film and tv
Janis Ian: Breaking Silence — a career-spanning documentary about groundbreaking singer-songwriter Janis Ian, in theaters now – began with a simple, polite message to the artist’s official website.
“I said, ‘Hi, my name is Varda Bar-Kar, I’m a filmmaker and I’d like to make a film about you,’” the London-born director tells Billboard. “And I said ‘no,’” interjects Ian with a mischievous smile. “That was my kneejerk response.”
The film’s journey might have ended right there had it not been for Bar-Kar’s gentle persistence and a few helpful coincidences. Despite the dismissive greeting, the director kept in touch, sharing links to a few of her other documentaries, Big Voice and What Kind of Planet Are We On?; additional correspondence between the two revealed mutual acquaintances, similar experiences and a shared interest in Zen Buddhism.
Trending on Billboard
“I had just walked away from a potentially lucrative [movie] deal with another entity,” Ian says of her reticence to participate. “I firmly did not want a puff piece.” But after viewing a 20-minute proof of concept from Bar-Kar, the Grammy-winning singer of “At Seventeen” felt like she could trust the director with her time and story.
“I wanted something that reflected the times,” Ian says of her dream for the project — and Bar-Kar’s engrossing, informative documentary does that superbly. Watching the film, one gets as much of a sense of America’s complicated, shifting identity over the decades as one does Ian’s own life and personal evolution. We watch the turmoil of the Civil Rights era inspire Ian, a 14-year-old girl from a farm town in New Jersey, to write “Society’s Child,” a song about an interracial romance smothered by external prejudices. Then, we see how American audiences – with all their contradictions and confusions – reacted: Some hailed her as an astonishing, bold voice, pushing the single to No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1967; others hurled racial slurs at her during concerts, reducing the teenage singer to tears for daring to suggest love could go beyond racial boundaries.
That song wouldn’t be the last time that Ian – who publicly came out as a lesbian in 1993 – would find herself alternately celebrated and pilloried by audiences and industry players. Named after the album that came out when she did, the film uses Ian’s unusually insightful music, her memories and fresh interviews with Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Lily Tomlin, Laurie Metcalf, Jean Smart, the late Brooks Arthur and others to tell the story of her impact and importance.
Ian and Bar-Kar sat down with Billboard one morning in Manhattan to discuss making the film, frustrations with music licensing, why the former’s performance on the first-ever episode of Saturday Night Live isn’t included in this doc and plenty more. Janis Ian: Breaking Silence is in select theaters now, and hits streaming on April 29.
As we see in the documentary, Janis, you were a guest on Leonard Bernstein’s TV program at the age of 14. I know he did the Young People’s Concerts series – were you aware of him and how big of a deal that was at the time?
Ian: It didn’t even occur to me. The Bernstein thing didn’t compute that it would be any big deal. My parents and grandparents were freaking out, but for me, I had to get my Spanish homework done. Felicia Bernstein [Leonard Bernstein’s wife] helped me with that homework. (My parents) had wanted the second-generation immigrant dream (for me). I was clearly musically talented, so they wanted me to be a classical pianist. But if you look at my hands, the only thing I could’ve played was Mozart or Bach. And I wasn’t interested: the minute I discovered boogie-woogie and rock n’ roll, that was it. Either that or (they wanted me to be) a doctor, and I had zero interest in being a doctor. When I said I was going to be a singer-songwriter, nobody was thrilled. They were supportive, but they weren’t thrilled. Bernstein was like, as someone says in the film, the mark of God. He was hellbent on convincing the old guard that believed the only real culture was European that America had its own culture. He fought that battle his entire life…. “Society’s Child” aligned with his whole community service: the concept of the artist as someone of service to the community.
In the film, you talk about starting out by imitating Odetta and Joan Baez and taking a moment to find your own voice. Even so, you found it fairly quickly. Do you have any advice for young artists who are already making music but still searching to lock in on their own voice?
Ian: I think my generation in some ways was much luckier than this one. Lyrics were not usually with albums, so you would sit down with the new whoever album and copy out the lyrics. Any artist knows that when you imitate and copy, it’s just like a computer – if you put garbage in, you get garbage out. So by copying Bob Dylan, Dylan Thomas, Odetta as a vocalist or people like Joan Baez and Billie Holiday, I was really putting the best into myself. I encourage people to imitate other people, because it lets you know what you’re not good at. But the next step for me was that I realized I was not hearing the voice on tape that I heard in my head. So I apprenticed at (a studio) when I lived in Philadelphia for nothing. I swept floors, I did patching and I learned about cables, and in return they would let me work with the second or third-tier assistant engineer for an hour a night. Working with a really good Neumann microphone watching the meter, I learned how to sing without a limiter, which gave me this vocal control. Even now with my vocal scarring, my (doctor) told me I still have better breath control than most people. It took three years to get the voice in my head to come out on tape. Now, for better or worse, you don’t have the gatekeepers. You don’t have the time you had – or were forced into – to create yourself, because ultimately artists end up creating themselves. It’s difficult when you can put out music every three months, because the temptation is to believe whatever you’ve done most recently is the best. And a year later you’re looking at it thinking, “Oh, my God.”
Varda, this film includes a lot of vintage clips and music – all of which effectively puts you into each era, but it must have been a beast to license.
Ian: (laughs)
Bar-Kar: Finding them was fun. It was like a treasure hunt. The film took a number of years, I did a lot of research. I even read a whole book about the summer camps (Ian attended as a kid).
Ian: The commie-pinko camps (laughs). I sent her everything that I had digitized.
Bar-Kar: I went through all of that. My daughter, Paloma Bennett, was the archive producer and she has an incredible capacity for taking in a lot of material. And there’s a lot of music in there as well. With regards to the licensing…
Ian: It was a nightmare. She’s never going to use music in a film again and I told her I’ll make it up to her: she can use anything I own.
Bar-Kay: (laughs) I stuck it through, though.
Ian: We started off with almost 50 songs, and I don’t own all of them.
Bar-Kar: It was fun to research, but the music licensing part was very difficult.
Janis, you sang “At Seventeen” on the first episode of SNL, which is not featured in the movie. Was that a licensing issue with the footage?
Ian: I think we decided it was irrelevant. It was a blip.
Bar-Kar: Actually, it turned out to be very fortuitous.
Right, all the SNL 50 celebrations and movies.
Ian: They did our publicity for us.
Bar-Kar: Fate is amazing sometimes. We already had the Johnny Carson performance of “At Seventeen.” It’s one of those things where if you have too much, it diminishes it, it doesn’t add to it. It was smushing too much together.
Ian: And looking back now, people go, “Oh that was a landmark thing.” But then, it was very much not – nobody cared. The show didn’t have legs until the second episode when Paul Simon was on. But NBC has done a brilliant job of making a lot out of it.
Bar-Kar: It’s almost like a trilogy now: there’s the Bob Dylan film (A Complete Unknown), SNL 50 and now our film. They fill in the different gaps.
