{"id":923791,"date":"2026-10-11T03:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T03:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/923791\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T03:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T03:32:12","slug":"project-hail-mary-kpop-demon-hunters-songwriters-win-at-wsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/923791\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Project Hail Mary,’ ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Songwriters Win at WSA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDaniel Pemberton<\/a> was named Film Composer of the Year at the World Soundtrack Awards<\/a> on Saturday, capping a prolific run that includes \u201cProject Hail Mary<\/a>,\u201d \u201cThe Drama,\u201d \u201cThe Bad Guys 2\u201d and \u201cMasters of the Universe.\u201d The British composer has now won three times at the Ghent-based ceremony, taking the top prize in 2021 and Discovery of the Year in 2014. <\/p>\n

\n\tFor \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d Pemberton mined the unfamiliar for universal resonance, experimenting with wood, metal and glass and even drawing inspiration from a friend\u2019s leaky faucet. \u201cIt was a case of throwing every crazy idea we could into the score, but at the same time, it had to be really emotional,\u201d he said at a roundtable shortly before the closing ceremony. \u201cI spent a lot of time trying to make people cry.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFresh off their Academy Award win, pop star EJAE<\/a> and songwriter Mark Sonnenblick took Best Original Song for the \u201cKPop Demon Hunters<\/a>\u201d chart-topper \u201cGolden.\u201d The win adds to a haul that includes a Golden Globe, a Grammy and a David Guetta remix. The winners, however, were not on hand to collect. <\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking to Variety last year,<\/a> EJAE pushed back against labels. \u201cAs an artist, I don\u2019t want myself to be boxed into being a \u2018K-pop\u2019 artist because I don\u2019t really view myself as a K-pop artist or a pop artist,\u201d she said. \u201cI view myself as a songwriter of every genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the night\u2019s other honorees, Jeff Russo won Television Composer of the Year for \u201cAlien: Earth,\u201d \u201cCape Fear\u201d and \u201cCitadel\u201d; Kevin Smithers took the Public Choice Award for the Mexican stop-motion feature \u201cSoy Frankelda\u201d; and Northern Irish composer Hannah Peel (\u201cMidwinter Break\u201d) won Discovery of the Year. <\/p>\n

\n\tSmithers is developing a new, musical stop-motion feature with \u201cFrankelda\u201d directors Arturo and Roy Ambriz, while Peel is now scoring Netflix\u2019s series adaptation of \u201cAssassin\u2019s Creed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRusso\u2019s music for \u201cCape Fear\u201d and \u201cAlien: Earth\u201d both emphasized dread \u2014 all while drawing on the legacies of Bernard Herrmann, James Horner and Jerry Goldsmith. In \u201cCape Fear,\u201d for instance, Russo incorporated themes from Herrmann\u2019s original 1962 score.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat made my job both easier and much harder,\u201d Russo said. \u201cI had to figure out how Herrmann writes harmonically so the two scores could sound sympathetic and live together.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tOn \u201cAlien: Earth,\u201d he drew on the contrasting approaches of Goldsmith, who played up dread in \u201cAlien,\u201d and Horner, whose \u201cAliens\u201d music leaned toward militarism and action. Russo looked more for inspiration, lifting few specific themes, save for a delayed horn motif from Goldsmith\u2019s original. \u201cI thought it was fun [for franchise aficionados to recognize the easter egg]. We\u2019re all here to have fun, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tConductor Dirk Bross\u00e9 and the Brussels Philharmonic certainly did \u2014 enlivening the closing gala with performances of selected music by guest of honor Hildur Gu\u00f0nad\u00f3ttir and lifetime achievement award recipient Trevor Jones, both of whom were on hand for the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe program included themes from \u201c28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,\u201d \u201cT\u00e1r,\u201d \u201cJoker,\u201d \u201cThe Dark Crystal,\u201d \u201cThe Last of the Mohicans\u201d and \u201cNotting Hill.\u201d At one point, Gu\u00f0nad\u00f3ttir even grabbed her cello to accompany the orchestra onstage.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Ben Croll<\/p>\n

\n\tFull list of winners below: <\/p>\n

\n\tFilm Composer of the Year:
Daniel Pemberton \u2013 \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d \u201cThe Drama,\u201d \u201cThe Bad Guys 2,\u201d \u201cMasters of the Universe\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTelevision Composer of the Year:
Jeff Russo \u2013 \u201cAlien: Earth,\u201d \u201cCape Fear,\u201d \u201cCitadel\u201d (Season 2)<\/p>\n

\n\tBest Original Song:
\u201cGolden\u201d from \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d \u2013 written by Kim Eun-jae, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo, Teddy Park; performed by Huntrix<\/p>\n

\n\tDiscovery of the Year:
Hannah Peel \u2013 \u201cMidwinter Break\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPublic Choice Award:
Kevin Smithers \u2013 \u201cSoy Frankelda\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGame Music Award:
Nicolas Garcia \u2013 \u201cCthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelgian Film Composer of the Year (Powered by Sabam):
Margaret Hermant \u2013 \u201cA La Cara: Mallorca Confidencial\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAward for the Best Original Composition by a Young Composer (Powered by Vienna Synchron Stage):
Xabier Doural Garc\u00eda<\/p>\n

\n\tLifetime Achievement Award:
Trevor Jones<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniel Pemberton was named Film Composer of the Year at the World Soundtrack Awards on Saturday, capping a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":923792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,491555,49945,134,28936,136,24480,491556],"class_list":["post-923791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-pemberton","tag-ejae","tag-entertainment","tag-kpop-demon-hunters","tag-music","tag-project-hail-mary","tag-world-soundtrack-awards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}