Winners announced for 2016 Screen Music Awards

Antony Partos and Matteo Zingales (pictured) were awarded the prestigious Feature Film Score of the Year award at the 2016 Screen Music Awards in Sydney last night. The two composers won the award for their acclaimed collaborative score for the film 99 Homes.

In his acceptance speech, Partos thanked composer Nigel Westlake for not entering his score for the film Paper Planes. "Thank you for not entering it because I wouldn’t be here," he laughed.

Westlake is on the APRA board of directors and thought it was a conflict of interest to enter his score this year.

The Screen Music Awards, which are jointly presented by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC), recognise and pay tribute to composers who achieve excellence in screen composition over the last year.

An orchestra provided powerful renditions of a handful of nominated works throughout the evening, with Emmy Award winning screen composer Ashley Irwin returning for his fourth consecutive year as musical director.

Among the the other winners was Alan John who received his fourth Screen Music Award in the category Best Music for Mini-Series or Telemovie for his work on the ABC series The Beautiful Lie.

The Best Original Song Composed for the Screen was taken out by husband and wife team Sally and Darren Seltmann for their song Dancing in the Darkness in the ABC television series The Letdown.

Peter Cavallo, the composer of the opening theme for television series Nos Youm, won his first ever Screen Music Award at Tuesday’s ceremony.

"I’d like to thank the cast and crew of the TV show, but I can’t pronounce their names," he joked. "So to save me some embarrassment I won’t."

Adam Moses also took home his first award in the category of Best Music for a Short Film for crowdfunded picture Banana Boy, that tells the distressing story of a young refugee. 

Sydney composer Caitlin Yeo won her third Screen Music Award for her work on Getting Frank Gehry which was directed by Sally Aitken. Yeo, who was awarded this year’s Best Music for a Documentary award, also received an APRA Professional Development Award in 2011.  

During her acceptance speech Yeo took the opportunity to address the issue of gender parity in the screen industry.

"I’m going to imagine a film industry where equity is a reality," she said.

The Screen Music Awards also recognises compositions that feature in advertisements. This year’s Best Music for an Advertisement award prize was taken home by New York based composer Jeremy Yang for the 2016 AICP Opening composition.

See below for the full list of winners:

Winner’s 2016 Screen Music Awards

Feature Film Score of the Year:

Title: 99 Homes

Composed by Antony Partos and Matteo Zingales

Best Music for a Television Series or Serial

Title: The Principal Composed by Roger Mason

Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie

Title: The Beautiful Lie Composed by Alan John

Best Original Song Composed for the Screen

Title: Dancing in the Darkness from The Letdown

Composed by Darren Seltmann and Sally Seltmann

Published by Sony ATV Music Publishing Australia

Best Music for a Documentary

Title: Getting Frank Gehry Composed by Caitlin Yeo

Best Television Theme

Title: Nos Youm

Composed by Peter Cavallo

Best Music for a Short Film

Title: Banana Boy

Composed by Adam Moses

Best Soundtrack Album

Title: Sherpa

Composed by Antony Partos

Best Music for Children’s Television

Title: The New Adventures of Figaro Pho: Odd Socks

Composed by Michael Darren, Luke Jurevicius and Christopher Larkin

Best Music for an Advertisement

Title: 2016 AICP Opening Composed by Jeremy Yang

Most Performed Screen Composer – Australia

Composer: Jay Stewart

Most Performed Screen Composer – Overseas

Composer: Neil Sutherland