best composer (nominations)

1. Marvin Hatley

Composer, conductor and author, educated at UCLA, a staff pianist for KFWB in Hollywood for four years, then to vaudeville for one year. Two years after joining the Hal Roach Studios, he took over its music department, which he directed for ten years. Joining ASCAP in 1952, his most-popular ...

1) "Block-Heads" (1/2)

2. Richard Hageman

Music_department | Stagecoach

Composer, songwriter, conductor and pianist, educated at the Brussels Conservatory (Mus. D.) and the Royal Conservatory of Amsterdam, on scholarships. He was a concert pianist at six and accompanist for the Royal Opera Company in Amsterdam, assuming the conductorship in 1899. Coming to the USA with...

1) "If I Were King" (1/5)

3. 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 ...

1) "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1/10)

4. Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Composer | The Adventures of Robin Hood

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was the son of a well-known music critic. A child prodigy, he accompanied his father in playing four-handed piano arrangements by the age of five. By the age of eleven he drew his first plaudits from enthusiastic Viennese audiences (including the emperor Franz Josef) with ...

1) "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" (1/2)

5. Louis Forbes

Music_department | Rebecca

Composer, songwriter and conductor, a music student of Edward Kilenyi and Max Steiner. He was under contract to David O. Selznick for seven years, and director of music for Goldwyn Productions for three years. He also worked for RKO. Joining ASCAP in 1951, his other popular-song compositions ...

1) "Intermezzo: A Love Story" (1/3)

6. Meredith Willson

Soundtrack | The Music Man

Meredith Willson--musician, playwright, and composer--was best known for the book, words, and music for The Music Man (1962). He wrote two other musical plays, including The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). Many of his songs are standards, including "You and I", "May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You"...

1) "The Little Foxes" (1/2)

7. Werner R. Heymann

Composer | To Be or Not to Be

Werner Richard Heymann was active as a classical composer in Berlin from 1912. By the end of the decade, he also wrote songs for cabaret and served as musical director for Max Reinhardt from 1918 to 1919. In films with Ufa from 1923, he initially worked as assistant to the head of the music ...

1) "That Uncertain Feeling" (1/3)

8. Herbert Stothart

Music_department | The Wizard of Oz

Of Scottish and German ancestry, Herbert Stothart was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1885. At first, he was slated for a career as a teacher of history. However, he became enamored with music while singing in a school choir, and again, later, while attending the University of Wisconsin. There, he...

1) "Random Harvest" (1/7)

9. Friedrich Hollaender

Music_department | Sabrina

Friedrich Hollaender was the son of the composer Victor Hollaender, who composed shows in Berlin in the 1890s to 1910s. Frederick received early musical training, since 1913 he was student of opera composer Engelbert Humperdinck (who composed Hänsel und Gretel). He started as repetitor at a theater...

"The Talk of the Town" (with Morris Stoloff) +

10. Morris Stoloff

Music_department | From Here to Eternity

Morris Stoloff was born on August 1, 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for From Here to Eternity (1953), In a Lonely Place (1950) and Gilda (1946). He died on April 16, 1980 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.

1) "The Talk of the Town" (with Friedrich Hollaender) (1/8)

11. Leigh Harline

Composer | Pinocchio

Academy Award-winning composer (score, Pinocchio (1940), conductor, songwriter ("When You Wish Upon a Star" [Academy award, Best Song, 1940) and arranger Leigh Harine was educated at the University of Utah. He was a music student of J. Spencer Cornwall. He arranged the first transcontinental ...

1) "The Pride of the Yankees" (1/2)

12. Frank Churchill

Composer | Dumbo

Academy Award-winning composer and songwriter ("Whistle While You Work", "Some Day My Prince Will Come"), and pianist, educated at the University of California. He was a pianist in film theatres, and then came to Hollywood under contract to Walt Disney. Joining ASCAP in 1938, his chief musical ...

