More Awards: Winners and Nominees

Posted by Jorn Tillnes

November 14, 2008

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Award season is upon us and we’ve already had the World Soundtrack Awards last month and here are the winners:

FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR: JAMES NEWTON HOWARD

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE OF THE YEAR: ATONEMENT BY DARIO MARIANELLI

BEST ORIGINAL SONG WRITTEN DIRECTLY FOR FILM: ‘DOWN TO EARTH’ FROM WALL-E
Music by Thomas Newman and Peter Gabriel, lyrics by Peter Gabriel, performed by Peter Gabriel

DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR: MARC STREITENFELD

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: ANGELO BADALAMENTI

PUBLIC CHOICE AWARD: TUUR FLORIZOONE: MOSCOW, BELGIUM

SABAM AWARD FOR BEST BELGIAN YOUNG COMPOSER: CEDRIC MURRATH

Just announced are the nominees for the Hollywood Music Awards held on November 20th:

Best Original Score – Film
James Newton Howard (“Michael Clayton”)
Alberto Iglesias (“The Kite runner”)
Terence Blanchard (“Miracle at St. Anna”)
Aaron Zigman (“Flash of Genius”)
Jeff Beal (“Appaloosa”)

Comment: The usual suspects are not there like Atonement which is very surprising. “Michael Clayton” and “The Kite Runner” were nominated for an academy award earlier this year, but lost out to Atonement. It’s interesting to see “Miracle at St. Anna”, “Flash of Genius” and “Appaloosa” here. “Flash of Genius” was just released on November 4th, while the other two are quite recent releases as well. Maybe it’s a sign of things to come for the forthcoming award shows?

Prediction: Michael Clayton by James Newton Howard (It’s been pushed up by some people in Hollywood and it’s inclusion in the Academy Awards was a surprise by many.)

My Winner: Michael Clayton by James Newton Howard (Still love this score)

Best Original Score – TV
Sean Callery (“24″)
Jim Dooley (“Pushing Daisies”)
Lisa Coleman & Wendy Melvoin (“Heroes”)
Michael Giacchino (“Fringe”)
Tobias Wagner (“Labyrint”)

Comment: Most of these TV shows are very familiar except for Labyrint which is a pleasant surprise in this category. Also great to see Sean Callery get some recognition for his great work on “24″.

Prediction: Pushing Daisies by Jim Dooley (I don’t know why, but I have a strong feeling this one will win)

My Winner: 24 by Sean Callery. Come on! Let him win! Love the show, love the music.

Best Original Score – Video Game
Greg Edmonson – Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment America)
Steve Henifin – Too Human (Silicon Knights / Microsoft Game Studios)
Steve Jablonsky – Gears Of War 2 (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
Jesper Kyd – Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft)
Winifred Phillips – Speed Racer (Sidhe Interactive / Warner Bros. Interactive)
Garry Schyman – BioShock (2K Boston / 2K Games)
Mikael Karlsson & Tobias Wagner – Battlefield: Bad Company (DICE / Electronic Arts)
Wataru Hokoyama – AFRIKA (Rhino Studio / SONY Computer Entertainment Japan)
Knut Avenstroup Haugen – Age Of Conan (Funcom)

Comment: A lot of nominees here! I’ve previously reviewed Age Of Conan by Knut Avenstroup Haugen and I definitely liked that one. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is quite old, so I am surprised at it’s inclusion. Same goes with Too Human by Steve Henifin and Gears of War 2 by Steve Jablonsky which hasn’t officially been released yet.

Prediction: BioShock by Garry Schyman (It won earlier this year and it’s a strong contender for this award)

My Winner: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune by Greg Edmonson (It’s an awesome video game soundtrack which was in my top 3 last year as far as game scores concerned. Very happy to see it here. I think Gears of War 2 by Steve Jablonsky might sneak into my top 3 this year though. Huge expectations for that)

There’s more! Spike Video Game Awards is coming up. The award show itself is on December 14th this year. Here are the nominees:

Best Original Score

LittleBigPlanet
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Spore
Fallout 3

Comment: I’ve only heard one of these and that’s MGS 4 which I reviewed earlier. Naturally I hope it wins as it it a great video game score by Harry Gregson-Williams.

Best Soundtrack

Guitar Hero World Tour
Rock Band 2
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet

Comment: Guitar Hero and Rock Band are games which highly depends on their music choice. Even just listening by itself, these soundtracks are great. Also hear GTA IV, which is a hot contender. Second nomination for LittleBigPlanet which means I need to get it ASAP.