On Friday, February 6 the Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) held its 7th Annual SCL Awards at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, awarding top film honors to “Sinners,” “KPop Demon Hunters,” and “Train Dreams.”
The event was hosted by award-winning actor and musician Kevin Bacon and Emmy-winning composer Michael Bacon (The Bacon Brothers). Among the highlights were two-time Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Grammy-winning “Sinners” composer Ludwig Göransson not only winning both Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film for himself, and Outstanding Original Song for a Drama or Documentary with songwriter Raphael Saadiq for “I Lied to You,” but the 2026 Spirit of Collaboration Award with longtime friend and director Ryan Coogler.
The SCL Award given to the pair of current Oscar nominees is in honor of their longstanding creative partnership on Coogler’s films including “Fruitvale Station,” “Creed,” “Black Panther,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” and “Sinners.” The latter film has earned 16 Oscar nominations total, the most of any film in Academy Awards history.
“KPop Demon Hunters’ songwriters EJAE and Mark Sonnenblick won the SCL Award for Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical for the track “Golden” from the Netflix phenomenon. The win marks the latest accolade for the song, which has already earned a Grammy, Golden Globe, and Critics Choice Award, in addition to an Academy Award nomination.
Some highlights from the television categories include two-time Emmy-winning composer Theodore Shapiro winning the SCL Award for Outstanding Original Score for a Television Production for “Severance,” and “The White Lotus” Cristóbal Tapia de Veer winning Outstanding Original Title Sequence for a Television Production for a third time.
The SCL also celebrated the 50th Anniversary of “Rocky” with a musical tribute and performance conducted by Academy Award-winning composer Bill Conti who scored five films in the blockbuster “Rocky” franchise and co-composed its iconic theme “Gonna Fly Now (Theme from Rocky).” Additionally, Melissa Manchester performed for the In Memoriam segment, singing “I’ll Never Say Goodbye,” her Oscar-nominated song from the 1979 film “The Promise,” written by David Shire and the late Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman. Alan Bergman, who died in 2025, was featured during the segment.
SCL Awards winners and nominees are judged and determined solely by member composers and songwriters.
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A STUDIO FILM
JERSKIN FENDRIX – “Bugonia”
ALEXANDRE DESPLAT – “Frankenstein”
MAX RICHTER – “Hamnet”
JONNY GREENWOOD – “One Battle After Another”
WINNER: LUDWIG GÖRANSSON – “Sinners“
STEPHEN SCHWARTZ, JOHN POWELL – “Wicked: For Good”
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN INDEPENDENT FILM
DAVID FLEMING – “Eternity”
FABRIZIO MANCINELLI – “Out of the Nest”
JÓNSI, ALEX SOMERS – “Rental Family”
DARA TAYLOR – “Straw”
SARA BARONE, FOREST CHRISTENSON – “To Kill a Wolf”
WINNER: BRYCE DESSNER – “Train Dreams“
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG FOR A DRAMA OR DOCUMENTARY
DIANE WARREN – “Dear Me” from “Diane Warren: Relentless”
ED SHEERAN, BLAKE SLATKIN, JOHN MAYER – “Drive” from “F1”
WINNER: RAPHAEL SAADIQ, LUDWIG GÖRANSSON – “I Lied to You” from “Sinners“
ALICE SMITH, MILES CATON, LUDWIG GÖRANSSON – “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” from “Sinners”
SARA BAREILLES, BRANDI CARLILE, ANDREA GIBSON – “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” from “Come See Me in the Good Light”
NIKHIL KOPARKAR, RAMMY PARK – “The Hills of Tanchico” from “The Wheel of Time”
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG FOR A COMEDY OR MUSICAL
WINNER: EJAE, MARK SONNENBLICK – “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters“
MARK RONSON, ANDREW WYATT, JACK BLACK – “I Feel Alive” from “A Minecraft Movie”
STEPHEN SCHWARTZ – “No Place Like Home” from “Wicked: For Good”
JACK BLACK, JARED HESS – “Steve’s Lava Chicken” from “A Minecraft Movie”
STEPHEN SCHWARTZ – “The Girl in the Bubble” from “Wicked: For Good”
BLAKE SLATKIN, SHAKIRA, ED SHEERAN – “Zoo” from “Zootopia 2”
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL TITLE SEQUENCE FOR A TELEVISION PRODUCTION
JEFF BEAL – “All Her Fault”
CARLOS RAFAEL RIVERA, SCOTT FRANK – “Dept. Q”
AMANDA JONES – “Murderbot”
DAVE PORTER – “Pluribus”
SEAN CALLERY – “The Beast in Me”
WINNER: CRISTÓBAL TAPIA DE VEER – “The White Lotus“
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A TELEVISION PRODUCTION
BRANDON ROBERTS – “Andor”
DAVE PORTER – “Pluribus”
WINNER: THEODORE SHAPIRO – “Severance“
DAVID FLEMING, GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA – “The Last of Us”
ANTONIO SÁNCHEZ – “The Studio”
CRISTÓBAL TAPIA DE VEER – “The White Lotus”
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCORE FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA
GORDY HAAB – “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants”
WILBERT ROGET II, CODY MATTHEW JOHNSON, JON EVERIST – “Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate’s Fortune”
WINNER: AUSTIN WINTORY – “Sword of the Sea“
MACLAINE DIEMER – “Wildgate”
DAVID RAKSIN AWARD FOR EMERGING TALENT
RAASHI KULKARNI – “A Nice Indian Boy”
GREG NICOLETT – “Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches”
WINNER: CHING-SHAN CHANG – “Laws of Man“
FREYA BERKHOUT – “Ride or Die”
SARA TREVINO – “The Map That Leads to You”
CAMERON MOODY – “Washington Black”