February 21, 2019
IFMCA Announces Winners of its 2018 Awards; SOLO Takes Score of The Year, Multiple Wins For John Powell, James Newton Howard
The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of winners for excellence in musical scoring in 2018, in the 2018 IFMCA Awards.
The award for Score of the Year goes to British composer John Powell for his score for the Star Wars spin-off story SOLO, which looked at the early life of the legendary rogue and intergalactic smuggler Han Solo. The film was directed by Ron Howard, and starred Alden Ehrenreich, Emilia Clarke, and Donald Glover. The score is also named Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film, while John Williams’ contribution to the score, the standalone piece “The Adventures of Han,” is named Film Music Composition of the Year. These are the seventh and eighth IFMCA Award wins of Powell’s career; he previously won the Score of the Year award for HOW TO TRAIN YUOR DRAGON in 2010.
James Newton Howard is named Composer of the Year, and takes home the award for Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film for his work on the controversial Jennifer Lawrence Cold War spy thriller RED SPARROW, for which he wrote an astonishingly powerful classical overture for the film’s opening ballet sequence, as well as some intense action and suspense music. These are the ninth and tenth IFMCA Awards of Howard’s career. He previously received IFMCA Score of the Year honors in 2006 for THE LADY IN THE WATER.
In the non-film categories, composer Christopher Lennertz wins the award for Best Original Score for a Television Series for his bold, exciting score for the rebooted version of the classic sci-fi series LOST IN SPACE, while composer Bear McCreary wins the award for Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media for his thrilling score for the action adventure game GOD OF WAR.
Burbank, California-based La-La Land Records is named Film Music Record Label of the Year in recognition of their ongoing excellence in restoring and releasing the most beloved film scores of the past. Acclaimed album producer Mike Matessino receives both Archival Awards: one for his work restoring and releasing John Williams’s classic score for the 1979 Frank Langella version of DRACULA on the Varèse Sarabande label, and one for his work in putting together the lavish box set of John Williams’s three Harry Potter for La-La Land Records.
See the complete details at IFMCA
