's main theme, and Powell let rip with top flight action for "Lies in the Sky" in Wicked: For Good. Behind these top five cues are Wynn's powerfully ominous "Bloodlines (End Titles)" from Final Destination Bloodlines, Acree's immensely resonating "Starlit Heroes" from Three Kingdoms: Starlit Heroes, Haab's equally memorable ethnic force in "Defend Xiqi" from Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force, and Franglen's all-too-brief but headline stealing "The Windtraders" from Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Also highlighting their scores are Fleming's outrageous fun in "EPK" from Anaconda, Giacchino's catchy heroism in "Out to Launch" from The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Powell's superior evolution of "Test Driving Toothless" from How to Train Your Dragon, Belousova and Ostinelli's redemptively hopeful "I Want to See More of This World" from Red Sonja, Tyler's gravely respectful "Modesty vs Vanity" from Nuremberg, and Desplat's terrifying "Fire" from Frankenstein.

Rounding out the nominees for Top Film Cue are Desplat's exciting romp in "Boat Chase" from Jurassic World Rebirth, Danny Elfman exploring his pure gothic mode in "End Credits" from Dracula: A Love Tale, Leanizbarrutia's lovely original theme in "El Sentido de la Maravilla" from Descalzos, Nicholas Britell's sincere drama in "The Tribute" from Jay Kelly, and Christian Wibe's gorgeously ejaculatory "Happy Ending" from Spermageddon.

The ten fantastic runner-ups this year once again bring extreme diversity to compete for this award, with only one cue in the group representing a score already nominated. That cue is Franglen's powerful "Settling the Score" from Avatar: Fire and Ash. Otherwise, on the edge of earning nominations were Silvestri's robust "The Train, Part 3" from Play Dirty, Panu Aaltio's exciting "Showdown" from Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel, Thomas Newman's predictably delightful "The Famous Coopers Chase" from The Thursday Murder Club, and Benjamin Wallfisch's resolving "Goodbye" from Wolf Man.

Additionally competing in the runner-up group is Jeff Russo's unexpectedly pretty "End Titles Suite (Orchestral)" from The Last Rodeo, Lunn's reprise of franchise themes in "Home at Last" from Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, Rob Simonsen's creatively otherworldly tone in "The Communiverse" from Elio, Anne Nikitin's delicate beauty in "He Spoke With Fire" from Four Letters of Love, and Daniel Lopatin's retro coolness in "Force of Life" from Marty Supreme. Each of these cues easily could have been nominated in a lesser year for film music.

In contention but eliminated earlier in the selection process were the following cues receiving honorable mentions (listed alphabetically by film title): Fleming's distinctly cool "The Old New West" from Americana, Noah Sorota's pretty melodicism in "Main Title" from The American Southwest, Fleming's extremely funny "Doug's Pitch" from Anaconda, Franglen's thematic reprises in "Brothers" from Avatar: Fire and Ash, Elfman's alluringly melancholy "Remembering" from Dracula: A Love Tale, Silvestri's culminating highlight in "We're Running Out of Time" from The Electric State, and Wynn's propulsive and anxious "Connecting the Dots" from Final Destination Bloodlines.

Also contending but eliminated were Desplat's monumentally gothic "The Castle" from Frankenstein, Max Richter's tonally ethereal "Of the Undiscovered Country" from Hamnet, Powell's brazenly rowdy "The Wings of the Beast" from How to Train Your Dragon, Carl Thiel's unashamedly Mexican "La Leyenda de Petra" from El Lazo de Petra, Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey's dramatically resonating "The Entity's Future" from Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Tyler's effortlessly stylish "One Night Only" from Now You See Me: Now You Don't, and Price's vocally upbeat "Beyond Our Wildest Dreams" from Ocean with David Attenborough.

Completing the list of honorable mentions are Andrew Morgan Smith's pompously overblown "The Oval Portrait" from The Oval Portrait, Frederick Wiedmann's muscularly choral "Requiem for Soldiers" from Primitive War, Carsten Rocker's pleasantly ebullient "Tafiti's Adventures" from Tafiti: Across the Desert, Acree's beautifully inspirational "A Dream of Luo Yang" from Three Kingdoms: Starlit Heroes, Nathan Johnson's deadly serious culmination in "The Confession (Violin Concerto in G Minor)" from Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, and Powell's transformative confidence in "The Rise of Glinda" from Wicked: For Good.

Additional Honorable Mentions in 2025:

For the first time, Filmtracks honors an additional 20 cues that likewise fell out of competition for a nomination but are well worth exploration. Also in alphabetical order by film title are Laeticia Pansanel-Garric's "La Marche des Femmes sur Versailles - Scène d'Ouverture" from Aux Armes, Citoyennes! Les Femmes de la Révolution, Christopher Lennertz's "Chuck and Chase" from Back in Action, Elfman's "Dark Universe Fanfare" from the Dark Universe theme park, Oli Julian's "Credits" from Fackham Hall, Naoki Sato's "False Bottom" from Black Showman, Wynn's "The Skyview" from Final Destination Bloodlines, Desplat's "Sailing Away" from Jurassic World Rebirth, Price's "Wake Up" from Long Distance, and Jung Jae-il's "Set Off" from Mickey 17.

Rounding out the final tier are Fil Eisler's "The Symphony of Everything (Momo's Theme)" from Momo, Vanessa Garde's "El Fin" from Los Muértimer, Fabrizio Mancinelli's "It's Over" from Out of the Nest, Lennertz's "Six Arms Up" from The Pickup, Hiroyuki Sawano's "All About André" from The Rose of Versailles, Ludovic Bource's "Le Routard Theme" from Le Routard, John Debney's "The Dutchman's Story" from The SpongeBob Movie: Search for Squarepants, Aaltio's "Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel" from Super Furball and the Lying Squirrel, Bryce Dessner's "The Great Mystery" from Train Dreams, Johannes Ringen's "The Pilgrimage to Nidaros" from Troll 2, and Powell and Schwartz's "Popular Wedding Music" from Wicked: For Good.