Ian: I thought the Queen film that came out before was one of the best biopics I’ve ever seen. That’s the only film I’ve ever seen where walking on stage in a huge amphitheater is actually accurate. Everybody thinks there’s all these people making a gangway for you, waving you on. No. There’s equipment flying past you, there’s people shoving you. They don’t care if you’re making 10 million dollars that night: they just don’t want you getting hit by the Anvil case.
Bruce Springsteen, Ed Sciaky, Billy Joel and Janis Ian in ‘JANIS IAN: BREAKING SILENCE.’
Peter Cunningham/Courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
In 2022, Janis, you had to cancel your farewell tour due to scarring on your vocal cords. In the film, you talk about feeling deprived of a sense of resolution that farewell tour may have provided. Does this film, in some sense, give you that resolution?
Ian: No, there’s really no resolution for it. It’s difficult to know how to respond because I don’t know how I feel about it still. I think if I had been in my forties or fifties, I might have tried some of the surgeries, even though 90% (odds) it would just come back worse. But having talked to specialists, I know I’m really lucky I retained anything. It is what it is. My ENT [ears, nose and throat] guy, who I really trust said, “Look, you had a 60-year career full tilt. You made, what, 25 albums, toured nine months a year? That’s an unbelievable amount of vocal use. And the instrument is just not made for that.” I’m really grateful. I think as an artist, you live with a monkey on your back, and the monkey keeps saying, “you’re not doing enough, why aren’t you better? Why aren’t you more? Why aren’t you perfect?” And there is no perfect. This last album I made (2022’s The Light at the End of the Line) was the first time in my entire life I felt I had actually lived up to my talent. So to live long enough, to do that as a writer and a singer, that’s a resolution in and of itself.
It must have helped with that album that you were able to take your time – unlike, as you talk about in the movie, your Aftertones album, which you felt rushed into releasing after “At Seventeen” hit big.
Ian: Yes, Aftertones, bane of my existence. And the fact that (The Light at the End of the Line) got nominated for a Grammy [for best folk album] – I wasn’t even politicking at all – was astonishing. That gave me my tenth nomination. If I look at it that way, it’s an amazing career. And it still is.
And unlike some singer-songwriters who are decidedly more the latter, you truly used your voice to its full power.
Bar-Kar: [to Ian] I love your singing voice.
Ian: I can get away with a half a verse, maybe, but I don’t know what would happen if I tried to sing a full song.
Your song “Stars” has been covered by a lot of artists, including Nina Simone, which is a huge compliment. Did you ever get to spend time with her?
Ian: Old friends. Some people are hard to be friends with. Nina was not easy to be friends with. But worth every second. At the Village Gate she did a 10-minute show, and somebody said to me, “Why do you keep coming to see her?” I said, “I learn more in 10 minutes than 10 hours from anybody else.” That’s how amazing she was. That was the same night she came backstage complaining she missed her mother so much, and my mom was backstage with me, so I blithely said, “Why don’t you come for lunch tomorrow?” My mother said (whispers) “shut up, shut up.” She said, “You got us into this, you’re doing the shopping and you’re hosting.” (Simone) showed up with James Baldwin and they both proceeded to get seriously potted. My ex-husband had to carry Nina to the cab.
Bar-Kar: I highly recommend her autobiography. There’s so much more to her story than what’s in the film.
Ian: It’s out of print right now, but Random House gave me my rights back two weeks ago.
Bar-Kar: Wait two months and buy it.
Ian: You can still download it or download the Grammy-winning audiobook (smiles). I know a lot about song licensing because of (singing and narrating my audiobook). … I just went through a thing. Sony has my admin right now — just because I really like the person in L.A., that’s the only reason (I’m with) Sony, it’s a corporation. The royal British something-or-other wanted to use a song of mine in a textbook. To me, that’s a great compliment. It’s been eight months and they haven’t been able to get an answer. It becomes a ridiculous nightmare. There are a lot of people at corporations who should have nothing to do with music.
Bar-Kar: I heard it used to be different, that it was people who loved music and now it’s more of a business.
Ian: Failed musicians would go into the music industry. And then the suits came in the early ‘80s, late ‘70s, that was the first generation of Harvard Business School graduates. That was why I left CBS in ’83. I looked around and I thought, “This is all lawyers.” And I don’t have a problem with lawyers, but I do have a problem when you start phasing out everybody who cares about music. They made it impossible for the remaining people. They’re so big but they’re so understaffed because they wasted so much money – all that coke that went up the executives’ noses, I think. They always said the singers did it, but it wasn’t the singers as much (as them). We could do an entire Billboard magazine about that.
Opening less than two weeks ago, Becoming Led Zeppelin is already nearing $6 million in international box office gross. In an era where most documentaries head straight to streaming, the rock doc’s box office run – not the mention the fact that it’s playing on IMAX screens – is a small coup. “I must say that feedback from fans is just humbling and inspiring,” lead guitarist Jimmy Page wrote on social media.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
It’s also a source of great pride for co-directors Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty, who were told the film wouldn’t make four bucks by one skeptical studio. According to MacMahon and McGourty, all the major studios except Song Pictures Classics passed on Becoming Led Zeppelin. That’s more than a bit surprising given the legendary band’s cross-generational popularity and the fact that the directors scored extensive interviews with the band’s elusive surviving members. But it’s fitting, too – it wouldn’t be the first time Led Zeppelin faced indifferent (or outright hostile) critics and proved them wrong.
Trending on Billboard
While Zep’s career spans nine albums and 12 years, effectively ending when drummer John Bonham died in 1980, this film focuses on the band’s early days, using interviews, rare archival footage and an unbeatable soundtrack (just try to resist headbanging in the theater) to tell the story of how four British boys from divergent backgrounds created an alchemic mixture of blues, hard rock, R&B and folk that changed the way rock bands played, recorded and toured.
Billboard sat down with co-directors MacMahon and McGourty to learn how they locked in interviews with Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones, why the film stops after Led Zeppelin II and how some of the band’s contemporaries reacted to screenings of the movie.
