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Wicked: For Good is the top nominee for the 2025 Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA). The sequel to the 2024 blockbuster Wicked received six nominations, followed by Sinners with five, and F1 and The Ballad Of Wallis Island with four each. The HMMA honors composers, songwriters and music supervisors for their contributions in music for film, TV, video games and more.
The nominees for song – feature film include two songs each from F1, Sinners and Wicked: For Good and one song from Avatar: Fire and Ash. Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt and Simon Franglen co-wrote the nominated song from the latter film, “Dream As One.”
The nominees for score – feature film are Alexandre Desplat (Frankenstein), Daniel Lopatin (Marty Supreme), Hans Zimmer (F1), Jerskin Fendrix (Bugonia), John Powell (Wicked: For Good), Jonny Greenwood (One Battle After Another), Ludwig Göransson (Sinners), Max Richter (Hamnet), Pancho Burgos-Goizueta (The Unbreakable Boy) and Volker Bertelmann (A House of Dynamite).
The nominees for soundtrack album are F1, Karma: The Dark World, Kpop Demon Hunters, Sinners, Wicked: For Good and World Of Warcraft: Undermine(D).
Other nominated composers and songwriters include Michael Giacchino, Nine Inch Nails, Stephen Schwartz, Laura Karpman, Son Lux, Daniel Pemberton, Pancho Burgos-Goizueta, Jeff Beal, Tom Howe, Aaron Zigman, Stephanie Economou and Gordy Haab.
The 16th annual HMMAs will be held on Nov. 19 at The Avalon in Hollywood, California. The show will include performances by A.R. Rahman, Diane Warren and Kesha, Aiyana-Lee, Jeff Beal and Afghan pop star Aryana Sayeed, with more to be announced.
For the first time, the ceremony will be livestreamed globally via the Laurel Canyon Live app beginning at 8 p.m, PT. The livestream has been priced at $6.99 (USD). (The Laurel Canyon Live app itself is free to download on all major services.) John Ross, president & founder of Laurel Canyon Live, will serve as a producer of the livestream broadcast.
Tickets to attend the HMMA are on sale now at TicketTailor.com.
For awards consideration, score entries submit up to 15 minutes of score to picture as it appears in the visual media project. Several films were only available to see in the context of the scenes provided.
Here’s the full list of 2025 Hollywood Music in Media nominees.
Song – Feature Film
“Dream as One” from Avatar: Fire and Ash. Written by Miley Cyrus, Mark Ronson, Simon Franglen and Andrew Wyatt. Performed by Miley Cyrus
“Drive” from F1. Written by Ed Sheeran, Blake Slatkin and John Mayer. Performed by Ed Sheeran.
“Lose My Mind” From F1. Written by Don Toliver, Doja Cat, Hans Zimmer, Ryan Tedder and Grant Boutin. Performed by Don Toliver, Doja Cat
“Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” From Sinners. Written by Alice Smith, Miles Canton and Ludwig Göransson. Performed by Miles Canton and Alice Smith.
“I Lied to You” From Sinners. Written by Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson. Performed by Miles Caton.
“No Place Like Home” from Wicked: For Good. Written by Stephen Schwartz. Performed by Cynthia Erivo
“The Girl in the Bubble” From Wicked: For Good. Written by Stephen Schwartz. Performed by Ariana Grande
Song – Independent Film
“Highest 2 Lowest” from Highest 2 Lowest. Written by Aiyanna-Lee Anderson and Nicole Daciana Anderson. Performed By Aiyanna-Lee
“Learn to Let Go” from Everything To Me. Written by Stephanie Economou, Maggie Mcclure, Chloé Caroline Fellows, and Jon Monroe. Performed by Maggie Mcclure, Chloé Caroline, Stephanie Economou.
“My San Francisco” from Plainclothes. Written and Performed by Emily Wells
“Time Is All We Have” from Momo. Written by Fil Eisler and Sam Ryder. Performed By Sam Ryder.
