Music has played a crucial role in creating some of the most memorable movie moments of all time.
Its intricate timing creates the rhythm of the action we see and underlines the emotion of everything we feel; it even tells us things that are hidden beneath the surface. But which score has done it best since film music, as we know it, emerged from Hollywood in the early 1930s?
Well, who better to decide than those who know exactly what it takes? We asked film and television composers on both sides of the Atlantic to tell us which scores would be in their top five of all time, and we had a fantastic response.
Here are The Best Film Scores of All Time as chosen by over 60 film and television composers – from much-loved veterans of the artform to some of today’s most brilliant young talents, not to mention ten Oscar winners.
The eleven best movie scores of all time
9= Chinatown (1974)
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
‘It was a redo (replacement) score, composed in 15 days.’
So Bruce Broughton, Oscar-nominated composer of Silverado, explains about Chinatown. ‘It had a unique orchestration: trumpet solo, four pianos, four harps, strings and percussion. The old-fashioned theme was beautiful and gorgeously scored, evocative but not imitative of the period. Fifty years later, it’s as beautiful and as poignant as when it first appeared. There are only about 20 minutes of score in the movie, but each cue is meaningful to the drama. It’s a masterclass in film scoring.’
9= The Godfather (1972)
Music by Nino Rota
'A score that is emotional, atmospheric and indelibly associated with the film.’
That's the verdict of Stephen Warbeck, the Oscar-winning composer of Shakespeare in Love, Billy Elliot and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. And he’s right. Though used relatively sparingly, Nino Rota’s score really hits the mark, especially where the evocative ‘Godfather Waltz’ and ‘Love Theme’ are concerned. Together they conjour the world of the Corleones’ dangerous family dynamic, brought to vivid life on screen by director Francis Ford Coppola.
9 = How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Music by John Powell
A would-be dragon hunter is befriended by his first ‘kill’.
And so, a community’s long-held traditions are turned on their head as the young Viking tries to convince them that there is far more to dragons than meets the eye. This animated fantasy has won legions of fans, including Stephen Barton, the BAFTA-nominated and Grammy-winning composer of Star Trek: Picard.
‘In a word, “feels”,’ he says. ‘There are so many moments in this score that make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck; the “Test Drive” cue is the greatest single piece of animation scoring ever.’
Best film scores: the top six
6= American Beauty (1999)
Music by Thomas Newman
The fallout of an average family man’s midlife crisis has never looked, or sounded, so good.
Oscar nominated for his score, Thomas Newman should probably have won. It’s a heady, contemporary soundworld featuring a cornucopia of instruments that gets to the heart in surprising ways. ‘The score adds deep emotional yearning to an essentially comedic film, an impossible achievement,’ says Stewart Copeland, the Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated composer of Wall Street.
‘With very simple ingredients it imparts orchestral gravitas to even the humble marimba. And a tabla in a movie about Americana! This score changed the rules of emotional manipulation in film by demonstrating that less can very much be more.’
6= Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Music by Ennio Morricone
‘Morricone’s score is an extraordinary blend of emotional depth, thematic richness and timeless beauty.’
So says Alexandra Harwood, composer of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and All Creatures Great and Small. ‘The music perfectly captures the themes of nostalgia, love and loss that run through the film, with a main theme that is so hauntingly beautiful that it evokes a deep sense of longing and connection, reflecting the story’s bittersweet reflections on the past. For me the score is the soul of the film.’
6= Vertigo (1958)
Music by Bernard Herrmann
‘Psycho might be the bravest and most groundbreaking work of the Herrmann/Hitchcock relationship, but Vertigo is the most emotionally fulfilling.’
That's the view of Daniel Pemberton, the Oscar-nominated composer of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. ‘I love the way the score has some of the most romantic and yearning writing in its harmonic language but still manages to have an excitingly unusual orchestral line up, favouring celestas and harps alongside the orchestra. My favourite scores always achieve both sonic experimentation and memorable, emotive themes and this is one of the greatest to do that.’
3= Blade Runner (1982)
Music by Vangelis
Ridley Scott’s bleak yet beautiful take on Philip K Dick’s story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was a perfect fit for Vangelis.