"Bambi" (with Edward H. Plumb) +

13. Edward H. Plumb

Composer | Bambi

Edward H. Plumb was born on June 6, 1907 in Streator, Illinois, USA. He was a composer, known for Bambi (1942), Lady and the Tramp (1955) and Dumbo (1941). He died on April 18, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

1) "Bambi" (with Frank Churchill) (1/2)

14. Arthur Lange

Composer | The Woman in the Window

Composer, songwriter, author, arranger and conductor Arthur Lange was educated in private music study and later became an arranger for Broadway musicals and dance orchestras. In 1929, he became the head of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer music department, and assumed similar duties at other film studios. ...

1) "Casanova Brown" (1/4)

15. C. Bakaleinikoff

Music_department | Notorious

Constantin Bakaleinikoff was born in Moscow in 1896 and studied music at the Moscow Conservatory. Trained as a violoncellist and conductor, he formed a trio with fellow young conservatory graduates and toured Russia, until enlistment in the infantry during World War I forced a temporary stop to his...

1) "None But the Lonely Heart" (with Hanns Eisler) (1/2)

16. Hanns Eisler

Composer | Hangmen Also Die!

Hanns Eisler was a German-Austrian-American composer and lyricist. He was known for his "Das Lied von der Moldau" ("La Chanson du Moldau", "The Song of the Moldau") used in the TV film Schweyk im zweiten Weltkrieg (1961) and also sang by Zarah Leander on TV. He did so many more songs in Hollywood, ...

1) "None But the Lonely Heart" (with C. Bakaleinikoff) (1/2)

17. Werner Janssen

Composer | Eternally Yours

Conductor, composer and songwriter, a music student of Frederick Converse and holder of an honorary Mus. D. from Dartmouth College and a Prix de Rome from The American Academy in Rome. He was associate conductor (with Arturo Toscanini) of the New York Philharmonic in 1934, and conducted symphony ...

1) "The Southerner" (1/5)

18. Robert Emmett Dolan

Producer | White Christmas

Composer, songwriter ("A Home in the Meadow"), film executive and conductor, educated at Loyola College (on scholarship) and a piano student of his mother, and later, Letonal, Mortimer Wilson, Joseph Schillinger, and Ernst Toch. He became music director for MGM in 1941, and also was the music ...

"The Bells of St. Mary's" +

19. William Walton

Soundtrack | Last Action Hero

William Walton came from a musical family. He entered Christ Church, Oxford at the early age of sixteen but left without a degree in 1920. A fine musician, he was essentially self-taught as a composer, except some instruction from Hugh Allen, the cathedral organist. Through literary friends and ...

1) "Hamlet" (1/2)

20. Hugo Friedhofer

Composer | The Best Years of Our Lives

Hugo Friedhofer -- how many times have you seen that name in the credits of 1930s and '40s movies for "orchestration" or "musical arranger" and thought -- Gee, what a busy guy! He was, and, ironically, much of that work went uncredited. He is not usually mentioned with the great film composers of ...

1) "Joan of Arc" (1/8)

21. Leonard Bernstein

Soundtrack | New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts

Renowned composer ("West Side Story", "Candide", "On The Town"), conductor, arranger, pianist, educator, author, TV/radio host, educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard University (BA) with Walter Piston. Edward Burlingame Hill and A. Tillman Merritt. He studied piano with Helen Coates, ...

"On the Waterfront" +

22. Larry Adler

Composer | Genevieve

Larry Adler was born on February 10, 1914 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Genevieve (1953), The Hellions (1961) and The House in the Woods (1957). He was married to Sally Irene Cline and Eileen Walser. He died on August 6, 2001 in Lambeth, London, England, UK.

"Genevieve" +

23. George Duning

Composer | From Here to Eternity

George Duning was educated in Cincinnati, Ohio, and during his early 20s played trumpet and piano for the Kay Kyser band, later arranging most of the music for Kyser's popular "Kollege of Musical Knowledge" radio program. It was during the Kyser band's appearance in Carolina Moon (1940) that ...

