Screen Music Awards to proceed on YouTube this year
The 2020 Screen Music Awards are the latest Australian event to make the decision to go online rather than wait until next year when social distancing restrictions ease.
The awards normally draw 500 guests to the gala, but this year are open to a global viewership on Tuesday, December 1 via a YouTube Premier from 7:00pm AEDT.
The 13-category awards, organised by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) honour creators of film, television, documentary and advertising music.
It will be the first awards for the AGSC’s new president Antony Partos.
Partos is the highly decorated globally-recognised composer behind film productions Animal Kingdom, The Rover, Disgrace, The Home Song Stories and Unfinished Sky, and TV’s Bloom, Mabo, The Slap and Redfern Now.
“Although I had personally desired for this to be a live celebration to mark the end of social distancing and embrace live music and one another again,” Partos said, “it seems the next best thing is to join together virtually to celebrate the wealth of talent that our industry has to offer.
“Ironically, despite our industry suffering a cataclysmic downturn this year due to nearly all production ceasing, the public has turned to film and television content in unprecedented numbers to be entertained, forget their woes and be transported to a different reality.
“My fellow Australian composers may not be household names, but they can rest assured that many of the programs they have worked on have touched the hearts and moved people emotionally across our nation.’
Children’s entertainment identity Justine Clarke, recently seen in Muriel’s Wedding The Musical, is announced as first of the night’s three hosts.
Arranger and orchestrator Jessica Wells is the night’s music director, interpreting the four Feature Film Score of the Year nominations performed by the Screen Awards orchestra.
Wells’ company Jigsaw Music most recently provided the orchestration for the score to the Helen Reddy biopic I Am Woman by composer Rafael May.
Nominees will be announced Thursday, October 29.