While the entire film music community gears up for the Oscars, we're thrilled to report that ASCAP members had a terrific showing in another long-running film award: the Sammys.
The Sammy Film Music Awards were named in honor of Sammy Cahn, the legendary ASCAP lyricist who was nominated for more Oscars than any other songwriter - a total of 26 times between 1942 and 1973. The ASCAP Foundation also gives out an unrelated award named after Cahn.
The Sammys are based on the quality of film scores and songs on CDs. They are the longest-running awards chosen exclusively for film music recordings, and are chosen annually by Roger Hall, an ASCAP composer, film music historian, author of the popular book, A Guide to Film Music and Managing Editor of Film Music Review.
Without further ado, the ASCAP winners of the 25th annual Sammy Film Music Awards, along with Hall's comments about them:
BEST NEW FILM SCORE FOR VIDEO GAME OR INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Austin Wintory
Journey
"A powerful and highly memorable score by this most promising young film composer."
BEST NEW FILM SONG
David Lindsay-Abaire, lyrics
"Still Dream" featured in Rise of the Guardians
"A stunningly beautiful song…superbly sung by Renée Fleming. It has the best elements (beautiful melody and lyrics) to make it a classic movie song."
BEST GOLDEN AGE CD RELEASE (1930s - 1950s)
Max Steiner
Adventures of Don Juan and Arsenic and Old Lace
BEST SILVER AGE CD RELEASE (1960S - 1970S)
Ernest Gold
Ship of Fools
BEST NEWLY RECORDED VINTAGE FILM SCORE CD RELEASE
Miklós Rózsa (PRS)
Quo Vadis
SPECIAL PRESERVATION AWARD: BEST ALBUM PRODUCERS
Kathleen Mayne
David Schecter
"...who have been producing high quality CDs of vintage music for may years, mostly for popular and less familiar 1950s sci-fi films."
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR A PAST FILM COMPOSER
Jerome Moross
Find out more about the Sammy Film Music Awards by clicking here.