“We Believe in Hope” from Rule Breakers. Written by Jeff Beal, Joan Beal and Aryana Sayeed. Performed by Aryana Sayeed & The Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
Song – Documentary Film
“Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless. Performed by Kesha And Diane Warren.
“Dying To Live” from Billy Idol Should Be Dead. Written by Billy Idol, J. Ralph, Steve Stevens, Tommy English, Joe Janiak. Performed by Billy Idol and J. Ralph.
“Have You Seen My Light” from October 8. Written and Produced by Autumn Rowe and Kizzo
“Milagros” from Karol G: Tomorrow Was Beautiful. Written by Carolina Giraldo Navarro, Edgar Barrera, Kevyn Mauricio Cruz, Lenin Yorney Palacios. Performed by Karol G.
“Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” from Come See Me in the Good Light. Written by Sara Bareilles, Andrea Gibson and Brandi Carlile. Performed by Sara Bareilles and Brandi Carlile
Song – Animated Film
“Best Time Ever” from Snoopy Presents: A Summer Musical. Written by Alan Zachary, Michael Weiner and Jeff Morrow. Performed by Cast.
“Golden” brom Kpop Demon Hunters. Written by Ejae, Mark Sonnenblick, Joong Gyu Kwak, Yu Han Lee, Hee Dong Nam, Jeong Hoon Seo, Park Hong Jun. Performed by Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami.
“Gooflife” From The Bad Guys 2. Written by Daniel Pemberton, Gary Go and Sanele David Sydow. Performed by Rag’n’bone Man & Wizthemc.
“Kaleidoscope” from Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie. Written by Joseph Chase Atkins. Performed by Tehillah Alphonso and Cast.
“Open the Door” From The Twits. Written and Performed by David Byrne & Hayley Williams.
“Zoo” From Zootopia 2. Written by Ed Sheeran & Blake Slatkin and Shakira. Performed by Shakira.
Song – Onscreen Performance (Film)
Aiyanna-Lee – “Highest 2 Lowest” from Highest 2 Lowest
Bono – “Sunday Bloody Sunday” from Bono: Stories Of Surrender
Ejae, Rei Ami, Audrey Nuna (Aka Huntr/X) – “Golden” from Kpop Demon Hunters
Miles Caton – “I Lied To You” from Sinners
Tom Basden & Carey Mulligan – “Our Love” from The Ballad Of Wallis Island
Score – Animated Film
Arnaud Toulon – Arco
Daniel Pemberton – The Bad Guys 2
Nick Urata – Stitch Head
Stephanie Economou – Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie
Tom Howe – Dog Man
Score – Feature Film
Alexandre Desplat – Frankenstein
Daniel Lopatin – Marty Supreme
Hans Zimmer – F1
Jerskin Fendrix – Bugonia
John Powell – Wicked: For Good
Jonny Greenwood – One Battle After Another)
Ludwig Göransson – Sinners
Max Richter – Hamnet
Pancho Burgos-Goizueta – The Unbreakable Boy
Volker Bertelmann – A House Of Dynamite
Score – SciFi/Fantasy Film
Alexandre Desplat – Jurassic World Rebirth
Fil Eisler – Momo
Gordy Haab – Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force
Laura Karpman – Captain America: Brave New World
Michael Giacchino – The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Nine Inch Nails – Tron: Ares
Simon Franglen – Avatar: Fire and Ash
Son Lux – Thunderbolts*
Score – Horror/Thiller Film
Atticus Derrickson – Black Phone 2
Benjamin Wallfisch – Wolf Man
