Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, who won an Oscar, a Grammy and a BAFTA Award earlier this year for Oppenheimer, added to his trophy haul with multiple awards at the 40th annual BMI Film, TV and Visual Media Awards, which was held on June 5 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Icelandic composer Atli Örvarsson received six crystals, more than anyone else this year, for his work on hit TV shows.
Other multiple winners included Brian Tyler and Mike Post, both of whom are previous BMI Icon Award recipients, Sean Callery, Sherri Chung, Tom Howe, Deana Kiner, Kevin Kiner, Sean Kiner, John Murphy and Blake Neely.
Scores from the most successful films, the highest-rated series on TV, cable and streaming services, and for the first time in the ceremony’s history, the most popular video games of the previous year were honored. The inaugural winners in the new video game category were Stephen Barton, Chuck E. Myers “Sea,” J Scott Rakozy, Ted Reedy, and Inon Zur.
The event was co-hosted by BMI president and CEO Mike O’Neill and BMI vice president of creative, film, TV & visual media, Tracy McKnight.
As previously announced, composer Ramin Djawadi received the BMI Icon Award for his body of work across film, television and video games. Following a video tribute highlighting his successful career, Djawadi thanked his team and mentors Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt. He then brought his son and daughter to the stage and thanked his wife for being a driving force in his family’s life, saying “you are our icon.”
Previous BMI Icon Award recipients include (in addition to Tyler and Post), Terence Blanchard, Mychael Danna, Alexandre Desplat, Harry Gregson-Williams, James Newton Howard, Christopher Lennertz, Thomas Newman, Rachel Portman (PRS), Alan Silvestri and John Williams.
Djawadi, who was born in what was then known as West Germany, won back-to-back Primetime Emmy Awards in 2018-19 for outstanding music composition for a series (original dramatic score) for Game of Thrones.
For a complete list of winners, visit www.bmi.com/award-shows/film-tv-2024/.
The event was held one night after the BMI Pop Awards, at which Taylor Swift won pop songwriter of the year, the Miley Cyrus megahit “Flowers” was named song of the year; and Sony Music Publishing won publisher of the year.