You both worked together on American Epic, a wildly impressive and comprehensive 2017 documentary about the first recordings of blues, country and folk music in the United States. Did that help you land the surviving members of Led Zeppelin for this documentary? That series is very much their kind of music. Bernard MacMahon: It’s the fundamental reason why this film exists. Allison McGourty: There wouldn’t be Becoming Led Zeppelin without American Epic. MacMahon: Allison had this idea to do American Epic and tell the story of the first blues, gospel, country and Cajun records made in America and the 1920s and ‘30s. So she got a filmmaker friend of hers, Geoff Wonfor, who had done The Beatles Anthology films, to meet with me to persuade me this was a good idea for a movie. We made it under Allison’s leadership, and afterward, I came to her and said, “You know what would be a great follow-up film? When I was 12 years old, I read this little paperback book about Led Zeppelin. It’s long out of print, it was published in the ‘70s, and it’s the early story and it contains all this information that has been lost. It’s not part of the Led Zeppelin lexicon, it’s been replaced by all these tabloid books in the ‘80s written by a bloke who went on tour with them for a week.” This book was by a guy, Howard Mylett, who really had access to them. I read it when I was 12 and I found it inspirational, these four kids from different parts of Britain trying to make their way in music. McGourty: That was unusual. Two were from London, two were from the West Midlands. Normally that would never happen: The Rolling Stones were all from London, the Beatles were all from Liverpool. It’s hard for people from the West Midlands to break into the music scene so it was a bit of a miracle they got together at all. And their own back stories are entirely different. Jimmy Page had the support of his mom; John Paul Jones came from a showbiz family, his mom and dad were vaudeville performances; John Bonham, his parents didn’t mind what he did as long as he looked after his family; and Robert Plant got thrown out because he wouldn’t become an accountant. He became homeless. The part of the film where he talks about being homeless is pretty emotional. And then of course when they did get together, it was still an uphill battle. MacMahon: Peter Grant couldn’t get them a record deal in the U.K. No one got [their music]. People wouldn’t book the band. They had to go to America and did it on their own terms. Vanilla Fudge were the only group that took them under their wing and supported them. How did you manage to land Page, Plant and Jones for sit-down, on-camera interviews about Led Zeppelin? That’s rare.MacMahon: We had done months and months of preparations, including tracking down every interview of John Bonham. A couple people who knew what we were doing said we were absolutely mad (since the band) had said no to every film. But we believed and carried on doing the work. This is a message to the readers: work hard and follow your dreams. There’s nothing special about me – I’m not Francis Ford Coppola’s son, I’m not sitting with a pile of Academy Awards, but we did do this movie, American Epic, that we worked really hard on for 10 years, and we did not take short cuts. That meant when we got to (the band) and they happened to have seen (American Epic), they knew there were no short cuts in that movie — no stone was unturned — and they thought, “Well, they’re gonna apply that to us.” Which we did. It was a five-hour meeting with John Paul Jones, something similar with Robert Plant and Pat Bonham and a seven-hour meeting with Jimmy Page. There’s a lot of stuff about their pre-Zeppelin days in the film that I bet a lot of fans didn’t know. MacMahon: I remember, I said to (Page), “This is the point where you see Robert singing for the first time.” He goes, “What was the name of the group?” “Obs-Tweedle.” He was testing you?MacMahon: Yeah! When we got to the end he said, “This is a great film and we’d be honored to have you make it.” He gave us artistic freedom. They let us make the movie, they did not edit the film. That never happens. (With most) successful groups, they control everything. McGourty: They did come in with additional photographs and recordings that had never been released before. MacMahon: Stuff we’d never seen before. After intending to never do it, when they did agree to do it — and we were honored — they turned up full throttle, in the way Led Zeppelin does on stage. They came with bags of stuff. They came intending to be candid and honest. It’s so emotional watching them is because the additional material made it more emotional. When John Paul Jones is talking about this priest who said, “You can be organist and choir master” to him at 14 years old, I’d been showing him pictures of that church. That church was bulldozed two years after he was there. It’s completely lost to time. So he’s looking at this and remembering this wonderful guy, so the emotions are fresh. You talk about how Led Zeppelin owned the recordings of their first album in the film. They were pretty savvy about their publishing as well. Was there anything about the band’s business strategies, or Grant’s business practices, that you learned in the interviews that didn’t make the film? MacMahon: I wanted to make a film that when I was 13, I would have seen in my local cinema and would want to watch three or four times. What we put in the film was what we thought was useful if you’re a kid starting out. There’s a point where you stop with the minutiae and go, “Maybe for a later day.” What we wanted to get across with big brushstrokes emotionally that would resonate with a kid was that these guys never sat on their hands. Whether they were struggling like Robert Plant and John Bonham in the Midlands, or part of the session music scene like Jimmy and Jonesy were, they were studying every single thing. Jimmy was coming in to do a session and he’s leaning over to see what the engineer is doing, as well as playing his part. And Robert was trying everything. Before Led Zeppelin he was singing with Alexis Korner, the father of the British blues scene. They were putting themselves out there and trying everything. And that’s the message. All the things (people are) being told they need to do now: TikTok, Instagram, you don’t need all that stuff. You just need two or three of you, and ideally as broad of tastes as possible to make it as colorful as possible, and then follow what your gut is telling you to do. But you gotta be out there and you gotta work and you gotta be studying. Let your response with the audience – even if it’s 10 people, then 15 people – inform what you’re doing. But don’t let those people tell you what to do. And that’s the message we as filmmakers found when we were getting to the rough cut. We brought it to every studio and every major studio apart from Sony Pictures Classics was like, “No one will ever watch this movie. Nobody will watch full Led Zeppelin songs in a cinema.”McGourty: Someone told us we wouldn’t get four dollars for this film. We carried on anyway. It paralleled (the story in the film). MacMahon: The Led Zeppelin story was a lesson to us as we were making this film. The film doesn’t get into any of the more salacious rumors about the band. Was that part of the feedback from studios — they wanted more scandal in the film? MacMahon: Some of that, yeah. They thought people would only sit and watch films about debauchery. McGourty: Led Zeppelin became the biggest band in the world because of their music. That’s what people love and what fans want to hear. MacMahon: This film allows you to hear the music in the purest way possible. This (movie features) the original lacquer cut done by Bob Ludwig in ’69. It’s a journey in sound — the exact sound it was meant to have. There’s no compression in the audio on this film. This is huge high peaks and troughs. It’s dynamics, which is what Led Zeppelin traded in. And that’s why audiences are responding to it – they’re getting the pure, high-quality stuff with no compression, no butchering. Were there any archival bits that were painful to cut?MacMahon: Nothing. McGourty: Peter Grant, if he caught someone filming at their gig, he would rip out the film, smash the camera, physically eject them. And they were not doing media. We’ve got every fragment known to exist. MacMahon: I just found out that some clip was (recently) discovered, but fortunately it was a song we already have a mind-boggling performance of in full-color and that (new one) was in black and white. The Beatles did insane amounts of publicity all the time, so there’s an endless supply of photo sessions and TV interviews. Zeppelin is the exact opposite. There’s so little. McGourty: In a way it made the film harder, since you have very little footage to work with, but it forced us to be creative. We’re very inspired by films of the Golden Era, Singin’ in the Rain, Frank Capra. We used lots of techniques from old movies like montage work. You see newspapers, contracts, tickets – we had over 6,000 artifacts digitized. (Everything you see in the film) is the real thing. MacMahon: We screened it for Bob Weir and Taj Mahal, who were kings of the counterculture in the Bay Area. They were there when Zeppelin broke through. Weir went over to me at the end of the film and said, “You know, this is game-changing stuff. Every kid should watch this to see this is what their grandparents did and how they did it. You know what I was thinking as I watched these guys? They reminded me of the John Coltrane trio with a singer. Or Pharoah Sanders with a singer.” That from Bob Weir, that tells you the level of musicianship he’s seeing. Taj Mahal saw it and said – McGourty: “That film re-arranged my molecules.”MacMahon: A guy who has been aware of this group for 55 years has his opinion expanded and changed from his preconceptions of the group.The film concludes after their second album, which I think is wise, as it allows you to really dig into their origin story instead of feeling beholden to tell the whole tale. Was that always the intention when you started this project?MacMahon: Yeah. In the story of Led Zeppelin, as in the story of anything that’s a great achievement, there’s a moment where you come from childhood with nothing, and you land on the moon or climb Everest. This is where the film ends – they’ve landed on the moon, they’re the biggest band on the planet and they finally have recognition in their home country. That is absolutely the conclusion of a two-hour cinematic film.