Cornel Wilczek – Bring Her Back
Holly Amber Church – The Other
Jay Wadley – Heart Eyes
Michael Yezerski – Dangerous Animals
Score – Independent Film
Aaron Zigman – Truth & Treason
Adem Ilhan – The Ballad of Wallis Island
Jeff Beal – Rule Breakers
Jónsi And Alex Somers – Rental Family
Lucrecia Dalt – Rabbit Trap
Steve Gernes – Wet Paper Bag
Score – Documentary
Allyson Newman – Arrest the Midwife
Anne Nikitin – Pangolin – Kulu’s Journey
Christian Lundberg – Why We Dream
Lolita Ritmanis – An American Miracle
Paul Leonard-Morgan – The Last Dive
Tyler Strickland – John Candy: I Like Me
Music Themed Film or Musical
Song Sung Blue – Craig Brewer (Director)
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere – Scott Cooper (Director)
The Ballad of Wallis Island – James Griffiths (Director)
Wicked: For Good – Jon M. Chu (Director)
Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires – Paul Hoen (Director)
Music Documentary – Special Program
Billy Idol Should Be Dead – Jonas Åkerlund (Director)
Bono: Stories of Surrender – Andrew Dominik (Director)
Diane Warren: Relentless – Bess Kargman (Director)
I Was Born This Way – Daniel Junge & Sam Pollard (Directors)
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley – Amy Berg (Director)
Selena Y Los Dinos – Isabel Castro (Director)
Song – TV Show/Limited Series
“Afterlife” from Devil May Cry. Written by Amy Lee and Alex Seaver. Performed by Evanescence.
“At Dawn I Look for You” from Étoile. Written by Loral Raphael and Ronnel Raphael. Performed by Sons Of Raphael
“Give It a Good Try” from Unconventional. Written by Craig Richey. Performed by Craig Richey feat. Aubrey Shea.
“Rosebud” from Woman Of The Dead (Season 2). Written By Vera Marie Weber & Caleb Veazey. Performed By Vera Weberb
“The Dead Dance” from Wednesday. Written by Lady Gaga and Andrew Watt. Performed By Lady Gaga.
“The Line” from Arcane. Written by Tyler Joseph. Performed by Twenty One Pilots.
“Turned to Black” from Black Rabbit. Written by Albert Hammond Jr. & Sarah Holt. Performed by The Black Rabbits (Albert Hammond Jr & Jude Law)
“Wolf Song” from Landman. Written and Performed by Andrew Lockington
Score – TV Show/Limited Series
Aaron May & David Ridley – Adolescence
Antonio Sánchez – The Studio
Brandon Roberts & Nicholas Britell – Andor
Chris Bacon – Wednesday
David Fleming – The Last Of Us (Season 2)
Dominic Lewis – Your Friends & Neighbors
Andrew Lockington – Landman
Natalie Holt – Chad Powers
The Gregson-Williams Brothers – The Gilded Age (Season 3)
Theodore Shapiro – Severance
Song – Onscreen Performance – TV Show/Limited Series
Kenzi Richardson – “Force of Nature” (Vampirina: Teenage Vampire)
Nikhil Koparkar – “The Hills of Tanchico” (The Wheel Of Time)
Lumi Pollack, Carmen Sanchez, Ruby Marino – “The Lies We Tell Our Hearts” (Electric Bloom)
Mark Sonnenblick – “Drugs in My Booty” (Harlem Season 3)
Kevin Bacon – “Our Highway” (The Bondsman Season 1)
Main Title – TV Show/Limited Series
Chief Of War – Hans Zimmer, James Everingham and Kaumakaiwa Kanakaʻole
Étoile – Sons of Raphael
Government Cheese – Pharrell Williams
