Favorite Film Composers - iCM Poll

1. Hans Zimmer

German-born composer Hans Zimmer is recognized as one of Hollywood's most innovative musical talents. He featured in the music video for The Buggles' single "Video Killed the Radio Star", which became a worldwide hit and helped usher in a new era of global entertainment as the first music video to ...

2. Kenji Kawai

Composer | Ip Man

Kenji Kawai was born on April 23, 1957 in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan. He is a composer, known for Ip Man (2008), Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) and Ip Man 4: The Finale (2019).

3. Philip Glass

Soundtrack | The Truman Show

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Glass worked in his father's radio store and discovered music listening to the offbeat Western classical records customers didn't seem to want. He studied the violin and flute, and obtained early admission to the University of Chicago. After graduating in mathematics ...

4. Ry Cooder

Soundtrack | Primary Colors

Born in Santa Monica, Ca., Ry Cooder, at the age of four had an accident which left him blind in one eye. He became a bit secluded and began playing the guitar. His biggest influences include Blind Willie Johnson, Arthur "Blind" Blake, Joseph Spence and Curtis Mayfield. Cooder has played on several...

5. Tôru Takemitsu

Composer | Seppuku

Tôru Takemitsu was born on October 8, 1930 in Tokyo, Japan. He was a composer, known for Harakiri (1962), Ran (1985) and Rising Sun (1993). He died on February 20, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.

6. Thomas Newman

Music_department | Skyfall

Thomas Newman is an American film score composer. He was born in Los Angeles. His father was notable film score composer Alfred Newman (1900-1970). The Newman family is of Russian-Jewish descent, and includes several other well-known musicians. Thomas' mother Martha Louis Montgomery (1920-2005) ...

7. Michel Legrand

Composer | The Thomas Crown Affair

Michel Legrand is a three-time Academy Award-winning French composer, conductor and pianist who composed over 200 film and television scores as well as recorded over a hundred albums of jazz, popular and classical music.

He was born on February 24, 1932, in Becon-les-Bruyeres, in the Paris suburbs, ...

8. Nino Rota

Composer | The Godfather

Born in Milan in 1911 into a family of musicians, Nino Rota was first a student of Orefice and Pizzetti. Then, still a child, he moved to Rome where he completed his studies at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in 1929 with Alfredo Casella. In the meantime, he had become an 'enfant prodige', famous...

9. Eddie Vedder

Soundtrack | Into the Wild

Eddie Vedder was known in San Diego for being a surfer and a singer in the progressive rock band Bad Radio, where he sang in the 80's until he departed to join Pearl Jam in 1990. Right before Eddie left Bad Radio, they opened for Andy Summers at the Bucchanal in San Diego. After the show, Eddie ...

10. Popol Vuh

Composer | Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes

Popol Vuh is known for Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Sightseers (2012) and A Bigger Splash (2015).

11. Bernard Herrmann

Composer | North by Northwest

The man behind the low woodwinds that open Citizen Kane (1941), the shrieking violins of Psycho (1960), and the plaintive saxophone of Taxi Driver (1976) was one of the most original and distinctive composers ever to work in film. He started early, winning a composition prize at the age of 13 and ...

12. Ennio Morricone

Composer | The Hateful Eight

A classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships (right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialized in trumpet. His first ...

13. Joe Hisaishi

Composer | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi

Joe Hisaishi was born on December 6, 1950 in Nakano, Japan. He is a composer and director, known for Spirited Away (2001), The Boy and the Heron (2023) and Fireworks (1997). He is married to Ayame Fujisawa . They have one child.

14. Jerry Goldsmith

Composer | L.A. Confidential

Born on February 10, 1929, Jerry Goldsmith studied piano with Jakob Gimpel and composition, theory, and counterpoint with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He also attended classes in film composition given by Miklós Rózsa at the Univeristy of Southern California. In 1950, he was employed as a clerk ...

15. Simon & Garfunkel

Soundtrack | Watchmen

Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music groups of the 1960s, and their biggest hits-including "The Sound of Silence" (1965), "Mrs. Robinson" (1968), "The Boxer" (1969), and "Bridge ...

16. Chu Ishikawa

Composer | Sôseiji

Chu Ishikawa was born in 1966. He was a composer and actor, known for Gemini (1999), Killing (2018) and Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989). He died on December 21, 2017 in Japan.

17. Georges Delerue

Composer | Platoon

Georges Delerue was born on March 12, 1925 in Roubaix, Nord, France. He was a composer and actor, known for Platoon (1986), Twins (1988) and The Day of the Dolphin (1973). He was married to Micheline Gautron. He died on March 20, 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

18. Goblin

Soundtrack | Shaun of the Dead

For 25 years, Goblin has been scoring soundtracks for Italian films, mainly Giallo-style films directed by Dario Argento. The group consisted of keyboardist Claudio Simonetti, percussionist Walter Martino, bassist Fabio Pignatelli, guitarist Massimo Morante, percussionist Agostino Marangolo, and ...

