Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score

The Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score^[1] is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), an organization of journalists who cover the United States film industry, but are affiliated with publications outside North America, since its institution in 1947.

Golden Globe for Best Original Score
Current award holders, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, c. 2006
Awarded for	Best Score Written for a Motion Picture
Location	United States
Presented by	Hollywood Foreign Press Association
Currently held by	Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for Challengers (2024)
Website	www.goldenglobes.com

As of August 2025, the award is currently held by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, members of the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.

History

Since the 5th Golden Globe Awards (1947), the award is presented annually, except from 1953 to 1958. The nominations from 1947 and 1948 are not available.^[2][3] The first Best Original Score award went to Max Steiner for his compositional work on Life with Father.

John Williams is the artist with the most nominations (24); those resulted in 4 wins. Dimitri Tiomkin had the same number of wins, but out of only 5 nominations. Other notable achievers include Maurice Jarre (10 nominations, 4 wins), Alan Menken (5 nominations, 3 wins), Hans Zimmer (15 nominations, 3 wins), Justin Hurwitz (3 nominations, 3 wins) and Alexandre Desplat (11 nominations, 2 wins).

Artists like Jerry Goldsmith (9 nominations) and Michel Legrand (7 nominations) were nominated several times but never received the award. Dimitri Tiomkin, Alan Menken and Howard Shore are the only composers to win two consecutive awards. Additionally, Dimitri Tiomkin received Special Achievement Awards for his services to film music in 1955 and 1957, as did Hugo Friedhofer in 1958. The most recent recipient of this award was Ludwig Göransson for the film Oppenheimer.

Winners and nominees

Key

Sign	Meaning
	Indicates the winner

1940s

Year1	Film	Composer(s)	Ref.
1947	Life with Father	Max Steiner	[4]
1948	The Red Shoes	Brian Easdale	[5]
1949	The Inspector General	Johnny Green	[6]
	All the King's Men	Louis Gruenberg

1950s

Year1	Film	Composer(s)	Ref.
1950	Sunset Boulevard	Franz Waxman	[7]
	A Life of Her Own	Bronisław Kaper
	Destination Moon	Leith Stevens
1951	September Affair	Victor Young	[8]
	The Day the Earth Stood Still	Bernard Herrmann
	The Well	Dimitri Tiomkin
1952	High Noon	Dimitri Tiomkin	[9]
	Ivanhoe	Miklós Rózsa
	The Quiet Man	Victor Young
1953–1958	No award given[10]
1959	On the Beach	Ernest Gold	[11]
1960	The Alamo	Dimitri Tiomkin	[12]
	Exodus	Ernest Gold
	Pepe	Johnny Green
	Spartacus	Alex North
	The World of Suzie Wong	George Duning