Outlander: Blood of My Blood – Bear McCreary
Your Friends & Neighbors – Dominic Lewis and Hamilton Leithauser
Score – Short Film (Live Action)
Alexander Bornstein – The Lord of All Future Space and Time
Carl Thiel – El Lazo De Petra
Finlay White – Gesualdo
Forrest Gray – Everything Must Go
Kyle Simpson – How to Drag a Body
Score – Short Film (Animated)
Hayden Thompson and Miranda Tan – Love & Gold Soundtrack
Obadiah Brown-Beach, Bastien Rousset, Henrik Lindström, 2wei, Ruben K, Georg Mausolf, Sigurd Jøhnk-Jensen and Nicholas Horsten – Honor Of Kings – Kong Kong’er Champion Cinematic Short
Qing Madi – Valorant
Raashi Kulkarni – Wednesdays With Gramps
Sam Rothera – All Hail the Duck King
Score – Short Film (Documentary)
Alexander Leeming Froudakis & Manuela Lubrano – Stone Biter
Benjamin Westphalen – A Dream Called Khushi (Happiness)
Juan Carlos Enriquez – La Mar
Katya Richardson – Love, Chinatown
Michał Drabczyk – The Light of Immortality
Oscar Pan – Cindy Tran: From Here to Here
Score – Independent Film (Foreign Language)
Emiliano Mazzenga – Catane
Fabrizio Mancinelli – Out of the Nest
Karl Sölve Steven & Rob Thorne – Mārama
Mina Samy – Happy Birthday
Toni M. Mir – Dreaming of Lions
Score – Documentary Series -TV/Digital
Duncan Thum & David Bertok – Chef’s Table: Legends
Hans Zimmer, Kara Talve and Anže Rozman – The Americas
Jasha Klebe – American Manhunt: Osama Bin Laden
John Dragonetti – Turning Point: The Vietnam War
Nainita Desai – Secrets of the Penguins
Score – TV Show/Limited Series (Foreign Language)
Ariel Blumenthal, Gal Lev – Red Alert
Arturo Cardelús – Terra Alta
Guillaume Roussel – Carême
Sandrine Rudaz – On the High Seas
Suad Bushnaq – Al Batal (The Hero)
Score – Video Game (Console & PC)
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach – Ludvig Forssell
Dune: Awakening – Knut Avenstroup Haugen
Fallen Aces: Episode 1 – Josh Barron
Ghost Of Yōtei – Toma Otowa
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – Gordy Haab
League of Legends: Welcome to Noxus – League of Legends (Bill Hemstapat, Sebastien Najand, Alex Seaver, J.D. Spears, Alexander Temple, Richard Thomson, Seth Tsui, Gong Ao, Merlin Cen)
Mafia: the Old Country – Bt (Brian Transeau)
Spirit of the North 2 – Pav Gekko
Sword of the Sea – Austin Wintory
The Rogue Prince of Persia – Asadi (Danny Asadi)
Song – Video Game (Console & PC)
“Against the Tide” from Wuthering Waves. Written by Obadiah Brown-Beach. Performed by Forts And Obadiah Brown-Beach
“Coral Crown” from Hades II: Original Soundtrack. Written by Darren Korb. Performed by Scylla and the Sirens.
“Footsteps” from Rue Valley. Written and Performed By Ana Krstajić
“Rivals ‘Til The End” from Marvel Rivals. Written by Danny Koo, Marbling, Netease Sound, Masahiro Aoki, H.K.H. Vocals By Chrissy Costanza.
“The Rogue Prince of Persia” from The Rogue Prince Of Persia. Written and Performed by Asadi (Daniel Asadi) and Xye.
“When The Sun Is Low” From Dune: Awakening. Written by Knut Avenstroup Haugen. Performed by Clara Sorace, The Chamber Orchestra of London, Børre Flyen and Knut Avenstroup Haugen.
