Awards season is in full swing, and on March 8, the Society of Composers & Lyricists held their annual awards ceremony at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The third such ceremony in SCL's seventy-seven-year history, the awards recognized the best scores and songs from the past year across seven categories, including film, television and interactive media.
Winners included Germaine Franco, the first woman ever to score a Disney animated film, who took home the award for Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film for her work on Encanto. In the Independent Film category, Green Knight composer Daniel Hart took home the top prize for his work on A24's Dev Patel-starring take on the Arthurian story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Rounding out the prizes for top scores is Cristobal Tapia de Veer, whose score for The White Lotus beat out hugely popular series Loki, Squid Game, Succession and Wandavision.
Brother-sister duo Finneas O'Connell and Billie Eilish took home the award for Outstanding Original Song for a Drama/Documentary for the title track from the latest James Bond film No Time To Die, the same song that netted the pair their first Academy Award nomination. In the Outstanding Original Song for a Musical/Comedy category, the top prize was awarded to Nicholas Britell, Ariana Grande, Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi, and Taura Stinson for "Just Look Up" from the dark comedy Don't Look Up.
Hildur Guđnadóttir took home her third SCL award, this time in the Interactive Media category for her work on Battlefield 2042. Guđnadóttir won her first two SCL awards in the first year of the ceremony, where she won prizes in the Film category for her work on Joker, and in the television category for Chernobyl.
The SCL also handed out two special prizes at the award ceremony. Stephanie Economou was awarded the David Raskin Award for Emerging Talent — newly added for the 2022 ceremony — for her work on Jupiter's Legacy. Meanwhile, Carter Burwell and brothers Joel and Ethan Coen received the Spirit of Collaboration Award, which honored the seventeen films the group has collaborated on. The presentation of their award was accompanied by a performance by the Carter Burwell Ensemble.
Other performances that evening included one by the Grammy-winning Judith Hill, and viral sensation-turned-Grammy nominated duo Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, known for their Bridgerton: The Unofficial Musical.