1960s

Year1	Film	Composer(s)	Ref.
1961	The Guns of Navarone	Dimitri Tiomkin	[13]
	El Cid	Miklós Rózsa
	Fanny	Harold Rome
	King of Kings	Miklós Rózsa
	Summer and Smoke	Elmer Bernstein
1962	To Kill a Mockingbird	Elmer Bernstein	[14]
	Lawrence of Arabia	Maurice Jarre
	Mutiny on the Bounty	Bronisław Kaper
	Taras Bulba	Franz Waxman
	The Music Man	Meredith Willson
1963	No award given[10]
1964	The Fall of the Roman Empire	Dimitri Tiomkin	[15]
	Becket	Laurence Rosenthal
	Mary Poppins	Sherman Brothers
	Seven Days in May	Jerry Goldsmith
	Zorba the Greek (Alexis Zorbas)	Mikis Theodorakis
1965	Doctor Zhivago	Maurice Jarre	[16]
	Battle of the Bulge	Benjamin Frankel
	The Great Race	Henry Mancini
	The Sandpiper	Johnny Mandel
	The Yellow Rolls-Royce	Riz Ortolani
1966	Hawaii	Elmer Bernstein	[17]
	A Man and a Woman	Francis Lai
	Is Paris Burning? (Paris brûle-t-il?)	Maurice Jarre
	The Bible: In the Beginning...	Toshiro Mayuzumi
	The Sand Pebbles	Jerry Goldsmith
1967	Camelot	Frederick Loewe	[18]
	Doctor Dolittle	Leslie Bricusse
	Live for Life (Vivre Pour Vivre)	Francis Lai
	Thoroughly Modern Millie	Elmer Bernstein
	Two for the Road	Henry Mancini
1968	The Shoes of the Fisherman	Alex North	[19]
	Chitty Chitty Bang Bang	Sherman Brothers
	Oliver!	Lionel Bart (declared ineligible and removed from ballot)[20]
	Romeo and Juliet	Nino Rota
	Rosemary's Baby	Krzysztof Komeda
	The Lion in Winter	John Barry
	The Thomas Crown Affair	Michel Legrand
1969	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	Burt Bacharach	[21]
	Anne of the Thousand Days	Georges Delerue
	Goodbye, Mr. Chips	Leslie Bricusse
	The Happy Ending	Michel Legrand
	The Secret of Santa Vittoria	Ernest Gold

1970s

Year1	Film	Composer(s)	Ref.
1970	Love Story	Francis Lai	[22]
	Airport	Alfred Newman
	Cromwell	Frank Cordell
	Scrooge	Leslie Bricusse
	Wuthering Heights	Michel Legrand
1971	Shaft	Isaac Hayes	[23]
	Le Mans	Michel Legrand
	Mary, Queen of Scots	John Barry
	Summer of '42	Michel Legrand
	The Andromeda Strain	Gil Melle
1972	The Godfather	Nino Rota	[24]
	Frenzy	Ron Goodwin
	The Getaway	Quincy Jones
	Lady Sings the Blues	Michel Legrand
	The Poseidon Adventure	John Williams
1973	Jonathan Livingston Seagull	Neil Diamond	[25]
	Breezy	Michel Legrand
	Cinderella Liberty	John Williams
	O Lucky Man!	Alan Price
	The Day of the Dolphin	Georges Delerue
	Tom Sawyer	Sherman Brothers, John Williams
1974	The Little Prince	Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe	[26]
	Chinatown	Jerry Goldsmith
	Earthquake	John Williams
	Phantom of the Paradise	Paul Williams
	The Godfather Part II	Carmine Coppola, Nino Rota
1975	Jaws	John Williams	[27]
	Funny Lady	Fred Ebb, John Kander
	The Man Who Would Be King	Maurice Jarre
	The Other Side of the Mountain	Charles Fox
	The Return of the Pink Panther	Henry Mancini
1976	A Star is Born	Kenneth Ascher, Paul Williams	[28]
	Bugsy Malone	Paul Williams
	Rocky	Bill Conti
	The Slipper and the Rose	Sherman Brothers
	Voyage of the Damned	Lalo Schifrin
1977	Star Wars	John Williams	[29]
	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	John Williams
	Pete's Dragon	Joel Hirschhorn, Al Kasha
	Saturday Night Fever	Barry Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Robin Gibb, David Shire
	The Spy Who Loved Me	Marvin Hamlisch
1978	Midnight Express	Giorgio Moroder	[30]
	An Unmarried Woman	Bill Conti
	Superman	John Williams
	The Children of Sanchez	Chuck Mangione
	The Lord of the Rings	Leonard Rosenman
1979	Apocalypse Now	Carmine Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola	[31]
	10	Henry Mancini
	A Little Romance	Georges Delerue
	Alien	Jerry Goldsmith
	The Black Stallion	Carmine Coppola
	Star Trek: The Motion Picture	Jerry Goldsmith
	The Amityville Horror	Lalo Schifrin