Song/Score – Mobile Video Game
Afk Journey – Alec Justice
Delta Force – Delta Force Music Team
Honor Of Kings – Matthew Carl Earl, Laurent Courbier, and Others
Identity V-Gambler In The Spotlight – Zhang Guanglei & Wang Jingfei
Valorant – Bbno$
Music Supervision – TV Show/Limited Series
George Drakoulias – Severance
Jen Malone & Nicole Weisberg – Wednesday
Manish Raval, Tom Wolfe, Jonathan Leahy – Nobody Wants This
Melyssa Hardwick – The Summer I Turned Pretty
Nora Felder – Yellowjackets (Season 3)
Robin Urdang – Étoile
Sean Fernald – Dexter: Resurrection
Music Supervision – Film
Ashley Neumeister – Ruth & Boaz
Dominick Amendum – Wicked: For Good
Gary Welch – The Ballad Of Wallis Island
Jemma Burns – Christy
Mike Turner & Jonathan Lane – Winter Spring Summer Or Fall
Nick Angel – Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Music Supervision – Video Game
Bénédicte Ouimet & Jérôme Angelot – Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Benjamin Beladi – The Sandbox – 2025 Seasons (5 & 6)
Jonny Altepeter – Valorant
Manu Bachet – The Rogue Prince of Persia
Steve Schnur – Battlefield 6
Yuanye Huang, Jing Zhang, Shuqin Xiao, Peiyue Lu, Samuel Siu – Honor of Kings
Song/Score – Commercial Advertisement
Amazon Midnight Opus (“What the World Needs Now Is Love”) – Haim Mazar
Apple: 6 Out of 5 Stars – Silo: Music – Neil Ormandy, Linkoln, Allen Stone
Matter And Space (“Butterflies”) – Alex Yewon
Sea of Remnants (“Yo Ho!”) – Guanglei Zhang / Sibo Huang “Yo Ho!”
The End of the Run Is Just the Beginning – Alexandra Petkovski (Aka Fjøra)
Valorant (“In My Zone”) – Bbno$
Soundtrack Album
F1 – Atlantic Records
Karma: The Dark World – Black Razor Records
Kpop Demon Hunters – Republic Records
Sinners – Sony Masterworks Records
Wicked: For Good – Republic Records
World Of Warcraft: Undermine(D) – Blizzard Entertainment
Song – Short Film
“Sean Is Three” from Sean The Baby. Written by Cameron Adams. Performed By Amelia Rolland.
“Somos Fuertes” from Somos Fuertes Official Music Video. Written and Performed by J.Frazil.
“Car Keys” from Everything Must Go. Written by Forrest Gray, Tiffany So & Saba Saghafi. Performed By Forrest Gray.
“Stars In My Eyes” from Sweetwater. Written and Performed by Sean Douglas.
“Down We Go” from Rabbit Rabbit. Written and Performed by Zoë Lustri
Score – TV/Streamed Movie
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy – Dustin O’Halloran
Exterritorial – Sara Barone
Fountain Of Youth – Christopher Benstead
Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story – Tommy Fields
The Pickup – Christopher Lennertz
Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires – Tom Howe
Music Design – Trailer
Delta Force – Peter Tomlinson
Destiny: Rising – Weicheng Xia & Guanglei Zhang
Necaxa (FX – Hulu) – Juan Carlos Enriquez
Project Spectrum – Ludvig Forssell
Sea Of Remnants (Yo Ho!) – Guanglei Zhang & Sibo Huang
Valorant – Qing Madi
Wet Paper Bag – Steve Gernes
Main Title – TV Show (Foreign Language)
Al Batal (The Hero) – Suad Bushnaq
Carême – Guillaume Roussel
Lam Shamseya – Mina Samy
On The High Seas – Sandrine Rudaz
Two Graves – Marc Timon
Music Video (Independent)
Evanescence – “Afterlife”
Teya – “Bite Marks”
Mohammed K Paika – “Just Human”
Gabrielle Aapri – “Refuge”
Alexandra Fresquez – “Symphony”
Matt B, Rocky Dawuni, Tony Succar, & Wouter Kellerman – “They Know”
Live Concert for Visual Media
The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl – The Lion King Cast
Infinity Concert – Jason Huang
Beyond the World – Yufan Xu/Xihao Wang/China Broadcasting Chinese Orchestra
Garden State 20th Anniversary Concert – Musical Performers: The Shins, Iron & Wine, Frou Frou, Cary Brothers, Laufey, Thievery Corporation, Colin Hay, Madison Cunningham, Remy Zero, The Milk Carton Kids, Sophie Barker, And Bonnie Somerville
Not Gonna Lie, Live From Ruthmere Museum – Abbie Thomas
Exhibitions, Theme Parks, Special Projects
Dark Castle (Xd Dark Ride) – Benjamin Botkin, Carl Vaudrin, Benjamin Beladi
Dreamland Theme Park – Chris Thomas
One Step Beyond: A Journey to Mars – Rhian Sheehan
Scadstory Atlanta – Erik Desiderio
Snapshot – Eduardo Andrade
Tapestry of Happiness – Haim Mazar
Walt Disney World’s Epcot: Test Track – Zain Effendi
Will Smith has been open about his regrets over turning down The Matrix, but there’s another blockbuster that got away about 15 years ago.
