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Music supervisors behind the songs of “Wicked” and “A Complete Unknown” led the winners at the 15th annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards on Sunday night.

On the TV side, the music supervisors behind “Agatha All Along” and “Baby Reindeer” triumphed.

Stephen Schwartz was awarded the Icon Award to celebrate his contributions to the music and film industry. The composer and lyricist performed his song “Beautiful City” on stage from his musical “Godspell.”

Oscar nominees Abraham Alexander and Adrian Quesada performed their nominated song “Like a Bird” from “Sing Sing,” which took the prize for best song written and/or recorded for a film. Meanwhile, Danielle Ponder performed her nominated song “Egún” from Apple TV’s “Manhunt,” and the artist Role Model performed their song “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out” as the Spotlight artist of the evening.

Music producer and supervisor Bonnie Greenberg accepted the Legacy Award for her outstanding career in music supervision.

Wicked and A Complete Unknown were the top winners at the 15th Guild of Music Supervisors Awards, held Sunday night at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. Sing Sing, I Saw the TV Glow, Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary, and The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat took home the other movie prizes. See the full list below.

The Guild of Music Supervisors Awards celebrate the best in music supervision and songwriting across different media, including film, television, documentaries, and advertising.

2025 Guild of Music Supervisors Award Winners:

Film

Best Music Supervision in Major Budget Films

Winner: Maggie Rodford – Wicked

Best Music Supervision in Mid-Level Budget Films

Winner: Steven Gizicki – A Complete Unknown

Best Music Supervision in Low Budget Films

Winner: Jessica Berndt, Chris Swanson – I Saw the TV Glow

Best Music Supervision in a Non-Theatrically Released Film

Winner: Robin Urdang – The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat

Best Song Written and/or Recorded for...

Wicked and A Complete Unknown were the top film winners at the 15th Guild of Music Supervisors Awards, which were handed out Sunday night at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. Sing Sing, I Saw the TV Glow, Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary and The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat took the other movie prizes. See the full winners list below.

Honoring the year’s best achievements in music supervision and songwriting, the guild handed its TV hardware went to Baby Reindeer, Agatha All Along, English Teacher, Love Island USA and Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza.

Here are the winners of the 2025 Guild of Music Supervisors Awards:

Film

Best Music Supervision in Major Budget Films

Maggie Rodford – “Wicked”

Best Music Supervision in Mid-Level Budget Films

Steven Gizicki – “A Complete Unknown”

Best Music Supervision in Low Budget Films

Jessica Berndt, Chris Swanson – “I Saw the TV Glow”

Best Music Supervision in a Non-Theatrically...

"Like a Bird" from the prison drama Sing Sing just won a key prize at the 15th Annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards on Sunday night so does that make the tune written by Abraham Alexander, Brandon Marcel, and Adrian Quesada the new frontrunner for the Best Song Oscar?

The guild has been handing out its award for Best Song Written and/or Recorded for a Film for the last nine years, and in that span it has lined up with the Oscars only three times: "City of Stars" from La La Land, "Shallow" from A Star is Born, and "What Was I Made For?" from Barbie. In four instances, the guild picked songs that were nominated for but didn't win the Oscar: "Mystery of Love" from Call Me by Your Name, "Hear My Voice" from The Trial of the Chicago 7, "Dos Oruguitas" from Encanto, and "This Is a Life...

The music supervisors for “Wicked,” “A Complete Unknown” and “I Saw the TV Glow” won the top feature film awards at the 15th annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards, which took place on Sunday at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles.

“Wicked” won in the Best Music Supervision in the Major Budget Films category, “A Complete Unknown” won in the mid-level budget category and “I Saw the TV Glow” won for low-budget films.

“The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat” won for non-theatrically released films.

The Oscar-nominated song “Like a Bird” from “Sing Sing” won in the Best Song Written and/or Recorded for a Film category — and in a pointed rebuke to the Oscars’ decision not to perform the nominated songs during that show, “Like a Bird” and two other songs were performed at the Guild of Music Supervisors Awards ceremony.

Television winners included “Baby Reindeer,” “English Teacher,” “Love Island USA” and “Agatha All Along.

The Guild of Music Supervisors Awards revealed its 2025 winners Sunday night (Feb. 23). The 15th annual ceremony was held at The Wiltern in L.A.’s Koreatown and honors the year’s best work in songs and scores for screen.