19. Michael Nyman

Composer | The Piano

Michael Nyman studied piano, harpsichord and music history with Alan Bush at the Royal Academy of Music, and musicology with Thurston Dart at King's College, London. Between 1968 and 1978 he worked as a music critic and in 1977 he founded the Campiello Band, later renamed the Michael Nyman Band. ...

20. Nicola Piovani

Composer | La vita è bella

Nicola Piovani was born on May 26, 1946 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is a composer and actor, known for Life Is Beautiful (1997), The Tiger and the Snow (2005) and The Son's Room (2001).

21. Angelo Badalamenti

Composer | Mulholland Dr.

Angelo Badalamenti was born on March 22, 1937 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Mulholland Drive (2001), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) and Lost Highway (1997). He was married to Lonny Irgens. He died on December 11, 2022 in Lincoln Park, New ...

22. Dun Tan

Composer | Wo hu cang long

Dun Tan was born on August 18, 1957 in Si Mao, Hunan Province, China. He is a composer and producer, known for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002) and Fallen (1998).

23. John Williams

Composer | Jurassic Park

As one of the best known, awarded, and financially successful composers in US history, John Williams is as easy to recall as John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland or Leonard Bernstein, illustrating why he is "America's composer" time and again. With a massive list of awards that includes over 52 Oscar ...

24. Eduard Artemyev

Composer | 12

Eduard Artemyev is a Soviet and Russian composer. He is widely known as the author of music for films by Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrey Konchalovskiy and Nikita Mikhalkov.

Artemyev was born in Novosibirsk. He received his primary musical education at the Moscow Choir School. Later in 1960 he graduated ...

25. Vangelis

Composer | Blade Runner

Vangelis was a composer and performer who worked almost exclusively with electronic instruments. With Jean-Michel Jarre and Mike Oldfield in the 1970s, Vangelis was a pioneer in the instrumental music and a main influence in the creation of the musical genre "new age," a style related to spiritual,...

26. Vladimir Cosma

Composer | Diva

Vladimir Cosma was born on April 13, 1940 in Bucharest, Romania. He is a composer and actor, known for Diva (1981), Octav (2017) and Le Bal (1983).

27. Clint Mansell

Composer | Black Swan

Clinton Darryl Mansell is an English singer, musician and film composer known for his collaborations with Darren Aronofsky. He composed Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, Black Swan, The Wrestler, Noah, Ghost in the Shell, Peacemaker, Doom Patrol, Loving Vincent, Mass Effect 3, Titans, World ...

28. Ravi Shankar

Composer | Gandhi

Ravi Shankar was a world-renowned musician, composer, performer, and scholar of classical Indian music. He was one of the leading cultural figures of the twentieth century whose accomplishments placed him as the leading figure of an important musical tradition. His long and distinguished musical ...

29. Yann Tiersen

Composer | Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

Yann Tiersen was born on June 23, 1970 in Brest, Finistère, France. He is a composer and writer, known for Amélie (2001), Good Bye Lenin! (2003) and Inescapable (2012).

30. Alain Goraguer

Soundtrack | Les amours imaginaires

Alain Goraguer was born on August 20, 1931 in Rosny-sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. He was a composer, known for Heartbeats (2010), Two Days in Paris (2007) and Fantastic Planet (1973). He died on February 13, 2023 in Paris, France.

31. Jürgen Knieper

Composer | Der Himmel über Berlin

Jürgen Knieper was born on March 14, 1941 in Karlsruhe, Germany. He is a composer and actor, known for Wings of Desire (1987), Wrong Move (1975) and Christiane F. (1981).

32. Wojciech Kilar

Composer | Bram Stoker's Dracula

Wojciech Kilar was born on July 17, 1932 in Lwów, Lwowskie, Poland [now Lviv, Ukraine]. He was a composer, known for Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), The Ninth Gate (1999) and The Pianist (2002). He was married to Barbara Pomianowska. He died on December 29, 2013 in Katowice, Slaskie, Poland.

33. Masaru Satô

Composer | Yôjinbô

The youngest of six brothers, all of them music lovers, Masaru Sato decided early in life that he wanted to be a composer. His models were two other composers born, as he was, on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido: Akira Ifukube and Fumio Hayasaka. "To me", Sato said, "they were like gods...

34. Cliff Martinez

Composer | Only God Forgives

Cliff Martinez was born on February 5, 1954 in The Bronx, New York, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for Only God Forgives (2013), The Neon Demon (2016) and Drive (2011).