Smith sat down with Kiss Xtra over the weekend, where he revealed that Christopher Nolan offered him the lead role in 2010’s Inception, but he “didn’t get it” and passed on the sci-fi/thriller.
“I don’t think I’ve ever said it publicly before, but I am going to say it now because we are opening up to one another,” he said after revisiting the pain of overlooking The Matrix. “Chris Nolan brought me Inception first and I didn’t get it. I’ve never said that out loud.”
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The Oscar winner continued to peel back the layers behind his reasoning: “Now that I think about it, it’s those movies that go into those alternate realities; they don’t pitch well. But I am hurt by those two. It hurts too bad to talk about.”
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Nolan also brought Inception to Brad Pitt, who turned down the offer after only having a 48-hour window to take it. The role eventually landed in Leonardo DiCaprio’s lap, and he capitalized on the blockbuster, which grossed over $800 million at the global box office.
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Nolan’s next film, The Odyssey, is slated to arrive in July 2026. He’s assembled a star-studded cast that includes Matt Damon, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Charlize Theron, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong’o to retell the ancient Greek saga.
As for Will Smith, he actually mocked his decision to pass up on The Matrix as part of the music video for “Beautiful Scars” featuring Big Sean, where he played the role of Neo.
Building off his Based On a True Story album, Smith returned on Friday (June 13) with his “Pretty Girls” single, which finds him celebrating beautiful women across the globe in all shapes and sizes.
Watch Will Smith talk about Inception below.
The hunt is on for an iconic but missing artifact from Robert Zemeckis’ classic 1985 film Back to the Future.
Gibson Guitars and Universal Home Entertainment, in conjunction with filmmaker Doc Crotzer, have launched Lost to the Future, a search for the Gibson ES-345 Cherry Red guitar that Michael J. Fox, as Marty McFly, played in the beloved film. As fans well know, Fox picked up the guitar during the movie’s Enchantment Under the Sea high school dance, where he performed the Penguins’ “Earth Angel” and then shredded Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode.”
The guitar, which was rented as a prop from Norm’s Rare Guitars in Tarzana, Calif., has been missing for several decades. Now Gibson and Crotzer (Road House, Shotgun Wedding, Glee) have begun a “true crime search” for the instrument, and the filmmaker is planning to make a documentary about the endeavor.
“Back to the Future made me want to make movies as a kid, and made me want to pick up a guitar,” Crotzer tells Billboard. “I’m a guitar player but I’m just a hobbyist; I went on with my (filmmaking) career, but I had always wondered what happened to that guitar. Over the last however many years so many props from the movie have surfaced…but (the guitar) had never surfaced.”
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Gibson’s director of brand experience Mark Agnesi, who previously worked at Norm’s Rare Guitars before joining Gibson, also cites the “Johnny B. Goode” scene as one of his inspirations to play. “I’ve been searching for this thing for 16 years now,” he says. “I started searching everywhere. Norm’s has this big warehouse of guitars and occasionally I’d go in and look for certain things, and every time I’m in there I was always looking around for (the Back to the Future guitar), but to no avail.”