Sunday’s ceremony began with a video about January’s deadly wildfires, in which guild president Lindsay Wolfington lost her home. She thanked the community for rallying behind her during opening remarks with vp Heather Guibert.

The opening remarks didn’t shy away from addressing the Academy’s decision to “move away” from best original song live performances at the 2025 Oscars. “We are proud that our awards for best song written and or recorded for film and for television, acknowledges the collaborative efforts of the songwriters, the performers, and of course the music,” Guibert told the crowd.

“This year in particular, unlike other awards bodies, we are especially proud to be...

Nominations voting is from January 8-17, 2025, with official Oscar nominations announced January 23, 2025. Final voting is February 11-18, 2025. And finally, the 97th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 2 and air live on ABC at 7:00 p.m. Et/ 4:00 p.m. Pt. We update our picks through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2025 Oscar predictions.

The State of the Race

Regardless of who wins, Netflix seems bound to collect an Oscar for Best Original Song, but the details as to why are still very fascinating.

“Emilia Pérez” has long been an awards juggernaut, but the Karla Sofía Gascón social media scandal really threatened to clip its wings. It still seems like it is on track to win Best International Feature and Best Supporting Actress, but this category is where people are starting to call for something different.

Diane Warren has been nominated for a competitive Oscar 16 times now,...

Twisters and The Idea of You are the most nominated films for the 2025 Guild of Music Supervisors Awards, the nominees for which were unveiled Friday.

Twisters’ Rachel Levy earned a nod for best music supervision among major budget films, while Frankie Pine with the romantic comedy The Idea of You received a nomination for best music supervision in a mid-budget film. And in the best film song competition, the Twisters action thriller got a nod for “Out of Oklahoma,” while The Idea of You will contend in the category with the title song “The Idea of You”.

Music supervisors Steve Schnur, Raphaella Lima, Codie Childs, Mike Ladman and Mara Tacham received the most individual nominations with three each, and Netflix earned the most nominations among major studios with 13 in all.

Other film contenders in the music supervision and songwriting competitions include Wicked, Deadpool & Wolverine, Emilia Pérez and The Brutalist. And on the TV side,...

Songs by Pharrell, Elton John, and Lainey Wilson, as well as multiple selections from Emelia Pérez, have made the Oscars’ shortlist for Best Original Song.

Pharrell’s “Piece by Piece,” the title track from his animated Lego biopic, made the cut, as did John’s “Never Too Late,” co-written with Brandi Carlile and Andrew Watt for his recent documentary. And Wilson secured a shortlist nod for her contribution to Twisters, “Out of Oklahoma,” co-written with Luke Dick and Shane McAnally.

The two songs from Emilia Pérez to make the shortlist...

The shortlists for the music categories have been revealed for the 97th Academy Awards, with 15 contenders for Best Original Song and 20 semifinalists for Best Original Score now one step closer to potentially earning Oscar nominations when they’re announced on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025.

The two frontrunners from “Emilia Pérez” — “El Mal” and “El Camino” — are both among the 15 shortlisted songs. Expectedly, the song category includes several high-profile singers, musicians and songwriters, such as Pharrell Williams, Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Lainey Wilson, Maren Morris, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Robbie Williams, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Surprising Oscar contender Kristen Wiig, who co-wrote “Harper and Will Go West” from Will Ferrell’s “Will & Harper” documentary, also keeps her hopes alive for her first Academy Award nomination.

Diane Warren’s inclusion for her latest song “The Journey,” which is featured in Netflix’s “The Six Triple Eight,” brings the potential for her eighth consecutive Oscar...

Predicting Best Original Song at the Oscars is made more difficult by the three-stage process. In years past, many seemingly sure-fire contenders were deemed to be ineligible. Even those ditties that clear this hurdle then have to pass muster with the 400 plus members of the music branch of the academy. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Original Song.)

To be eligible for consideration, a tune must meet these criteria:

It must be an original song with words and music, both of which were original and written specifically for the film;

It must be the result of a creative interaction between the filmmaker(s) and the songwriter(s) who have been engaged to work directly on the film; and

There must be a clearly audible, intelligible, substantive rendition (not necessarily visually presented) of both lyric and melody used in the body of the movie or as the...