Earlier this month, Warner Bros. Discovery and Cutting Edge Group announced they were teaming up to launch a joint venture to generate more money from one of the original Hollywood studios’ catalog of 400,000 movie and television songs.
The blockbuster deal — reportedly worth $1 billion — includes the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises, Friends, Game of Thrones, and Succession, to name a few.
This novel arrangment was inspired by WBD’s need to get more out of its most valuable assets as the rise of streaming shakes the fundamental economics underlying modern media businesses. Cutting Edge Group is a nearly 15-year-old company founded by Philip Moross, a former real estate developer who saw an opportunity to acquire, manage and develop music rights from films and TV shows.
Trending on Billboard
Now a three-prong company that also includes studios where partnering artists like Timbaland produce music specifically for Cutting Edge projects in the film, TV or wellness space, Cutting Edge is embarking on its biggest project yet.
Billboard spoke with CEG’s Moross about how the joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery will work, including what Cutting Edge brings to the table and if they other joint ventures between music companies and studios to follow.
What are you aiming to accomplish with this joint venture, and what role will Cutting Edge play do day-to-day?
I put the idea [to WBD] that as we are solely focused on music, we could help make it a larger profit center for them. We are working closely with Warners’s music department … and hope to build a music business within the framework of Warner Bros. Discovery the way that Warner Chappel was in the past. We are a music business. They are a film and television business that incorporates music into their creative process. Our job is to effectively maximize the monetary end of it. But how it’s going to work on a day-to-day basis we are still working out. I will say We have no interest in changing the relationships [Warner Bros. Discovery] has with UMPG and Sony. We’re an independent and we don’t compete with any of them.
This is a massive catalog. How will you manage maximizing its value?
You compartmentalize—pure instrumentals, songs, etc.—and then see what the market wants from each category … and take into account the composers. We understand the composers are the lifeblood of the business. Warner wants to take care of them from a creative point of view.You must balance the economic value of that with the creative process. A composer may not want the main theme to Harry Potter used anywhere else, but the body of the music may be available. On the other hand, the song “Shallow” is a huge song, which is relevant now, that you may be able to get some very big synchs on. We are going to have to work to make sure all parties are involved–because it is not 100% owned by one party and the master is owned by Gaga’s record label. We have the time and inclination to do that whereas Warner is on to the next movie already.
You’ve got 400,000 titles so it’s not going to be quick and easy. If I am advising I’d be saying go for the top 20% that generate 80% of the revenue, but don’t lose sight of the gems in there.
Will Cutting Edge be providing its two cents on films?
We hope to provide input on songs for films in the works. In the core business of Cutting Edge, we’ve done that. We’ve bought catalogs of film rights and suggested to composers … to use the same themes again because creatively it works.
What is so important to Warner Bros. Discovery is maintaining creative integrity. They are never going to tell a director what music to use and what music not to use. … [and] it is not our role to impose any creative ideas. What we hope to do is to suggest [through the Warner Bros. Discovery music department] to the creatives, “If you’re doing Aquaman 3, why don’t you use the same themes from Aquaman 1 and 2 for certain characters?”
Cutting Edge’s Myndstream business does a lot linking music with the wellness industry. Are there opportunities in the wellness space in this catalog?
Absolutely it’s an area of focus for us. We work on [opportunities like these] all the time. There is a Nicholas Britell track called Agape [from the score of If Beale Street Could Talk]. It’s one of the most used tracks on Peloton for their meditation programs. Everything is about the emotional connection and identifying opportunities.
Everyone knows the soundtracks of “Harry Potter” and Friends. But there are music cues in the catalog as well. Can you describe what those are and their potential?
When you are watching a film or television show and you hear the background music, every item of music that sits in that film or television show is a cue. It is the background music that you’ve got right up to the songs. For example, The Rembrandts in Friends — the opening titles can be a cue. It could be the 3 ½ minute version of the Rembrandt song — a full song — or the 1-minute portion of that. That is the cue. The cue that is registered with BMI is earning its revenue from broadcast performance. So when the TV show plays, the network that is paying the royalty will pay the PRO which then pays the publisher, which in this case is our joint venture. We track to make sure nothing is missed.
How much of your day will be devoted to this?
[Cutting Edge’s] operating team will spend the majority of its time on this. It’s certainly the biggest deal that I’ve ever done. It deserves the attention because it is such a big scale.
What kind of return is this JV expected to produce on Warner Bros. catalog?
I can’t give you a number as to how much we will increase revenue.
Tell us about your team.
This is a family affair. My background was in real estate historically; I gave it up in 2010. All three of my kids are in the business; 12 on 12 is run by my daughter Claudia, Freddie runs the MyndStream business, and Tara [Finnegan] runs the bigger picture. Tara has done an exceptional job in this whole process, but we have really navigated together from the beginning. Tim Hegarty and the Cutting Edge M&A team, as well. The deal could not have been done without them.
Do you think more studios will do deals like the one Cutting Edge has done with Warner Bros. Discovery?
I hope so. We are having discussions with various rights owners who are interested in maximizing the value of their music rights either through a sale or a partnership with Cutting Edge. They are driven by different motivations, which include the ability to release equity from ancillary rights that are fully amortized on their balance sheets; or the opportunity to work with Cutting Edge’s team of professionals to help with supervision, exploitation, soundtrack release and marketing.
There should be no major obstacles since we have completed the deal with WBD and proved the value we can add to these types of copyrights. We operate in a very specialist area of the music business and each rights owner has their own specific needs. It takes time to create a bespoke offer to meet these needs, which Cutting Edge is uniquely placed to do.”
Anora appears to be the front-runner to win the Oscar for best picture. On Friday (Feb. 7) the film won the top award at the Critics Choice Awards. On Saturday (Feb. 8) it won the top prizes at both the Directors Guild of America Awards and the Producers Guild of America Awards.
The PGA Awards recognize the year’s best-produced features, documentaries, series and specials, as voted on by the PGA, which has more than 8,400 members. The 36th annual PGA Awards were held at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles.
Since its inception in 1990, the PGA Award for best theatrical motion picture has gone to the subsequent Oscar winner for best picture on all but 10 occasions.
Trending on Billboard
The correlation between the two awards has become even stronger since 2009, when both the PGA and the Academy Awards began using ranked-choice voting (sometimes called a preferential ballot). Since 2009, the PGA winner and the subsequent Oscar winner have agreed in all but three years. The last time the two award bodies diverged was in 2020, when the PGA award went to 1917, but the Oscars favored Parasite.
The PGA expanded the number of nominees for its top award from five to 10 in 2010, the same year the Oscars made a similar expansion.
