Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were passed over for an Oscar nomination for their acclaimed score for Challengers, but Reznor’s fellow members of the ASCAP composer and songwriter community voted that score the year’s best — and on Wednesday (April 30), Reznor was honored with the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Award for film score of the year at the 2025 ASCAP Screen Music Awards, held at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
Elsewhere, Jeff Toyne won two ASCAP Composers Choice Awards — television score of the year and television theme of the year, both for his work on work on Apple TV+’s Palm Royale. Toyne earlier won a Primetime Emmy in September for outstanding original main title theme music for his work on the show. He was also nominated for a second Primetime Emmy for outstanding music composition for a series (original dramatic score).
Chosen by the ASCAP composer and songwriter community, ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards are presented in five categories. Here’s a complete list of this year’s winners:
● Film Score of the Year: Challengers – Trent Reznor
● Television Score of the Year: Palm Royale – Jeff Toyne
● Television Theme of the Year: Palm Royale – Jeff Toyne
● Documentary Score of the Year: Jim Henson: Idea Man – David Fleming
● Video Game Score of the Year: Tales of Kenzera: Zau – Nainita Desai
In other categories, Andrea Datzman was honored with top box office film of the year for the animated family film Inside Out 2. Composer Jeff Cardoni earned top network television series for the sitcom Young Sheldon, while John Sereda received top cable television series for the historical drama When Calls the Heart. David Vanacore was the top winner in the most performed themes & underscore category.
In addition, ASCAP recognized some of the top composers of the past year’s hit streaming series and films. The top streaming series winners include Bear McCreary for the epic fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Michael Abels for his tone-setting score in the sci-fi mystery-thriller The Acolyte, Jamie Jackson and WAZ for the comedy crime drama Bad Monkey, and Rupert Gregson-Williams for his score and Josh Kear & Meghan Trainor for their theme to the whodunit crime drama The Perfect Couple.
Among the top streaming films winners, Hans Zimmer was honored for his score to the historical World War II drama Blitz, Lorne Balfe received recognition for the action thriller Carry-On, Amelia Warner was recognized for the biographical sports film Young Woman and the Sea, and Siddhartha Khosla was celebrated for the romantic book-to-film adaptation of The Idea of You.
The complete list of winners is available on the ASCAP website: www.ascap.com/screenawards25.