1980s

Year1	Film	Composer(s)	Ref.
1980	The Stunt Man	Dominic Frontiere	[32]
	American Gigolo	Giorgio Moroder
	Fame	Michael Gore
	Somewhere in Time	John Barry
	The Empire Strikes Back	John Williams
	The Competition	Lalo Schifrin
1982	E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	John Williams	[33]
	Blade Runner	Vangelis
	Cat People	Giorgio Moroder
	Six Weeks	Dudley Moore
	Victor/Victoria	Henry Mancini
1983	Flashdance	Giorgio Moroder	[34]
	Rumble Fish	Stewart Copeland
	Scarface	Giorgio Moroder
	Under Fire	Jerry Goldsmith
	Yentl	Alan & Marilyn Bergman, Michel Legrand
1984	A Passage to India	Maurice Jarre	[35]
	Starman	Jack Nitzsche
	Once Upon a Time in America	Ennio Morricone
	The Killing Fields	Mike Oldfield
	The River	John Williams
1985	Out of Africa	John Barry	[36]
	The Color Purple	Quincy Jones
	White Nights	Michel Colombier
	Witness	Maurice Jarre
	Year of the Dragon	David Mansfield
1986	The Mission	Ennio Morricone	[37]
	Little Shop of Horrors	Miles Goodman
	Round Midnight	Herbie Hancock
	The Mosquito Coast	Maurice Jarre
	Top Gun	Harold Faltermeyer
1987	The Last Emperor	David Byrne, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cong Su	[38]
	Cry Freedom	George Fenton, Jonas Gwangwa
	Empire of the Sun	John Williams
	The Glass Menagerie	Henry Mancini
	The Untouchables	Ennio Morricone
1988	Gorillas in the Mist	Maurice Jarre	[39]
	Madame Sousatzka	Gerald Gouriet
	The Accidental Tourist	John Williams
	The Last Temptation of Christ	Peter Gabriel
	The Milagro Beanfield War	Dave Grusin
1989	The Little Mermaid	Alan Menken	[40]
	Born on the Fourth of July	John Williams
	Casualties of War	Ennio Morricone
	Glory	James Horner
	The Fabulous Baker Boys	Dave Grusin

1990s

Year1	Film	Composer(s)	Ref.
1990	The Sheltering Sky	Richard Horowitz, Ryuichi Sakamoto	[41]
	Avalon	Randy Newman
	Dances with Wolves	John Barry
	Havana	Dave Grusin
	The Godfather Part III	Carmine Coppola
1991	Beauty and the Beast	Alan Menken	[42]
	At Play in the Fields of the Lord	Zbigniew Preisner
	Bugsy	Ennio Morricone
	Dead Again	Patrick Doyle
	For the Boys	Dave Grusin
	Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves	Michael Kamen
1992	Aladdin	Alan Menken	[43]
	1492: Conquest of Paradise	Vangelis
	Basic Instinct	Jerry Goldsmith
	Chaplin	John Barry
	The Last of the Mohicans	Randy Edelman, Trevor Jones
1993	Heaven & Earth	Kitarō	[44]
	Three Colors: Blue	Zbigniew Preisner
	Schindler's List	John Williams
	The Piano	Michael Nyman
	The Nightmare Before Christmas	Danny Elfman
1994	The Lion King	Hans Zimmer	[45]
	Forrest Gump	Alan Silvestri
	Interview with the Vampire	Elliot Goldenthal
	Legends of the Fall	James Horner
	Nell	Mark Isham
1995	A Walk in the Clouds	Maurice Jarre	[46]
	Braveheart	James Horner
	Don Juan DeMarco	Michael Kamen
	Pocahontas	Alan Menken
	Sense and Sensibility	Patrick Doyle
1996	The English Patient	Gabriel Yared	[47]
	Michael Collins	Elliot Goldenthal
	Shine	David Hirschfelder
	The Hunchback of Notre Dame	Alan Menken
	The Mirror Has Two Faces	Marvin Hamlisch
1997	Titanic	James Horner	[48]
	Gattaca	Michael Nyman
	Kundun	Philip Glass
	L.A. Confidential	Jerry Goldsmith
	Seven Years in Tibet	John Williams
1998	The Truman Show	Burkhard Dallwitz, Philip Glass	[49]
	A Bug's Life	Randy Newman
	Mulan	Jerry Goldsmith
	Saving Private Ryan	John Williams
	The Prince of Egypt	Stephen Schwartz, Hans Zimmer
1999	The Legend of 1900	Ennio Morricone	[50]
	American Beauty	Thomas Newman
	Angela's Ashes	John Williams
	Anna and the King	George Fenton
	The End of the Affair	Michael Nyman
	Eyes Wide Shut	Jocelyn Pook
	The Insider	Pieter Bourke, Lisa Gerrard
	The Straight Story	Angelo Badalamenti
	The Talented Mr. Ripley	Gabriel Yared