35. John Carpenter

Writer | The Fog

John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky ...

36. Éric Serra

Music_department | GoldenEye

Eric Serra was born on September 9th, 1959 near Paris in France. His mother died when he was only 7 years old. His father, Claude Serra was a well-know songwriter in France in late 50s and 60s. Serra began to learn play the guitar at 11 years old and became a professional musician for Mory Kante;, ...

37. Maurice Thiriet

Composer | Les enfants du paradis

Maurice Thiriet was born on May 2, 1906 in Meulan-en-Yvelines, Yvelines, France. He was a composer, known for Children of Paradise (1945), Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942) and Lucrèce Borgia (1953). He died on September 28, 1972 in Bracquemont, Seine-Maritime, France.

38. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Soundtrack | The Lobster

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is known for The Lobster (2015), Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) and About Time (2013).

39. Thomas Bangalter

Composer | Tron: Legacy

Thomas Bangalter was born on January 3, 1975 in Paris, France. He is a composer and actor, known for Tron: Legacy (2010), Electroma (2006) and The Saint (1997). He is married to Élodie Bouchez. They have two children.

40. Dimitri Tiomkin

Soundtrack | High Noon

Dimitri Tiomkin was a Russian Jewish composer who emigrated to America and became one of the most distinguished and best-loved music writers of Hollywood. He won a hallowed place in the pantheon of the most successful and productive composers in American film history, earning himself four Oscars ...

41. Quincy Jones

Producer | The Color Purple

Considered to be one of the greatest minds in music and television history, Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. was born on March 14, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois. He is the son of Sarah Frances (Wells), a bank executive, and Quincy Delight Jones, Sr., a carpenter.

Jones found his love for music while he was ...

42. Paul Misraki

Composer | Alphaville: Une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution

Born in Constantinople in 1908, Paul Misraki composed from the age of 7 years a waltz his mother notes on music paper.

He completed his studies at the "Lycée Janson de Sailly" where he met Ray Ventura who already created a small amateur jazz band.

Paul Misraki consolidates his musical knowledge with ...

43. Jean-Benoît Dunckel

Soundtrack | The Virgin Suicides

During the uncertain first year of the pandemic, JB Dunckel's thoughts turned to what he considers life's absolutes: the insignificance of man in the face of outer space but also our eternal material connection to the cosmos. Carbon, the title of his third solo album, references this crucial ...

44. Alberto Iglesias

Composer | La piel que habito

Alberto Iglesias was born in 1955 in Donostia-San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa, País Vasco, Spain. He is a composer and actor, known for The Skin I Live In (2011), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) and The Constant Gardener (2005).

45. Howard Shore

Music_department | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Howard Shore is a Canadian composer, born in Toronto. He was born in a Jewish family. He started studying music when 8-years-old, and played as a member of bands by the time he was 13-years-old. He was interested in a professional career in music as a teenager. He studied music at the Berklee ...

46. Antonio Pinto

Music_department | Collateral

Antonio Pinto was born in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. He is known for Collateral (2004), City of God (2002) and Central Station (1998).

47. Erik Satie

Soundtrack | Badlands

Erik Satie was born on May 17, 1866 in Honfleur, Calvados, France. He was a composer and actor, known for Badlands (1973), The November Man (2014) and Mr. Nobody (2009). He died on July 1, 1925 in Paris, France.

48. Nicolas Jaar

Soundtrack | The Bad Batch

Nicolas Jaar was born on 10th of January 1990, in New York to Palestinian-Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar and French-Chilean mother Evelyne Meynard. Jaar ascribes the melancholy in his music to the six years his parents were separated, when he moved at the age of 3 with his mother from New York to ...

49. Geinoh Yamashirogumi

Soundtrack | Akira

Geinoh Yamashirogumi is known for Akira (1988), Mayor (2020) and Akira Sound Clip (1988).

50. Bruno Coulais

Composer | Les choristes

Bruno Coulais was born on January 13, 1954 in Paris, France. He is a composer and actor, known for The Chorus (2004), Wolfwalkers (2020) and Coraline (2009).

51. Giovanni Fusco

Composer | L'avventura

Giovanni Fusco was born on October 10, 1906 in Sant'Agata de' Goti, Campania, Italy. He was a composer and director, known for L'Avventura (1960), Story of a Love Affair (1950) and Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959). He died on May 31, 1968 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

52. Armando Trovajoli

Soundtrack | Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Armando Trovajoli was born on September 2, 1917 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a composer and actor, known for Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), A Special Day (1977) and Get Smart (2008). He was married to Maria Paola Trovajoli and Pier Angeli. He died on March 1, 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.