The Greatest Night in Pop, a Netflix film about the 1985 “We Are the World” recording session, won outstanding producer of televised or streamed motion pictures. The film was nominated for three Primetime Emmys last year, including outstanding documentary or nonfiction special, and was nominated for a Grammy for best music film.
Saturday Night Live, now in its 50th season on NBC, won Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television, a remarkable feat for a show this deep into its run. It beat Ali Wong: Single Lady, The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight With John Oliver and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
The Wild Robot won Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures. It has won in the animated film category at most film awards shows and is considered the front-runner to win the Oscar for best animated feature.
Special awards were also presented to Chris Meledandri (David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures – presented by Steve Carell), Dana Walden (Milestone Award – presented by Bob Iger), Taika Waititi (Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television – presented by Jon Favreau), and Lynda Obst & Paula Weinstein (Trailblazer Award – presented by Jane Fonda and Kate Hudson).
The 2025 Producers Guild Awards event chairs are Mike Farah and Joe Farrell. The 2025 Producers Guild Awards were produced by Anchor Street Collective and written by Lauren Cortizo, Jody Lambert and Matt Oberg for the guild. Branden Chapman served as executive producer, and Carleen Cappelletti was co-executive producer.
Here’s the complete list of 2025 nominees by the Producers Guild of America, with winners marked.
Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures
WINNER: Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
A Real Pain
September 5
The Substance
Wicked
Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
Flow
Inside Out 2
Moana 2
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
WINNER: The Wild Robot
Norman Felton Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Drama
Bad Sisters
The Diplomat
Fallout
WINNER: Shōgun
Slow Horses
Danny Thomas Award for Outstanding Producer of Episodic Television – Comedy
Abbott Elementary
The Bear
Curb Your Enthusiasm
WINNER: Hacks
Only Murders in the Building
David L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Limited or Anthology Series Television
WINNER: Baby Reindeer
FEUD: Capote Vs. The Swans
The Penguin
Ripley
True Detective: Night Country
Outstanding Producer of Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures
Carry On
WINNER: The Greatest Night in Pop
The Killer
Rebel Ridge
Unfrosted
Outstanding Producer of Non-Fiction Television
30 for 30
Conan O’Brien Must Go
The Jinx – Part Two
WINNER: STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces
Welcome to Wrexham
Outstanding Producer of Live Entertainment, Variety, Sketch, Standup & Talk Television
Ali Wong: Single Lady
The Daily Show
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
WINNER: Saturday Night Live
Outstanding Producer of Game & Competition Television
The Amazing Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Top Chef
WINNER: The Traitors
The Voice
The following nominees were previously announced.
Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Picture
Gaucho Gaucho
Mediha
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa
Porcelain War
WINNER: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
We Will Dance Again
Outstanding Children’s Program
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
WINNER: Sesame Street
SpongeBob SquarePants
Outstanding Short-Form Program
The Crown: Farewell To a Royal Epic
Hacks: Bit By Bit
The Penguin: Inside Gotham
Real Time with Bill Maher: Overtime
WINNER: Shōgun – The Making of Shōgun
Outstanding Sports Program
Formula 1: Drive to Survive
Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants
Messi’s World Cup: The Rise of a Legend
WINNER: Simone Biles Rising
Triumph: Jesse Owens and the Berlin Olympics
PGA Innovation Award
Critterz
Emperor
Impulse: Playing with Reality
WINNER: Orbital
The Pirate Queen with Lucy Liu
What If…? – An Immersive Story
Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday (Jan. 31) entered into a joint venture with Cutting Edge Group, an investor and manager of niche media music rights, aimed at generating more revenue from its massive catalog of iconic film and TV songs, including the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings franchises.
Cutting Edge, which works with wellness music for hotel spas and orchestral renditions of pop songs for shows like Bridgerton, will jointly manage the new business, while Warner Bros. Discovery will keep creative and operational control of the catalog. Global asset manager DWS Group co-invested and sponsored the transaction with Cutting Edge.
Warner Bros. Discovery previously explored selling part of its catalog and hired famed entertainment attorney Allen Grubman to shop it for as much as $1 billion. The launch of a company dedicated to exploiting the catalog of more than 400,000 compositions and song cues signals its potential value is even higher.
Trending on Billboard
The catalog spans almost 100 years of copyrights, including music from the DC Comics movies, Rebel Without a Cause, The Exorcist, A Star is Born, Blade Runner and Shawshank Redemption; and hit TV shows like Friends, Game of Thrones, The Big Bang Theory, Two and Half Men, Succession, The White Lotus, The West Wing, ER, Full House, Sex & The City and Gossip Girl.
Warner Bros. Discovery was formed in 2022 through the merger of AT&T’s WarnerMedia Unit and Discovery Inc. Universal Music Publishing Group will continue to administer the works from Warner Brothers, HBO and Turner Networks, while the works from Discovery and Scripps will continue to be administered by Sony Music Publishing.
“This partnership … is the perfect way to expand access to our unparalleled music library while honoring our long history of strong creative oversight and protecting the integrity of the works and artists,” Paul Broucek, Warner Bros. Discovery’s president of music, said in a statement.
Cutting Edge head Philip Moross said the joint venture was the result of years of work.
“This truly is an iconic assembly of catalogs created over almost a century by one of Hollywood’s original studios and to have the opportunity to invest in and manage this JV alongside WBD is an incredibly exciting prospect for us,” Moross said.
Cutting Edge said last year it secured a $500 million credit facility from Fifth Third Bank, Northleaf Capital Partners and other banks.
Timothée Chalamet caused a stir during the red carpet premiere of A Complete Unknown in Paris when he signed a fan’s photo of Australian pop sensation Troye Sivan—as Troye Sivan.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
In a clip shared to social media, the actor, who stars as legendary folk singer Bob Dylan in the film directed by James Mangold, signed a fan’s album of Sivan’s latest album, Something to Give Each Other. The words “Troye Sivan” are then seen scrawled across the cover—prompting laughter and delight among fans on the red carpet.
Sivan wasted no time joining in on the fun, reposting the red carpet moment to his Instagram story, complete with the autographed vinyl in question.
Trending on Billboard
It’s not the first time the star has signed off as Sivan. In a video taken at the Dec. 13 premiere of Wonka, a fan handed Chalamet the album and requested his autograph, as the actor quipped, “That’s not me, though,” to which the fan replied, “That’s basically you.”
With a grin, Chalamet obliged and added, “In some universe…” The red carpet gag comes after Chalamet’s standout portrayal of Sivan in a Saturday Night Live sketch titled “Troye Sivan Sleep Demon,” aired in Nov. 2023.
In the skit, Chalamet donned Sivan’s signature look from the “Get Me Started” music video, complete with blue pants, a white tank top, and red underwear, hilariously describing himself as “an Australian YouTube twink turned indie pop star and model turned HBO actor…being played by an American actor who can’t do an Australian accent.”
The segment became an instant hit, with the Australian pop star taking to social media following the Nov. 11 episode of the NBC comedy series, during which the Wonka star hilariously portrayed Sivan as cast member Sarah Sherman’s sleep paralysis demon.