2000s

Year1	Film	Composer(s)	Ref.
2000	Gladiator	Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard	[51]
	All the Pretty Horses	Larry Paxton, Marty Stuart, Kristin Wilkinson
	Chocolat	Rachel Portman
	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo hu cang long)	Tan Dun
	Malèna	Ennio Morricone
	Sunshine	Maurice Jarre
2001	Moulin Rouge!	Craig Armstrong	[52]
	A Beautiful Mind	James Horner
	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	John Williams
	Ali	Pieter Bourke, Lisa Gerrard
	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Howard Shore
	Mulholland Drive	Angelo Badalamenti
	Pearl Harbor	Hans Zimmer
	The Shipping News	Christopher Young
2002	Frida	Elliot Goldenthal	[53]
	25th Hour	Terence Blanchard
	Far from Heaven	Elmer Bernstein
	Rabbit-Proof Fence	Peter Gabriel
	The Hours	Philip Glass
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	Howard Shore	[54]
	Big Fish	Danny Elfman
	Cold Mountain	Gabriel Yared
	Girl With a Pearl Earring	Alexandre Desplat
	The Last Samurai	Hans Zimmer
2004	The Aviator	Howard Shore	[55]
	Finding Neverland	Jan A. P. Kaczmarek
	Million Dollar Baby	Clint Eastwood
	Sideways	Rolfe Kent
	Spanglish	Hans Zimmer
2005	Memoirs of a Geisha	John Williams	[56]
	Brokeback Mountain	Gustavo Santaolalla
	King Kong	James Newton Howard
	Syriana	Alexandre Desplat
	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	Harry Gregson-Williams
2006	The Painted Veil	Alexandre Desplat	[57]
	Babel	Gustavo Santaolalla
	Nomad	Carlo Siliotto
	The Da Vinci Code	Hans Zimmer
	The Fountain	Clint Mansell
2007	Atonement	Dario Marianelli	[58]
	Eastern Promises	Howard Shore
	Grace Is Gone	Clint Eastwood
	Into the Wild	Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Vedder
	The Kite Runner	Alberto Iglesias
2008	Slumdog Millionaire	A. R. Rahman	[59]
	Changeling	Clint Eastwood
	The Curious Case of Benjamin Button	Alexandre Desplat
	Defiance	James Newton Howard
	Frost/Nixon	Hans Zimmer
2009	Up	Michael Giacchino	[60]
	A Single Man	Abel Korzeniowski
	Avatar	James Horner
	The Informant!	Marvin Hamlisch
	Where the Wild Things Are	Karen O, Carter Burwell

