Jon Batiste, Daniel Pemberton Honored

Jon Batiste, Daniel Pemberton and Siddhartha Khosla are among the winners of the 2024 ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards. The kudos were presented as part of the 2024 ASCAP Screen Music Awards at an invitation-only event in Los Angeles on Thursday (May 9).

Here are this year’s recipients of the ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards, which are chosen by the ASCAP composer and songwriter community:

Film score of the year: Daniel Pemberton, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse  

Television score of the year: David Fleming, The Last of Us

Television theme of the year: Siddhartha Khosla, Only Murders in the Building

Documentary score of the year: Jon Batiste, American Symphony

Video game score of the year: Gordy Haab, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and American Symphony were both shortlisted for Oscars for best original score, though neither wound up with a nomination. Batiste was Oscar-nominated for co-writing a song from American Symphony – “It Never Went Away,” which he co-wrote with Dan Wilson.

Khosla received two Primetime Emmy nods in 2022 for his work on Only Murders in the Building – outstanding music composition for a series (original dramatic score) and outstanding original main title theme music – but none this past year. Fleming has yet to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy.

In addition, the ASCAP Screen Music Awards recognize top composers of the past year’s hit streaming series and films. The top-rated streaming series winners include Robert Duncan for The Night Agent, Natalie Holt for Loki, Bear McCreary for the streaming remake of book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis for the dramedy Unprisoned.

Among the top-rated streaming films winners, Germaine Franco is honored for her score for action-thriller The Mother, Marcus Miller for the holiday comedy Candy Cane Lane, and Lorne Balfe for both historical thriller Tetris and action-romance Ghosted.

In other categories, Pemberton takes home top box office film of the year for his score to the blockbuster animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and David Vanacore is named the top most performed themes and underscore winner for his work on such shows as Survivor, The Kardashians and The Daily Show.

Composers Matthew Hawkins, the late Maurice “m.0.” Jackson and the late Neil Martin (collectively known as Numeriklab) win top network television series for their main theme for NCIS, while John Sereda is recognized with top cable television series for the historical drama When Calls the Heart.

The complete list of winners is available on the ASCAP website: www.ascap.com/screenawards24.