1) "Picnic" (1/3)

24. David Raksin

Soundtrack | Captain America: The First Avenger

David Raksin's father Isidore, who both conducted and owned a music store, taught his son to play piano as well as woodwind instruments at an early age. He eventually studied music with Arnold Schönberg, but became by-and-large a self-taught multi-instrumentalist (organ and percussion), as well as ...

1) "Separate Tables" (1/2)

25. Frank De Vol

Soundtrack | Meng long guo jiang

Frank DeVol was born to Herman Frank DeVol and Minnie Emma (Humphreys) DeVol in Moundsville, West Virginia, on September 20, 1911 and grew up in Canton, Ohio. His father had a "pit" orchestra at the local movie house, and his mother had a sewing shop in Canton. His father was also an accountant. ...

1) "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte" (1/2)

26. 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, ...

1) "Les parapluies de Cherbourg" (with Jacques Demy) (1/2)

27. Jacques Demy

Soundtrack | Les parapluies de Cherbourg

Jacques Demy was born on June 5, 1931 in Pontchâteau, Loire-Atlantique, France. He was a director and writer, known for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and A Room in Town (1982). He was married to Agnès Varda. He died on October 27, 1990 in Paris, France.

"Les parapluies de Cherbourg" (with Michel Legrand) +

28. Lalo Schifrin

Music_department | Rush Hour

Immensely talented, Argentinian born pianist, conductor and composer who has written over 100 scores for both television & the cinema including the memorable themes to Mission: Impossible (1966), Mannix (1967), Starsky and Hutch (1975), Cool Hand Luke (1967), and Bullitt (1968). Schifrin has ...

1) "Cool Hand Luke" (1/4)

29. Jerry Fielding

Composer | The Wild Bunch

A three-time Oscar nominee, Jerry Fielding was among the boldest and most experimental of all Hollywood film composers. His music typically utilized advanced compositional procedures, producing dense, often richly dissonant orchestral textures, sometimes flavored with jazz. Fielding's film music ...

1) "The Wild Bunch" (1/3)

30. John Barry

Soundtrack | Out of Africa

John Barry was born in York, England in 1933, and was the youngest of three children. His father, Jack, owned several local cinemas and by the age of fourteen, Barry was capable of running the projection box on his own - in particular, The Rialto in York. As he was brought up in a cinematic ...

1) "Mary, Queen of Scots" (1/2)

31. John Addison

Music_department | A Bridge Too Far

British composer, primarily of film scores. From a military family and the son of a Royal Field Artillery colonel, John Mervyn Addison was born March 16, 1920, in Chobham, Surrey, and attended Wellington College, Berkshire, with plans for a military career. His interest and talent for music ...

"Sleuth" +

32. Richard Rodney Bennett

Composer | Murder on the Orient Express

Richard Rodney Bennett was an eclectic composer of serious orchestral works, jazz songs and music for stage and screen. Of the former, his most famous compositions include a First Symphony, a piano concerto and four string quartets. Among the latter are scores for operas, such as the dramatic "The ...

1) "Murder on the Orient Express" (1/3)

33. Jack Nitzsche

Soundtrack | An Officer and a Gentleman

Jack Nitzsche was born on April 22, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), The Exorcist (1973) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). He was married to Buffy Sainte-Marie and Gracia Ann May. He died on August 25, 2000 in ...

1) "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1/2)

34. Philippe Sarde

Composer | Le locataire

Philippe Sarde was born on June 21, 1948 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He is a composer and actor, known for The Tenant (1976), Barocco (1976) and Lord of the Flies (1990). He has been married to Clotilde Burrer since 1994. They have two children. He was previously married to Nave ...

"Tess" +

35. Marvin Hamlisch

Composer | The Spy Who Loved Me

Musical talent ran in Marvin Hamlisch's family - his father was an accordionist, and at seven Hamlisch was the youngest student ever accepted by Manhattan's Julliard School of Music. Hamlich furthered his education by taking night classes at Queens College and working during the day as a rehearsal ...