“WHY IS LIFE SO WEIRDDDDD RN LMAO IM DEAD,” Sivan captioned a snippet of the Saturday Night Live. skit on Instagram.
Meanwhile, Chalamet himself recently became the subject of satire on Saturday Night Live. During a Dec. 2024 episode hosted by Paul Mescal, a sketch lampooned Chalamet’s appearance on the red carpet for A Complete Unknown.
In a sketch during the Dec. 7 episode, hosted by Paul Mescal, SNL cast member Heidi Gardner plays a fictional BuzzFeed reporter on the red carpet for the debut of the Bob Dylan biopic, which stars Chalamet as the legendary folk musician. The sketch opens with Chalamet (played by Chloe Fineman) admitting he had a “Brat summer,” a reference to the Charli XCX-inspired trend.
“Oh, man, it was crazy. Nuts,” Fineman’s Chalamet says.
As the two continue their conversation, Dylan (portrayed by SNL’s James Austin Johnson) strolls up and is asked if he too had a Brat summer. “What?” the iconic musician replies. “A Brat summer,” Gardner’s reporter repeats. “Did you have a Brat summer?” Dylan, clearly thinking about food, mistakes the question, thinking he’s being asked about bratwurst.
A Complete Unknown, which hit theaters on Christmas Day, also stars Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro and Edward Norton. The biographical drama is inspired by Elijah Wald’s 2015 book Dylan Goes Electric, and focuses on Dylan’s early career in the 1960s, culminating in his controversial performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festiva.
Director James Mangold revealed that Dylan himself gave feedback on the script, while Chalamet performed all the songs live during filming, rather than using pre-recorded tracks. This decision was made after Mangold was impressed by the actor’s live performance of “Song to Woody” early in the production. In total, Chalamet sang about 40 songs for the film.
Fans first spotted Chalamet filming in New York earlier this year. Mangold confirmed that Chalamet will do his own singing in the film, and to prepare, the actor sifted through 12 hours of unreleased Dylan tracks sent to him by the musician’s longtime manager and producer Jeff Rosen.
The Chemical Brothers’ music has been loved by the cinema and video games since the beginning, when in 1995 “Chemical Beats” ended up in the soundtrack of the PlayStation game Wipeout. The latest such appearance is in the film Sonic the Hedgehog 3, where “Galvanize” sounds perfect in a scene with Jim Carrey dancing among laser beams. Tom Rowlands has already worked on commission for some directors such as Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan and Joe Wright for a theatrical production and for the film Hanna, in the latter case paired with Ed Simons (the other half of the Chemical Brothers).
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
But this new adventure was really a challenge. With the usual English irony Tom defined “an act of intimidation” the request of director Joe Wright to score the new Sky Original series Mussolini: Son of the Century, based on the novel M. Son of the Century by Antonio Scurati, which was recently released in Italy. The series tells the story of the birth of fascism in Italy and the rise to power of Benito Mussolini. The challenge was won, because the Chemical Brothers-style tracks perfectly amplify the emotional and sometimes tragic scenes.
Trending on Billboard
Working with Joe Wright seems to have become a regular occurrence.
True! Ed and I worked together on his film Hanna and then I composed the background music for Joe’s adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s famous play Life of Galileo, an experience I really enjoyed. I like working with Joe: I still remember him when he followed us on our first important tours, all three of us were kids… Suddenly one day he sent me M., Antonio Scurati’s book. I was hooked from the first pages, it’s a fantastic book! I studied history at university and I immediately realized that Joe’s gesture of offering me this reading was a real challenge, because M. is not only a long book but above all dense and profound. Plus, I’ve always been attracted by the history of that period.
So was it easier for you to feel involved in the project?
Yes, but I could also say that making me read M. was also a sort of intimidating act. First of all because I have never worked on a text that deals with a specific historical event, then because the rise of fascism and the figure of Mussolini are certainly not easy historical topics to deal with. Composing this soundtrack was a serious task. I was very excited at the idea of taking on a challenge so different from my previous ones, and for a project that started from such a powerful book.
The compositions you created for the series are very precise in commenting on the scenes in which they are inserted. Did you start working on the sound even before shooting?
That’s right: Joe Wright and I started talking about ideas and musical themes with just the script in hand. It was a long process of ideas, plus I was interacting with a person who is also a true friend in addition to being a great talent. I tried to give shape to his ideas, because this series is the fruit of his vision.
The soundtrack has very rhythmic sound comments – Chemical Brothers style – and not many melodies.
There are melodies! But they are a bit convoluted, they are never obvious. The main theme is all based on a precise and constant rhythm.
The theme is close to the sound of fascist marches but also takes up the ideas of futurism.
Of course, Joe and I discussed the difference and the relationship between noise and music, which was a theme dear to the futurists. I certainly would never have associated a “floral” sound movement with the advent of fascism!
You stated that part of the soundtrack was made by making old acoustic instruments interact with modern electronics.
Right. I developed a system in my studio where I can have total control of all the information I receive by making my technology interact with traditional instruments such as strings and piano. What we were describing musically was a certain past that really happened. When I met Antonio Scurati he was absolutely in agreement with this creative process, as well as the fact that for (this series) all modern electronics were used to tell not an imaginary world but historical facts, the songs often comment on words taken from real speeches by Mussolini.
The tracks are sometimes very short sound comments. Was it difficult to work on them?
Yes, that was also a real challenge. But that’s why I like working on soundtracks: it’s a very different process. I’m also intrigued by being able to comment on the change of emotions during a scene: you can easily go from a sense of calm to one of terror in a few moments, whereas in a song you often try to create only one type of emotion or feeling.
The impression is that in the second part of the series the music becomes increasingly dramatic, as the historical events do.
I tried to musically describe a very complex historical period where a leader conquers the people – part of the population also found Mussolini a funny man – and then comes to total control of the Italian state after the killing of the MP Giacomo Matteotti. I also tried to convey the director’s and writer’s vision: I hope I did it coherently with that.
What do you think of the Oasis reunion?
I’ll be honest: it’s crazy! My kids and their friends are really desperate to get a ticket because that’s a generation that has never seen the Gallagher brothers on stage together. I’ve known Liam and Noel for years, I’ve been to their concerts many times and it’s always been great to be there, but this time the level of hysteria reached to get a ticket here in Great Britain is truly incredible. Speaking of people from Manchester, my kids would love to see The Smiths reunite too!
Which Oasis albums do you like the most?
Whatever age you are, even just 17, Definitely Maybe is still an incredible album: listening to it is as if the songs were speaking directly to you. I’m sure that this effect is triggered also in the new generations. But the second album is not bad either. They are their two masterpieces.
Will we hear new Chemical Brothers music anytime soon?
It’s too early. Ed and I have to take our time, as always. When we release music, we want to make sure it’s music we really love! We’ve never limited ourselves to putting out productions just for the sake of it. And that’s still true today.