They aren’t the only ones who were inspired by the scene, of course. When Fox joined Coldplay at last year’s Glastonbury Festival in England, frontman Chris Martin told the crowd that, “The main reason why we’re in a band is because of watching Back to the Future,” adding that Fox is “our hero forever and one of the most amazing people on Earth.” In a new video announcing the Lost to the Future project, John Mayer notes that the scene “was a big Rocky moment for a lot of kids,” while Jason Isbell explains “that’s the most iconic guitar from a movie. I don’t think anything else comes close…That was a huge deal for me. The world needs to see that guitar.”
Those with leads about the guitar’s whereabouts are asked to call 1-888-345-1955 or send a message via www.LostToTheFuture.com.
The trail for the guitar is indeed cold. It was apparently sold, then sold back to Norm’s and then presumably resold again. “Back then there was no digital record of that stuff; it was all hand-written receipts and stuff,” Gibson’s Agnesi says. “We know it was returned to Norm’s. At that time in the mid ‘80s there was a Japanese vintage guitar boom; charter buses of Japanese tourists were pulling up and buying everything in sight. So it could be someone has it in Japan. We don’t know. The possibilities of where it could be are endless.”
The guitar’s serial number is not known, but there is a unique tell that will allow it to be authenticated, according to Agnesi; the inlay on its 12th fret is solid, not split like the others on the neck, which was standard for the ES-345 at the time. “That anomaly is the smoking gun we’re looking for, thank God,” Agnesi says. “That will not be on any other guitar. Either someone custom-ordered it that way or it would be marked a factory second on the back of the head stock. That’s how we’ll know we’ve found the guitar we’re looking for.”
Filmmaker Crotzer adds that the tell is “the most amazing coincidence. I personally believe it’s like some higher power giving us the opportunity to find the thing.”
An irony is that while Back to the Future is set in 1955, the ES-345 was not yet in production in 1958, and not made in cherry red until the following year. “Norm has publicly said he knew that guitar was wrong for the era,” Agnesi notes, adding that in ’55 Berry was playing a Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster. But the filmmakers, he says, wanted something slimmer and more streamlined. “They wanted that Chuck Berry 345 look even though it wasn’t the right guitar for the time period,” Agnesi says. “They were willing to take some small liberties and have fun in the movie with it. If not for that guitar, the scene might not have been as impactful.”
It also dovetails with the fact that “Johnny B. Goode” wasn’t released until 1958 — adding to Marty McFly’s future prognostication that, “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it.”
Charles Berry says that his father was not bothered by those historical inaccuracies, however. “Dad was fairly laid back when it came to stuff like that,” he says, adding that the family didn’t know about the “Johnny B. Goode” scene “until maybe a month or two before. It’s just like (the 1987 documentary) Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll; he said, ‘Oh yeah, by the way, they want to make this movie about me.’ (Back to the Future) was the same type of thing; he comes to the house and says, ‘Yeah, there’s this movie coming out, in one of the scenes this kid’s playing ‘Johnny B. Goode.’ ‘Really?!”
Seeing the film, the younger Berry — who owns some of his father’s old guitars and administrates the loan or donation of others to museums — says, “We got a kick out of it. It’s a very good movie, a nice wholesome movie. Michael J. Fox did a really cool job. It may not be exactly the right guitar, but we’ll take it.”
The scene famously ends with one of the band members, ostensibly Berry’s cousin Marvin, calling the rock n’ roll pioneer and holding the phone up to hear what’s being played on stage. “Besides, ‘What’s it like to be Chuck Berry’s son?,’ after ’85 the most-asked question I get is, ‘Does your dad really have a cousin Marvin?’” says Charles Berry with a laugh. “No, it was just in the movie.”