1) "Sophie's Choice" (1/2)

36. 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 ...

"Gandhi" (with George Fenton) +

37. Michael Gore

Composer | Pretty in Pink

Michael Gore was born on March 5, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He is a composer and producer, known for Pretty in Pink (1986), Fame (1980) and Footloose (1984).

"Terms of Endearment" +

38. Maurice Jarre

Composer | Lawrence of Arabia

Unlike many musicians who started to learn music while still in their childhood, Maurice Jarre was already late in his teens when he discovered music and decided to make a career in that field. Against his father's will, he enrolled at Conservatoire de Paris where he studied percussions, ...

1) "Witness" (1/4)

39. Jonas Gwangwa

Composer | Cry Freedom

Jonas Gwangwa was born on October 19, 1937 in Orlando East, South Africa. He was a composer and actor, known for Cry Freedom (1987), Generations: The Legacy (2014) and Soweto Green: This Is a 'Tree' Story (1995). He was married to Violet Molebatsi. He died on January 23, 2021 in Johannesburg, South...

"Cry Freedom" (with George Fenton) +

40. Richard Robbins

Composer | The Remains of the Day

Richard Robbins was born on December 4, 1940 in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, USA. He was a composer and director, known for The Remains of the Day (1993), A Room with a View (1985) and Howards End (1992). He died on November 7, 2012 in Rhinebeck, New York, USA.

1) "Howards End" (1/2)

41. Alan Silvestri

Composer | The Polar Express

In his ongoing, decades-long career as a composer, Alan Silvestri has blazed an innovative trail with his exciting and melodic scores, winning the applause of Hollywood and movie audiences the world over. With a credit list of over 100 films Silvestri has composed some of the most recognizable and ...

"Forrest Gump" +

42. Elliot Goldenthal

Music_department | Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Elliot Goldenthal is an Academy Award-winning composer best known for his original music scores for such films as Frida (2002) and Across the Universe (2007), among his other works.

He was born on May 2, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York. His father was a house-painter, and his mother was a seamstress. ...

1) "Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles" (1/2)

43. Patrick Doyle

Composer | Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Patrick Doyle is a classically trained composer.

His first film score, the acclaimed adaptation of "Henry V" with Kenneth Branagh for Renaissance films was scored in 1989. He has subsequently worked with Kenneth Branagh, a long time collaborator on numerous pictures including "Dead Again", "Much Ado...

1) "Sense and Sensibility" (1/2)

44. Gabriel Yared

Composer | The Talented Mr. Ripley

Gabriel Yared stopped his law studies at the age of 20 to work as a professional music composer. He studied with Henri Dutilleux and Maurice Ohana. He worked as a composer, orchestrator or producer for such singers as Françoise Hardy, Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Bécaud and Mireille Mathieu. He made ...

1) "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1/2)

45. 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 ...

1) "The Hours" (1/3)

46. Javier Navarrete

Composer | El laberinto del fauno

Javier Navarrete was born in 1956 in Teruel, Aragón, Spain. He is a composer, known for Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Wrath of the Titans (2012) and Byzantium (2012).

"El laberinto del fauno" +

47. Michael Giacchino

Composer | Star Trek

Michael Giacchino is an American composer of music for films, television and video games.

Giacchino composed the scores to the television series Lost, Alias and Fringe, the video game series Medal of Honor and Call of Duty and many films such as The Incredibles (2004), Star Trek (2009), Up (2009), ...

"Ratatouille" +

48. Buck Sanders

Music_department | The Hurt Locker

Oscar-nominated composer Buck Sanders has carved out a niche as one of Hollywood's top musical experimenters, and as Marco Beltrami's right-hand man on nearly twenty years' worth of prestige films and genre classics. From horror standouts (Resident Evil, The Woman in Black) to modern westerns (3:10...

