4th Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) winners: ‘Nope,’ ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once,’ ‘The White Lotus’

The Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) presented the winners of the 4th Annual SCL Awards for score and songs in visual media on February 15th at the Skirball Cultural Center where the top winners in film were Michael Abels with the award for Outstanding Original Score for a Feature Film for Nope and Son Lux with the award for Outstanding Score for an Independent Film for Everything Everywhere All at Once.

The evening was hosted by Darren Criss, who also gave the audience a musical performance. Awards were presented across seven categories for music in visual media in addition to the Spirit of Collaboration Award and two Jury Awards.

The Spirit of Collaboration Award was presented to Oscar-winning composer Justin Hurwitz and Oscar-winning filmmaker Damien Chazelle. The composer and filmmaker have collaborated on all five of Chazelle’s films: Babylon, La La Land, Whiplash, First Man, and Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench. The presentation of the award was accompanied by a musical performance including “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” from La La Land, the First Man theme for harp and theremin, and a Babylon Medley, including “Voodoo Mama” and “Herman’s Hustle.”

A Jury Award was presented Abels for the opera he co-composed with Rhiannon Giddens, Omar, and a second Jury Award was presented to Women Warriors: The Voices of Change.

In the song categories, Diane Warren, who became the first songwriter to receive an Honorary Oscar in December of 2022, accepted her award for Outstanding Original Song for a Drama or Documentary for “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman, which is also nominated for Best Original Song in the upcoming Oscars. Additionally, filmmaker/lyricist Guillermo del Toro and lyricist Roeban Katz won the award for Outstanding Original Song for a Musical or Comedy for “Ciao Papa” from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, written by Katz, del Toro, and Alexandre Desplat.

Nami Melumad, who co-composed Thor: Love and Thunder with Michael Giacchino and became Star Trek’s first female composer with Star Trek: Prodigy, won the David Raksin Award for Emerging Talent for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Stephanie Economou, who received the first ever David Raksin Award at last year’s ceremony, won Best Original Score for Interactive Media for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök. Also a back-to-back winner, Emmy-winning composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer won Outstanding Original Score for a Television Production for The White Lotus for the second year in a row.

Past SCL Awards winners who went on to win Oscars include Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste for Soul, Hildur Guđnadóttir for Joker, Hans Zimmer for Dune, and Billie Eilish and FINNEAS for No Time To Die.

Here is the full list of winners (in bold) with Oscar nominees noted with an *.

OUTSTANDING SCORE FOR A STUDIO FILM

• Michael Abels – Nope
• Alexandre Desplat – Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
• Carter Burwell – Banshees of Inisherin*
• Michael Giacchino – The Batman
• John Powell – Don’t Worry Darling

OUTSTANDING SCORE FOR AN INDEPENDENT FILM

• Son Lux – Everything Everywhere All At Once*
• Leo Birenberg, Zach Robinson – Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
• Sharon Farber – Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
• Rob Simonsen – The Whale
• Mark Smythe – The Reef: Stalked

OUTSTANDING SONG FOR A MUSICAL/COMEDY

• Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, Guillermo del Toro – “Ciao Papa” from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
• Khiyon Hursey, Sukari Jones, Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, Mark Sonnenblick – “Good Afternoon” – Spirited
• Danny Elfman – “Light the Match” from Central Park
• Billy Eichner, Marc Shaiman – “Love is Not Love” from Bros
• Weird Al Yankovic – “Now You Know” from Weird: The Al Yankovic Story

OUTSTANDING SONG FOR A DRAMA/DOCUMENTARY

• Diane Warren – “Applause” from Tell It Like a Woman*
• Taylor Swift – “Carolina” from Where the Crawdads Sing
• Lady Gaga, BloodPop – “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick*
• Tems, Rihanna, Ludwig Goransson, Ryan Coogler – “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever*
• Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross – “(You Made It Feel Like) Home” from Bones and All

OUTSTANDING SCORE FOR TELEVISION

• Cristobal Tapia de Veer – The White Lotus
• Nicholas Britell – Andor
• Siddhartha Khosla – Only Murders in the Building
• Bear McCreary – The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
• Theodore Shapiro – Severance

OUTSTANDING SCORE FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA

• Stephanie Economou – Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök
• Nainita Desai – Immortality
• Bear McCreary – God of War Ragnarök
• Winifred Phillips – Jurassic World Primal Ops
• Christopher Wiliis – Cat Burglar

DAVID RASKIN AWARDS FOR EMERGING TALENT

• Nami Melumad – Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
• Dara Taylor – The Invitation
• Anna Drubich – Barbarian
• Deandre James Allen-Toole – God’s Country
• Esin Aydingoz – Simchas and Sorrows