Daniel Pemberton, Jeff Russo and Hannah Peel are among the winners of the 26th World Soundtrack Awards, held in Ghent on October 10. Pemberton received Film Composer of the Year, Russo took Television Composer of the Year, and Peel won Discovery of the Year. The ceremony recognised different areas of screen music rather than choosing one overall soundtrack winner.
Pemberton's recognised work includes Project Hail Mary, The Drama, The Bad Guys 2 and Masters of the Universe. This is his second Film Composer of the Year win, following an earlier victory in 2021; he also received the Discovery award in 2014. His fellow nominees in this year's film category included Jonny Greenwood, Max Richter, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Alexandre Desplat.
Russo's television work covered Cape Fear, Alien: Earth and the second season of Citadel. Peel received her breakthrough-category award for Midwinter Break. Elsewhere, Kevin Smithers won the Public Choice award for Soy Frankelda, while Golden from KPop Demon Hunters took the original-song prize. Trevor Jones received the Lifetime Achievement award, adding recognition of a career to the prizes for recent releases.
The awards formed part of a wider film-music programme. Earlier that day, nominees gathered for a three-hour discussion at Kinepolis, moderated by Loren Sunderland. Pemberton, Russo and Peel were among the announced participants, giving the programme a setting for composers to discuss their work alongside the competitive ceremony. The evening also featured the Brussels Philharmonic under Dirk Brossé, with Guðnadóttir as the featured guest.