Country Music Hall of Famer Reba McEntire is set to star in and co-produce the upcoming film The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion, an adaptation of the 2013 novel of the same name by Fannie Flagg, Deadline reports. The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion follows an Alabama family whose legacy and bonds are tested when […]
Well, that was fast. Wicked has been making box-office history since it opened on Nov. 22. The long-awaited film adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical has already grossed $372.9 million worldwide, a total topped by only three other films that were based on Broadway musicals.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo star in the film, which was directed by Jon M. Chu, whose hit-studded résumé includes a previous film adaptation of a Broadway musical, the 2021 movie version of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s breakout hit In the Heights.
Seven film adaptations of Broadway musicals appear on Box Office Mojo’s list of the top 1,000 films in terms of lifetime worldwide grosses. That counts Mamma Mia!, a film adaptation of the 2001 stage musical built around ABBA music, but not its Cher-featuring sequel Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, on the grounds that the latter was really just a sequel to a hit movie, not a Broadway musical. (The sequel did astonishingly well, with a worldwide gross of $395.6 million.) Of course, not all sequels are guaranteed to become box-office successes. Grease is here, but its 1982 sequel, Grease 2, which grossed just $15 million worldwide, didn’t come close. (Michelle Pfeiffer, the star of Grease 2, is represented on this list with Hairspray.)
Wicked Part Two is due for release on Nov. 21, 2025. Will it follow its predecessor to box-office glory? If it does, Chu will join Rob Marshall as the only director with two films on this list; Marshall directed both Chicago and Into the Woods.
One disclaimer about this list right at the top: You can’t really compare box-office grosses of films from different eras. The biggest blockbusters of earlier eras simply can’t match the grosses of today’s hits. (It’s not just your imagination that ticket prices are much higher than they used to be.) The Sound of Music has grossed $159.5 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo – not enough to make their list of 1,000 top-grossing films. But that 1965 adaptation of the 1959 Broadway musical is one of the biggest hits in film history.
Other film adaptations of Broadway musicals that have grossed more than $50 million worldwide, but not enough to make the list, include Dreamgirls ($155.5 million), the 2021 version of West Side Story ($76 million), My Fair Lady ($72.7 million) and Funny Girl ($52.2 million).
Here are the seven top-grossing film adaptations of Broadway musicals. All appear Box Office Mojo’s list of the top 1,000 films in terms of lifetime worldwide grosses.
Hairspray
Image Credit: ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection
Netflix’s Emilia Pérez and composer Hans Zimmer each received three awards at the 15th annual Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA), which were held on Wednesday (Nov. 20) at The Avalon in Hollywood, CA. The HMMA honors composers, songwriters and music supervisors for their contributions over the previous year in music for film, TV, video games and more.
Emilia Pérez won for music-themed film, biopic or musical and also song – onscreen performance (film) by Zoe Saldana, who performed “El Mal.” The film’s French composers and songwriters Clément Ducol & Camille also won for score – feature film.
Zimmer received three HMMAs, the most awarded this year to any one individual. He won for score – sci-fi/fantasy film for Dune: Part Two; for his score to the documentary TV series Planet Earth III, which he composed with Jacob Shea and Sara Barone; and for song – TV show/limited series for “Love Will Survive” from The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which he cowrote with Kara Talve, Walter Afanasieff and Charlie Midnight. Barbra Streisand performed the song.
Trending on Billboard
Universal Pictures’ animated film, The Wild Robot, and legendary lyricist Bernie Taupin each received two awards.
The Wild Robot received top accolades in two animated film categories, for its score composed by Kris Bowers and its original song “Kiss the Sky,” performed by Maren Morris, who co-wrote it with Ali Tamposi, Michael Pollack, Delacey, Jordan Johnson, and Stefan Johnson.
Taupin received the HMMA Outstanding Career Achievement Award. In addition, he shared the award for song – documentary film for “Never Too Late” from the Disney+ documentary Elton John: Never Too Late. John and Brandi Carlile both co-wrote and performed the song, and collaborated with additional co-writers Taupin and Andrew Watt.
Diane Warren won this year’s HMMA for song – feature film for “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight, which was performed by H.E.R. If the song is nominated for an Oscar, it will be Warren’s 16thnomination for best original song, and her eighth year in a row with a nomination.
Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li, and Andrew Wyatt won for song – independent film for “Beautiful That Way from The Last Showgirl. Cyrus also performed the track.
The HMMA Awards were held nearly a month before the Oscars are set to announce their shortlists of 15 original songs and 20 original scores on Dec. 17. Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 17. The annual HMMA nominations and awards are our real first peek inside what may be vying for music awards at other awards shows in coming weeks.
Here are the 2024 HMMA nominations in film categories, with winners marked, followed by a listing of other award winners.
Song – feature film
“Winter Coat” from Blitz – Written by Nicholas Britell, Taura Stinson, and Steve McQueen. Performed by Saoirse Ronan.
“Compress/Repress” from Challengers – Written by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Luca Guadagnino. Performed by Mariqueen Maandig Reznor.
“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez – Written by Clément Ducol, Camille, and Jacques Audiard. Performed by Zoe Saldana.
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez – Written by Clément Ducol and Camille. Performed by Selena Gomez and Édgar Ramírez.
“Forbidden Road” from Better Man – Written and performed by Robbie Williams.
“Periyone” from The Goat Life – Written by A.R. Rahman and Rafiq Ahamed. Performed by Jithin Raj.
“The Idea of You” from The Idea of You – Written by Savan Kotecha, Albin Nedler and Carl Falk. Performed by Galitzine and Anne-Marie.
WINNER: “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight – Written by Diane Warren. Performed by H.E.R.
“Out of Oklahoma” from Twisters – Written by Luke Dick, Shane McAnally, and Lainey Wilson. Performed by Lainey Wilson.
Song – animated film
“Double Life” from Despicable Me 4 – Written and performed by Pharrell Williams.
“Beyond” from Moana 2 – Written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear. Performed by Auli’i Cravalho.
“Can I Get a Chee Hoo?” from Moana 2 – Written by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear. Performed by Dwayne Johnson.
WINNER: “Kiss the Sky” from The Wild Robot – Written by Maren Morris, Ali Tamposi, Michael Pollack, Delacey, Jordan Johnson, and Stefan Johnson. Performed by Maren Morris.
“Just as You Are” from Thelma the Unicorn – Written by Taura Stinson, Darien Dorsey, and Brittany Howard. Performed by Brittany Howard.
Song – documentary film
“Pain Has a Purpose” from Americans With No Address – Written by Cindy Morgan and Jonathan Kingham. Performed by Rachael Lampa.
WINNER: “Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late – Written by Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Bernie Taupin and Andrew Watt. Performed by Elton John and Brandi Carlile.
“Mis Cuatro Letras” from Night Is Not Eternal – Written and performed by San Miguel Pérez and Chad Cannon.
“Piece by Piece” from Piece by Piece – Written by Pharrell Williams. Performed by Pharrell Williams, and Princess Anne High School Fabulous Marching Cavaliers.
“Growing Up Is for Losers” from Red Herring – Written and performed by Xav Clarke.