"The Hurt Locker" (with Marco Beltrami) +

49. A.R. Rahman

Composer | Slumdog Millionaire

A two-time winner and five-time nominee of the Academy Award, A. R. Rahman is popularly known as the man who has redefined contemporary Indian music. Rahman, according to a BBC estimate, has sold more than 150 million copies of his work comprising of music from more than 100 film soundtracks and ...

"127 Hours" +

50. John Powell

Composer | How to Train Your Dragon 2

John Powell was born on September 18, 1963 in London, England, UK. He is a composer, known for How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), Happy Feet (2006) and Shrek (2001). He was previously married to Melinda Lerner.

"How to Train Your Dragon" +

51. 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 ...

"Hugo" +

52. Will Butler

Soundtrack | Love and Monsters

Will Butler was born on October 6, 1982 in The Woodlands, Texas, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for Love and Monsters (2020), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013) and Boyhood (2014).

"Her" (with Owen Pallett) +

53. Owen Pallett

Music_department | Her

Owen Pallett is known for Her (2013), The Box (2009) and Possessor (2020).

"Her" (with Will Butler) +

54. Mica Levi

Composer | Under the Skin

Mica Levi is a musician and composer born in Guildford, UK and living in South East London.

She has previously written music for films including Under The Skin (2014, dir. Jonathan Glazer), Jackie (2016, dir. Pablo Larraín), Monos (2018, dir. Alejandro Landes), Zola (2020, dir. Janicza Bravo) and ...

"Jackie" +

55. Dustin O'Halloran

Composer | The Essex Serpent

Dustin O'Halloran is an American pianist and composer with four acclaimed solo albums under his own name, and is a member of the band A Winged Victory for the Sullen. Winner of a 2015 Emmy Award for his main title theme to Amazon's comedy drama "Transparent", he was also nominated for an Oscar, a ...

"Lion" (with Volker Bertelmann) +

56. Volker Bertelmann

Composer | Im Westen nichts Neues

Volker Bertelmann, also known as Hauschka, is an Academy Award-nominated composer, pianist and experimental musician.

In 2016, Bertelmann collaborated with Dustin O'Halloran on the score for Garth Davis' Lion, which was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for Best Original ...

"Lion" (with Dustin O'Halloran) +

57. Jonny Greenwood

Soundtrack | The Master

Jonny Greenwood was born on November 5, 1971 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK. He is a composer and actor, known for The Master (2012), There Will Be Blood (2007) and Phantom Thread (2017). He has been married to Sharona Katan since 1995. They have three children.

1) "Phantom Thread" (1/2)

58. Terence Blanchard

Composer | BlacKkKlansman

A world renowned trumpeter/composer/band leader and Blue Note recording artist, Terence Blanchard is the most prolific jazz musician to ever compose for motion pictures. Blanchard was born and raised in New Orleans where he studied with the Marsalis brothers at the famed New Orleans Center for the ...

1) "BlacKkKlansman" (1/2)

59. Marc Shaiman

Soundtrack | Smash

A great talent who started his career in Saturday Night Live (1975), where he worked with colleagues like Rob Reiner or Billy Crystal. He worked for some great stage values as Eric Clapton, Rosemary Clooney, Harry Connick Jr., Billy Crystal, Lauryn Hill, Jennifer Holliday, Nathan Lane, Jenifer Lewis...

"Mary Poppins Returns" +

60. Emile Mosseri

Composer | Minari

Emile Mosseri is known for Minari (2020), The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019) and Random Acts of Flyness (2018).

"Minari" +

61. Trent Reznor

Soundtrack | The Social Network

Trent Reznor is an American songwriter/musician/producer and sole member of multi-platinum act Nine Inch Nails, and now an Academy Award, Emmy and Grammy Award winning film composer. He began creating music as a child in Western Pennsylvania, first on piano and then taking up other instruments. He ...

"Mank" (with Atticus Ross) +

62. Atticus Ross