2019 Reel Music Awards – The Winners

2019 Reel Music Awards

MARCH 23, 2020 — The Reel Music Awards is an attempt to recognise and highlight some of the memorable music written for areas of media such as film, television and video games. 2019 was typical of other years in that I thought that there were many highlights and surprises along with a few disappointments (purely down to my own high expectations). I hope that these awards point readers in the direction of some of scores that they might otherwise not have come across. A full list of nominations can be found HERE.

As I write this post everyone’s lives are undergoing a great amount of upheaval and, perhaps, reading someone’s personal list of scores they feel merit some acknowledgement may not be a priority. I hope that everyone is keeping safe and that my choices enjoyably passes a few minutes of time. With all that’s been going on I haven’t had the time – and to be honest, had the inclination – to summarise my thoughts for my selections, but I hope to add some reasons for my choices at some point in the near future.

2019 Reel Music Awards – The Nominations

2019 Reel Music Awards – The Nominations

At last I am now able to announce what I think are some of the highlight scores of 2019. As with most years it has been a mixed bag in terms of listening enjoyment but there has been plenty to enjoy. As always, it has been difficult to whittle down the music I’ve been listening to to short-list nominations in the usual film, TV and game music categories.

After copious note-taking whilst listening to all the scores I have heard over the course of 2019 – as well as squeezing in some 2020-released scores for 2019 movies/TV shows – below are the nominations for the music I particularly want to draw people’s attention to. Obviously, these are my own personal choices of what I think are scores that are particularly noteworthy. Not everyone – or perhaps anyone – will agree with my choices but I hope that my selections help to guide readers to music they might not have listened to otherwise. Note that any errors in the various lists are my responsibility.

The various category winners and my overall choice of ‘score of 2019’ will be announced on Monday, 23rd March 2020.

2019 Reel Music Awards – 2019 scores for consideration

2019 Reel Music Awards

“Better late than never!” some will say. This year’s awards process for Reel Music is a lot later than usual but, we are here now and the announcement of the 2019 Reel Music Awards is on the horizon. As with last year, as part of the lead up to announcing my nominations (and eventual winners) of the stand-out scores of 2019, I thought that I would take some time and list all of the titles of the movies, TV shows, games, etc released in 2018 whose score I have listened to and assessed.

The main reason for listing all these scores is so that, if anyone is curious, you can see the range of titles assessed. Also, my lists may highlight some titles that you may have previously thought were unavailable to listen to. Note: this is a long list and there are bound to be mistakes no matter how often I check and check again – I apologise for any errors in advance.

Titles released in 2019 for ‘archival titles’ (i.e., music albums available in 2019 to movies, TV shows, etc. originally released in 2018 or previously) are not listed here.

The 2019 Reel Music Awards nomination lists will be posted soon.

IFMCA Award Winners 2019 announced

The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) have announced their awards for outstanding contributions to film, television and other media scoring for 2019. Below is the announcement in full and follow the link for the announcement in full (which includes a winners presentation video.

February 20, 2020: INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2019 IFMCA AWARDS; JOHN WILLIAMS REIGNS SUPREME WITH MULTIPLE AWARDS HONORING HIS FINAL STAR WARS SCORE, “THE RISE OF SKYWALKER”

2019 IFMCA Award nominations announced

Today saw the announcement of the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) 2019 Award nominations. Below is the announcement reproduced in full. Winners will be announced by the IFMCA on February 20, 2020.

FEBRUARY 6, 2020. The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of nominees for excellence in musical scoring in 2019, for the 16th annual IFMCA Awards. For the first time in IFMCA history a female composer leads the field, with Icelandic composer and cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir receiving five separate nominations for her work on the critically acclaimed comic-book drama “Joker,” and for the devastating HBO television series “Chernobyl”. These are the first nominations for Guðnadóttir, who is nominated in the categories for Film Score of the Year, Composer of the Year, Drama Score, Television Score, and Film Music Composition of the Year. IFMCA member James Southall was particularly complimentary about “Joker,” describing it as having ‘complexity in its extraordinary emotional depth,’ and calling it a ‘primal’ score which ‘made him think’.

A PLAGUE TALE: INNOCENCE – Olivier Deriviere

A Plague Tale: Innocence (regular release)

A Plague Tale: Innocence is a  2019 action-adventure stealth game set in 14^th century France. The player takes on the role of Amicia, a teenage daughter of a nobleman who must look after her sick brother, Hugo, as they wander their Black Death-ravaged country in search of a cure for Hugo. Most of the game involves trying to avoid hostile encounters with Inquisition soldiers who are searching for Hugo, and hordes of hungry rats. The game has received mostly positive reviews for gameplay but there is general agreement that the game looks beautiful, particularly the forest landscapes. The music for A Plague Tale: Innocence is written by Olivier Deriviere and marks a reunion between the composer and French video game publisher, Focus Home Interactive (Deriviere composed the music for Focus Home’s The Council and Vampyr).

WITHIN THE ROCK – Rod Gammons & Tony Fennell

A low budget made-for-TV movie from 1996, Within The Rock follows a specialized team of miners who are assembled for a mission and sent into space to land on a moon/comet/asteroid that has been discovered to be heading on a collision course towards Earth. Their job is to divert the object out of harm’s way by planting and detonating explosives. However, they accidentally set free an alien creature that begins to pick off the group one-by-one. Now the team must fight to survive AND save the world. The score for this poorly received movie is written by composers Rod Gammons and Tony Fennell (the latter briefly fronted UK band Ultravox in the early nineties).

Within The Rock is almost exclusively made up of atmospheric music that has little in the way of cohesive dramatic content. There’s not much that’s memorable save for the nods to music from other movies.