“Harper and Will Go West” from Will & Harper – Written by Sean Douglas, Kristen Wiig, and Josh Greenbaum. Performed by Kristen Wiig.
Song – independent film
“Wi Sabi Wi” from African Giants – Written by Justin Schornstein. Performed by Malik Mayne, Patrick Dillon Curry, and Justin Schornstein.
“City of Dreams” from City of Dreams – Written by Linda Perry. Performed by Luis Fonsi.
“Hold on to the Dream” from Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End. Written by Arli Liberman and Tiki Taane. Performed by Arli Liberman, Tiki Taane, and Louis Baker.
“Right Where He Ought To Be” from Kim Kahana: The Man Who Changed Hollywood – Written by Richard Lynch and Kenny Day. Performed by Richard Lynch.
“The Creatures of Nature” from Sasquatch Sunset – Written by Toto Miranda, Yvonne Lambert and Josh Lambert. Performed by Riley Keough.
WINNER: “Beautiful That Way” from The Last Showgirl – Written by Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li, and Andrew Wyatt. Performed by Miley Cyrus.
Song – onscreen performance
Cynthia Erivo – “Defying Gravity” from Wicked
Nicholas Galitzine and Anne-Marie – “The Idea of You” from The Idea of You
Saoirse Ronan – “Winter Coat” from Blitz
Timothée Chalamet – “Blowin’ in the Wind” from A Complete Unknown
WINNER: Zoe Saldana – “El Mal” from Emilia Pérez
Score – feature film
Blitz – Hans Zimmer
Challengers – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Conclave – Volker Bertelmann
WINNER: Emilia Pérez – Clément Ducol and Camille
Gladiator II – Harry Gregson-Williams
Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 – John Debney
Saturday Night – Jon Batiste
The Six Triple Eight – Aaron Zigman
Score – sci-fi/fantasy
Deadpool & Wolverine – Rob Simonsen
WINNER: Dune: Part Two – Hans Zimmer
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – Tom Holkenborg
If – Michael Giacchino
Red One – Henry Jackman
Score – independent film (foreign language)
Girl You Know It’s True – Segun Akinola
Ka Whawhai Tonu- Struggle Without End – Arli Liberman, Tiki Taane
Mongrels – Hao-Ting Shih, Tae-Young Yu
The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Karzan Mahmood
The Shadow of the Sun – Sandro Morales-Santoro
WINNER: The Goat Life – A.R. Rahman
Score – independent film
African Giants – Justin Schornstein
In the Land of Saints and Sinners – Diego Baldenweg
Sasquatch Sunset – The Octopus Project
September 5 – Lorenz Dangel
WINNER: The Room Next Door – Alberto Iglesias
Thelma – Nick Chuba
Score – horror/thriller film
A Quiet Place: Day One – Alexis Grapsas
Here After – Fabrizio Mancinelli
Longlegs – Zilgi
WINNER: Nosferatu – Robin Carolan
Speak No Evil – Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans
The Substance – Raffertie
Score – animated film
Dragonkeeper – Arturo Cardelús
Out 2 – Andrea Datzman
That Christmas – John Powell
WINNER: The Wild Robot – Kris Bowers
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – Lorne Balfe and Julian Nott
Score – documentary
Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge – Allyson Newman
Endurance – Daniel Pemberton
Frida – Víctor Hernández Stumpfhauser
Jim Henson Idea Man – David Fleming
October H8te – Sharon Farber
WINNER: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story – Ilan Eshkeri
The Donn of Tiki – Holly Amber Church
WILL & HARPER – Nathan Halpern
Music-themed film, biopic or musical
A Complete Unknown
Back to Black
Better Man
Bob Marley: One Love
WINNER: Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard. Prodcued by Jacques Audiard, Pascal Caucheteux, Valerie Schermann, Anthony Vaccarello
Wicked
Music documentary / special program
Elton John: Never Too Late
I Am: Celine Dion
Music by John Williams
One to One: John and Yoko
WINNER: Piece By Piece, directed by Morgan Neville. Produced by Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers, Mimi Valdes, Joshua R. Wexler, Pharrell Williams.
The Greatest Night in Pop
Music supervision – film
WINNER: Dave Jordan – Deadpool & Wolverine
Frankie Pine – The Idea of You
LaMarcus Miller and Livy Rodriguez-Behar – Jim Henson Idea Man
Steven Gizicki – A Complete Unknown
Rachel Levy – Twisters
Susan Jacobs and Jackie Mulhearn – Out of My Mind
Here are more winners from the evening:
Song – TV show/limited series: “Love Will Survive” from The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Written by Hans Zimmer, Kara Talve, Walter Afanasieff, and Charlie Midnight. Performed by Barbra Streisand.
Score – TV show/limited series: Shōgun – Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross, and Nick Chuba
Song – onscreen performance (TV): Ashley Park – “Ruins” from Emily in Paris
Main title – TV show/limited series: Masters of the Air – Blake Neely
Score – short film (live action): Spaceman – Spencer Creaghan & Chris Reineck
Score – short film (animated): Fly Hard – Daniel Rojas
Score – short film (documentary): Motorcycle Mary – Katya Richardson
Score – documentary series -TV/ digital: Planet Earth III – Hans Zimmer, Jacob Shea and Sara Barone
Score – TV show/limited series (foreign language): Women in Blue (Las Azules) – Lucas Vidal
Score – video game (console & PC): Delta Force – Johan Söderqvist and Zio
Song – video game (console & PC): “The People’s Cry (Main Theme)” from Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Written by Pinar Toprak and Paul R Frommer.
Song/score – mobile video game: Honor of Kings – Volker Bertelmann, Matthew Carl Earl, Laurent Courbier, Robbie Say, 2WEI, Zeneth, Henrik Lindström, Martin Landström and Rasmus Faber
Music supervision – TV show/limited series: Fallout – Trygge Toven
Music supervision – video game: Honor Of Kings – Jing Zhang, Shuqin Xiao, Corey Huang, Peiyue Lu and Samuel Siu
Song/score – commercial advertisement: Ram “The Convoy” – Emily Bjorke / In The Groove Music
Soundtrack album: Deadpool & Wolverine – Hollywood Records
Song – short film: “No Wahala” from Alkebulan II. Written by Matt B, Buguma Mark, Performed by Matt B and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Score – TV/streamed movie: The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat – Kathryn Bostic
Music design – trailer: American Horror Story – Delicate Part 2 – Fjøra X Nocturn
Main title – tv show (foreign language): Hotel Beyrouth – Suad Bushnaq
Music video: Lainey Wilson – “Out of Oklahoma”
Live concert for visual media: Olivia Rodrigo: Guts World Tour – Olivia Rodrigo
Exhibitions, theme parks, special projects: Braveship: The Live Symphonic Spectacular – Matt Cook (Composer, Producer), Dan Merceruio (Producer), Leslie Ann Jones (Recording Engineer, Mixing Engineer), Mirusia (Soprano).
Special recognition – New Media
Special recognition: Bullet Symphony – Live Coding for Everyone – Yang Zhang
For the complete list, visit: https://www.hmmawards.com/2024-hmma-nominations/