2026 Screen Music Awards Nominations Announced

The 2026 Screen Music Awards nominees have been revealed today.

Antony Partos, Josh Hogan and Ned Beckley lead the charge, with four nods each across the 15 competitive categories.

The ceremony will return to Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall on Wednesday, October 28th.

Partos is nominated for Best Music for a Documentary for Edge of Life and Best Music for a Television Drama for The Artful Dodger. He is also up for Best Soundtrack Album and Feature Film Score of the Year for the biographical boxing film Christy.

Hogan and Beckley's four nominations all come from their work on the ABC children's animation series Tales from Outer Suburbia. The series is up for Best Music for Children's Programming, Best Opening Title Television Theme, and Best Soundtrack Album. It also earned a nod for Best Original Song Composed for the Screen for "Nothing Stays the Same", which the pair wrote with Joni Hogan.

Longtime collaborators Adam Gock, Dinesh Wicks and Mitch Stewart have three nominations each. Their work on shows including Lego Masters, MasterChef and My Kitchen Rules has them in both Most Performed Screen Composer categories (Australia and Overseas). They're also nominated for Best Music for Unscripted or Reality Television Series for Million Dollar Secret.

Actor Rob Collins will host the ceremony, with guest presenters Claudia Karvan OAM and Ayesha Madon. 

Check out all of the nominees below.

Best Music for an Advertisement

• Lego – Project Vehicles — Benjamin Lam
• Sarah & Sebastian – Ondine — Mara Schwerdtfeger
• Telstra – Tame Your Tech — Scott Langley
• Voice of Resistance — Fred Leone, Mariah Alone, Dion Brownfield, Caleb Tasker, Skye Thomas, Corey Webster and Dallas Woods

Best Music for Children's Programming

• Caper Crew — Steve Toulmin
• Kiki Can Fly (Zoo, Special Edition) — David Skinner
• Tales from Outer Suburbia (Episode 10) — Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan
• The Pout-Pout Fish — Ack Kinmonth

Best Music for a Documentary

• Edge of Life — Antony Partos
• Reported Missing (Season 5, Episode 1) — Adrian Leung
• Sentient — Helena Czajka
• Whistle — Haydn Walker

Best Music for a Short Film

• Filthy — Chiara Costanza
• Spiders on My Lashline — Freya
• Trading Cards — Nicholas Gardiner
• The Worm — Callum O'Reilly

Best Music for a Television Comedy

• Dog Park (Episode 1) — Bryony Marks
• He Had It Coming (Episode 7) — Caitlin Yeo
• Sunny Nights (Episode 1) — Matteo Zingales
• The Witchy Girls (Episode 6) — Peter Corrigan, Georgina Darvidis and Matthew Sheers

Best Music for a Television Drama

• Playing Gracie Darling (Episode 5) — Jan Skubiszewski
• Reckless (Episode 4) — Cassie To and Emma Greenhill
• The Artful Dodger (Season 2, Episode 3) — Antony Partos
• The Family Next Door (Episode 1) — Bryony Marks

Best Music for Unscripted or Reality Television Series

• Beyond Bali with Lara Lee — Amara Primero and Melany Thompson
• Million Dollar Secret (Season 2) — Adam Gock, Dinesh Wicks, David Bruggemann, Rory Chenoweth, Lydia Davies, Brontë Horder, Adam Sofo, Mitch Stewart and Cassie To
• Muster Dogs (Season 4) — Mark Walmsley
• Tucci in Italy (Season 2) — Richard Pike

Best Music for a Video Game or Other Interactive Media

• Bluey's Quest for the Gold Pen — Cedar Jones
• Hollow Knight: Silksong — Christopher Larkin
• Malys — Belinda Coomes
• Mixtape — Josh Abrahams and Jonathan Tron

Best Opening Title Television Theme

• Flower and Flour — Hylton Mowday
• Reported Missing — Adrian Leung
• Revealed: Death Cap Murders — Simon Walbrook
• Tales from Outer Suburbia — Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan

Best Original Song Composed for the Screen

• "Nothing Stays the Same" from Tales from Outer Suburbia — Ned Beckley, Joni Hogan and Josh Hogan
• "Nug Luck" from Caper Crew — Steve Toulmin
• "The Spirit Shall Return" from Mystery Road: Origin — William Barton
• "We Got Away With It" from He Had It Coming — Caitlin Yeo

Best Soundtrack Album

• Christy — Antony Partos
• Deadloch (Season 2) — Amanda Brown
• Tales from Outer Suburbia — Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan
• Together — Cornel Wilczek and Alex Olijnyk

Feature Film Score of the Year

• Addition — Piers Burbrook de Vere and Rose Mackenzie-Peterson
• Christy — Antony Partos
• Monument — Kenneth Lampl
• War Machine — Dmitri Golovko

Emerging Screen Composer of the Year

• Andreas Dominguez
• Emma Greenhill
• Finn Clarke
• Genevieve Patrick

Most Performed Screen Composer – Australia

• Adam Gock and Dinesh Wicks — MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules, Travel Guides
• Damian De Boos-Smith — Better Homes & Gardens, Return to Paradise, The Block
• Jay Stewart — Better Homes & Gardens, It's Academic, The Block
• Mitch Stewart — MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules, Travel Guides

Most Performed Screen Composer – Overseas

• Adam Gock and Dinesh Wicks — Con Girl, Lego Masters, Married at First Sight
• Anthony Ammar — Love on the Spectrum, Married at First Sight, MasterChef
• Joff Bush — Bluey, The Strange Chores
• Mitch Stewart — Con Girl, Lego Masters, Married at First Sight