Screen composer Christopher Gordon has been named the recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Services to the Australian Screen award. He will be presented with the accolade at the Screen Music Awards on 28 October at a ceremony at Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley Hall, presented by APRA AMCOS in conjunction with the Australian Guild of Screen Composers.

Christopher Gordon. Photo © Clare Oliver

Born in London, Gordon is a prolific Sydney-based composer and conductor whose body of work spans chamber music, ballet and dance scores and music for films, television and events.

For his work on the 2004 miniseries Salem’s Lot, he earned a Primetime Emmy nomination, and an ARIA nomination for his work on Mao’s Last Dancer. He has also composed the scores for films including Master and Commander, Daybreakers, Adore and Ladies in Black.

Gordon has earned commissions from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orcehstra, Gondwana Voices, Synergy Percussion and Omega Ensemble, among others, and in 2006, was commissioned by then-Prime Minister John Howard to arrange the official orchestral version of the national anthem. He has also composed for the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the...