The video announcing the search also features Back to the Future co-screenwriter Bob Gale, co-stars Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd, and Huey Lewis, who had an uncredited bit part and, with his band the News, scored a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit with “The Power of Love” from the soundtrack. “Back to the Future, it keeps growing; it’s like a Wizard of Oz for a new generation,” says Lewis, adding that, “it’s fascinating (the guitar) has not turned up. It’s a very distinctive one. Whoever has this guitar must not have heard that they’re searching for it yet. Once the word is out, if you’ve got a 345, you’re going to look and see if that’s the one.”
The search is part of a number of Gibson initiatives related to the film and the guitar’s legacy in it. An episode of Gibson TV: The Collection that premieres in October features Fox talking about his own history of guitar playing and his collection of 40-some instruments. The same month, Gibson and Epiphone will release new custom models of the ES-345 as well as Back to the Future-themed apparel, and Gibson Gives will announce a partnership with the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
“I just wanted to be a rock n’ roll guitarist,” Fox says in The Collection. “That’s all I wanted to do. I became an actor instead of a guitarist…It’s always been a passion of mine, rock n’ roll — especially the guitar.” He adds that the ES-345 in the film “was such a good guitar. It’s like Excalibur…. Being 23 years old and that scene, I was having the f–king best time. But I didn’t realize the influence it had on people. It’s just expressing my love for the guitar and all the great players.”
Crotzer says all of that will be part of the Lost to the Future documentary. A happy ending is hoped for, but Crotzer is also out to tell the greater story surrounding it.
“We’ve realized (the story) is bigger than we thought,” he says. “The through-line is the true crime search for this guitar, but the emotional core of it is tracking how it inspired a generation of kids, whether they went on to become Chris Martin or went off to do completely other things. There’s a collective experience here that we really want to capture.”
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were passed over for an Oscar nomination for their acclaimed score for Challengers, but Reznor’s fellow members of the ASCAP composer and songwriter community voted that score the year’s best — and on Wednesday (April 30), Reznor was honored with the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Award for film score of the year at the 2025 ASCAP Screen Music Awards, held at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Elsewhere, Jeff Toyne won two ASCAP Composers Choice Awards — television score of the year and television theme of the year, both for his work on work on Apple TV+’s Palm Royale. Toyne earlier won a Primetime Emmy in September for outstanding original main title theme music for his work on the show. He was also nominated for a second Primetime Emmy for outstanding music composition for a series (original dramatic score).
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Chosen by the ASCAP composer and songwriter community, ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards are presented in five categories. Here’s a complete list of this year’s winners:
● Film Score of the Year: Challengers – Trent Reznor
● Television Score of the Year: Palm Royale – Jeff Toyne
● Television Theme of the Year: Palm Royale – Jeff Toyne
● Documentary Score of the Year: Jim Henson: Idea Man – David Fleming
● Video Game Score of the Year: Tales of Kenzera: Zau – Nainita Desai
In other categories, Andrea Datzman was honored with top box office film of the year for the animated family film Inside Out 2. Composer Jeff Cardoni earned top network television series for the sitcom Young Sheldon, while John Sereda received top cable television series for the historical drama When Calls the Heart. David Vanacore was the top winner in the most performed themes & underscore category.
In addition, ASCAP recognized some of the top composers of the past year’s hit streaming series and films. The top streaming series winners include Bear McCreary for the epic fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Michael Abels for his tone-setting score in the sci-fi mystery-thriller The Acolyte, Jamie Jackson and WAZ for the comedy crime drama Bad Monkey, and Rupert Gregson-Williams for his score and Josh Kear & Meghan Trainor for their theme to the whodunit crime drama The Perfect Couple.
Among the top streaming films winners, Hans Zimmer was honored for his score to the historical World War II drama Blitz, Lorne Balfe received recognition for the action thriller Carry-On, Amelia Warner was recognized for the biographical sports film Young Woman and the Sea, and Siddhartha Khosla was celebrated for the romantic book-to-film adaptation of The Idea of You.
The complete list of winners is available on the ASCAP website: www.ascap.com/screenawards25.
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.
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“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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
