Black Reel Award for Outstanding Original Score

Black Reel Award for Outstanding Score
Black Reel Award for Outstanding Score
	The 2024and 2025 recipient: Kris Bowers
Country	United States
Presented by	The Black Reel Awards (BRAs)
First award	Black Reel Awards of 2005
Most recent winner	Kris Bowers ; The Wild Robot (2025)
Website	blackreelawards.com

This article lists the winners and nominees for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Original Score. This award is given to the film composers and was first awarded during the 2005 ceremony. Michael Abels & Nicholas Britell currently holds the record for most wins in this category.

Quick Facts Country, Presented by ...

Year	Composer	Film	Ref
2005
	Ray Charles and Stephen Altman	Ray	^[1]
	Terence Blanchard	She Hate Me
	RZA	Kill Bill: Volume 2
2006	—
2007
	Harvey Mason Jr. and Damon Thomas	Dreamgirls	^[2]
	Big Boi	Idlewild
	Terence Blanchard	Inside Man
	Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin	Something New
	Aaron Zigman	Akeelah and the Bee
2008
	A. R. Rahman	Slumdog Millionaire	^[3]
	Terence Blanchard and Steve Jordan	Cadillac Records
	Stanley Clarke	Soul Men
	Mason Daring	Honeydripper
	Steve Isles	RocknRolla

Year	Composer	Film	Ref
2010	—
2011
	The Roots	Night Catches Us	^[4]
	James Horner	The Karate Kid
	Atticus Ross and Leopold Ross	The Book of Eli
	Marcelo Zarvos	Brooklyn's Finest
	Aaron Zigman	For Colored Girls
2012
	Thomas Newman	The Help	^[5]
	Harry Escott	Shame
	Alex Heffes	The First Grader
	Steven Price	Attack the Block
	Misha Segal	Mooz-lum
2013
	Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin	Beasts of the Southern Wild	^[6]
	Terence Blanchard	Red Tails
	Kathryn Bostic	Middle of Nowhere
	Bruce Hornsby	Red Hook Summer
	Salaam Remi	Sparkle
2014
	Hans Zimmer	12 Years a Slave	^[7]
	Stanley Clarke	The Best Man Holiday
	Ludwig Göransson	Fruitvale Station
	Mark Isham	42
	Rodrigo Leao	The Butler
2015
	Jason Moran	Selma	^[8]
	Terence Blanchard	Black or White
	Kathryn Bostic	Dear White People
	Danny Bramson and Waddy Wachtel	Jimi: All Is by My Side
	Mark Isham	Beyond the Lights
2016
	Joseph Trapanese	Straight Outta Compton	^[9]
	Terence Blanchard	Chi-Raq
	Germaine Franco	Dope
	Ludwig Göransson	Creed
	Dan Romer	Beast of No Nation
2017
	Nicholas Britell	Moonlight	^[10]
	Robert Glasper	Miles Ahead
	Henry Jackman	The Birth of a Nation
	Benjamin Wallfisch, Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer	Hidden Figures
	Marcelo Zarvos	Fences
2018
	Michael Abels	Get Out	^[11]
	James Newton Howard	Detroit
	David Newman	Girls Trip
	Roger Suen	Gook
	Marcus Miller	Marshall
2019
	Nicholas Britell	If Beale Street Could Talk	^[12]
	Terence Blanchard	BlacKkKlansman
	Ludwig Göransson	Black Panther
	Ludwig Göransson	Creed II
	Dustin O'Halloran	The Hate U Give

Year	Composer	Film	Ref
2020
	Michael Abels	Us	^[13]
	Scott Bomar	Dolemite Is My Name
	Emile Mosseri	The Last Black Man in San Francisco
	Devonté Hynes	Queen & Slim
	Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor	Waves
2021
	Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste	Soul	^[14]
	Guy C. Routte	The Forty-Year-Old Version
	John Debney	Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
	Robert Glasper	The Photograph
	Fabrice Lecomte	Sylvie's Love
2022
	Jeymes Samuel	The Harder They Fall	^[15]
	Robert Akiki Aubrey Lowe	Candyman
	Alex Lacamoire, Lin-Manuel Miranda & Bill Sherman	In the Heights
	Devonté Hynes	Passing
	Kris Bowers	Respect
2023
	Terence Blanchard	The Woman King	^[16]
	Common	Alice
	Craig DeLeon	End of the Road
	Tanerélle and Bartek Gliniak	Nanny
	Michael Abels	Nope
2024
	Kris Bowers	The Color Purple	^[17]
	Jon Batiste	American Symphony
	Kris Bowers	Chevalier
	Branford Marsalis	Rustin
	Desmond Murray and Pierre Charles	They Cloned Tyrone
2025
	Kris Bowers	The Wild Robot	^[18]
	Chanda Dancy	Blink Twice
	Kris Bowers	Bob Marley: One Love
	Tamar-kali	The Fire Inside
	Jon Batiste	Saturday Night

Black Reel Award for Outstanding Original Score

Winners and nominees

2000s

2010s

2020s

Multiple nominations and wins

Multiple wins

Multiple nominations

References

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