APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers have announced the winners of the 2025 Screen Music Awards in a ceremony hosted in Brisbane last night. The awards celebrate the accomplishments of Australian composers and musicians across film, television, video games and advertisements.

Prolific film composer Jed Kurzel took home his fourth trophy for Feature Film Score of the Year for his work on Tornado, directed by John Maclean.

Cornel Wilczek. Photo courtesy of Cornel Wilczek

Melbourne-based composer Cornel Wilczek earned two Screen Music Awards this year. With Alex Olijnyk, he collected a Best Music for a Television Drama award for Paramount+ eight-part series Fake, and Wilczek’s theme track for Netflix miniseries The Survivors, co-composed with Thomas Rouch, won Best Opening Title for a Television Theme. 

In Best Music for a Television Comedy, veteran screen composer Antony Partos and Jackson Milas earned the award for Return to Paradise, which returns for its second season next month.

The Most Performed Screen Composer – Overseas went to Joff Bush and his musical team for Bluey; their second win since 2023. And, for their 11th time, Adam Gock and Dinesh Wicks have jointly won the Most Performed Screen Composer – Australia. Their music can be heard in several hit television productions including Farmer Wants a Wife, LEGO Masters and Masterchef, among others.

Cedar Jones earned Best Music For A Video Game or Other Interactive Media for the underwater game Feed the Deep.

Best Soundtrack Album was won by Finn Clarke for documentary The Raftsmen, and Sydney-based composer Helena Czajka was awarded Best Music for A Documentary for her score for Yurlu I Country.

Iain Grandage and Josh Hogan collected the Best Music for Children’s Programming award for the family film Runt.

Ayda Akbal was honoured as Emerging Screen Composer of the Year Award. Nominated last year for the inaugural award, Akbal was also announced as a recipient of the Export Development Fund earlier this year, which will see her undertake the International Screen Music Mentorship in Los Angeles at Joy House Music.

Meg Washington. Photo supplied

Meg Washington – last week announced as a recipient of a Prelude residency – earned Best Original Song Composed for the Screen for Dream On, which featured in the cinematic adaptation How To Make Gravy.

Other winners include Lance Gurisik (Best Music for an Advertisement), Benjamin Speed for Eat the Invaders (Best Music for Unscripted & Reality Television) and Dale Cornelius for The Way Home (Best Music for a Short Film).

Announced as the winner earlier in the month, veteran screen composer Christopher Gordon was honoured with the Distinguished Services to the Australian Screen award. He was presented the award on the night by director (and previous winner) Bruce Beresford.

More about the 2025 Screen Music Awards can be found here.