2010s

Year1	Film	Composer(s)	Ref.
2010	The Social Network	Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross	[61]
	127 Hours	A. R. Rahman
	Alice in Wonderland	Danny Elfman
	Inception	Hans Zimmer
	The King's Speech	Alexandre Desplat
2011	The Artist	Ludovic Bource	[62]
	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
	Hugo	Howard Shore
	War Horse	John Williams
	W.E.	Abel Korzeniowski
2012	Life of Pi	Mychael Danna	[63]
	Anna Karenina	Dario Marianelli
	Argo	Alexandre Desplat
	Lincoln	John Williams
	Cloud Atlas	Tom Tykwer, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil
2013	All Is Lost	Alex Ebert	[64]
	12 Years a Slave	Hans Zimmer
	The Book Thief	John Williams
	Gravity	Steven Price
	Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom	Alex Heffes
2014	The Theory of Everything	Jóhann Jóhannsson	[65]
	Birdman	Antonio Sánchez
	Gone Girl	Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
	The Imitation Game	Alexandre Desplat
	Interstellar	Hans Zimmer
2015	The Hateful Eight	Ennio Morricone	[66]
	Carol	Carter Burwell
	The Danish Girl	Alexandre Desplat
	The Revenant	Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto
	Steve Jobs	Daniel Pemberton
2016	La La Land	Justin Hurwitz	[67]
	Arrival	Jóhann Jóhannsson
	Hidden Figures	Hans Zimmer, Pharrell Williams, Benjamin Wallfisch
	Lion	Dustin O'Halloran, Hauschka
	Moonlight	Nicholas Britell
2017	The Shape of Water	Alexandre Desplat	[68]
	Dunkirk	Hans Zimmer
	Phantom Thread	Jonny Greenwood
	The Post	John Williams
	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri	Carter Burwell
2018	First Man	Justin Hurwitz	[69]
	Black Panther	Ludwig Göransson
	Isle of Dogs	Alexandre Desplat
	Mary Poppins Returns	Marc Shaiman
	A Quiet Place	Marco Beltrami
2019	Joker	Hildur Guðnadóttir	[70]
	1917	Thomas Newman
	Little Women	Alexandre Desplat
	Marriage Story	Randy Newman
	Motherless Brooklyn	Daniel Pemberton

2020s

Year1	Film	Composer(s)	Ref.
2020	Soul	Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross	[71]
	Mank	Reznor & Ross
	The Midnight Sky	Alexandre Desplat
	News of the World	James Newton Howard
	Tenet	Ludwig Göransson
2021	Dune	Hans Zimmer	[72]
	Encanto	Germaine Franco
	The French Dispatch	Alexandre Desplat
	Parallel Mothers	Alberto Iglesias
	The Power of the Dog	Jonny Greenwood
2022	Babylon	Justin Hurwitz	[73]
	The Banshees of Inisherin	Carter Burwell
	The Fabelmans	John Williams
	Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio	Alexandre Desplat
	Women Talking	Hildur Guðnadóttir
2023	Oppenheimer	Ludwig Göransson	[74]
	The Boy and the Heron	Joe Hisaishi
	Killers of the Flower Moon	Robbie Robertson (posthumous)
	Poor Things	Jerskin Fendrix
	Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse	Daniel Pemberton
	The Zone of Interest	Mica Levi
2024	Challengers	Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross	[75][76]
	The Brutalist	Daniel Blumberg
	Conclave	Volker Bertelmann
	Dune: Part Two	Hans Zimmer
	Emilia Pérez	Clément Ducol and Camille
	The Wild Robot	Kris Bowers

Multiple wins

4 wins:

• Maurice Jarre
• Dimitri Tiomkin
• John Williams

3 wins:

• Justin Hurwitz
• Alan Menken
• Ennio Morricone
• Trent Reznor
• Atticus Ross
• Hans Zimmer

2 wins:

• Elmer Bernstein
• Alexandre Desplat
• Frederick Loewe
• Giorgio Moroder
• Howard Shore

See also

• Academy Award for Best Original Score
• BAFTA Award for Best Film Music
• Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Score
• Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media
• Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media

Notes

1.^ The year indicates the period for which the awards are given and not the year in which the ceremony took place.