The rain-soaked, neon-lit cityscape, where ‘Replicant’ androids are hunted by the eponymous police ‘Blade Runners’, is a dark dystopia and Vangelis’s improvised, electronic soundworld only adds to what is something of a cinematic fever dream. It’s a real melting pot, too, with percussion, saxophone and vocals added to the otherwise synthetic atmosphere, creating one of cinema’s most influential scores.
3= The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
Music by Ennio Morricone
Millions of people the world over will know this score’s most famous theme without even knowing where it comes from.
The late, great Ennio Morricone’s music for the third film in Sergio Leone’s ‘Dollars’ trilogy has become synonymous with dusty, desert showdowns between grizzled gunslingers. Just as the American Western was heading for decline, Italian cinema took the baton and made it their own. But just what is it about Morricone’s score for this film that makes it a so great?
‘I think it’s down to the absolute total originality of his sound palette,’ says David Arnold, BAFTA-nominated and Emmy-winning composer of five Bond films and more. ‘The series of instruments, voices and noises, some of which hadn’t been heard before in film music, is assembled and composed for in such a way that nothing else could possibly sound like the sound he made for this and the other “Spaghetti Westerns”. He invented a genre.’
3= The Mission (1986)
Music by Ennio Morricone
Morricone won a BAFTA for this outstanding score for Roland Joffé’s historical epic.
Perhaps best known to most ears today is the popular piece Gabriel’s Oboe, though the score is an abundance of riches beyond that. That titular oboe belongs to an 18th-century Spanish Jesuit missionary who finds himself the unlikely protector of a Paraguayan tribe on which Portuguese slavers have set their sights.
‘The entire score of The Mission is breathtaking,’ reflects Ladies in Lavender composer Nigel Hess, ‘particularly in its use of “indigenous” voices and percussion; but the icing on the cake is the melody he created for Gabriel’s Oboe – a once-in-a-lifetime tune, deceptively simple but pushing all the right emotional and spiritual buttons.’
2. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Music by John Williams
John Williams won a fourth Oscar for Steven Spielberg’s beautiful film about the unlikely bond between a human boy and an alien stranded on Earth.
Williams teases us with eerie shadowplay at the start, drops hints of an uplifting main theme, then hits us with it in full as we’re carried away with them on what must be the most memorable bike ride in cinema history. The ending is downright operatic, too, with heartstrings tugged to breaking point as the pair say an emotional goodbye.
‘It’s about childhood connection for me,’ reflects Lorne Balfe, the BAFTA and Emmy-nominated composer of His Dark Materials. ‘I remember watching E.T. at Eden Court Theatre (Inverness) with my father. You’ve also got the memory of certain scenes, like with Elliott and the bike, when E.T. is in the basket; I remember recreating that soundtrack in my head when I was cycling.
'Now when my children watch it, it’s the same thing they connect to. I’ve seen it performed to picture at the Hollywood Bowl and you didn’t need to be looking at the screen; you could be looking at the orchestra and you were able to enjoy it as a standalone experience. That’s a rarity with film scores.’
The experts have spoken. The greatest film score of all time is...
1 Psycho (1960)
Music by Bernard Herrmann
The shower scene alone is iconic, the incessant, stabbing violins entirely complicit in Marion Crane’s murder at the hands of (spoiler alert) Norman Bates.
Director Alfred Hitchcock didn’t want any music at all for that grizzly bathroom bumping off, but Bernard Herrmann knew just how to play it and wrote some anyway. The entire score, composed for an orchestra of searing, sawing strings, is a lesson is creating tension, not to mention getting under the skin of a film (and its audience).
‘When Marion Crane steals the money at the opening of the film, you are on the edge of your seat for the rest of the picture.’ So says Patrick Doyle, Oscar-nominated composer of Sense and Sensibility and Thor. ‘The audience completely inhabits her neurosis from then on,’ he continues, ‘and that’s strongly driven by the score and its incredible tone and agitation.
'Herrmann’s decision to use purely a string orchestra is highly innovative, and the dissonance in it and screaming nature of those high strings plays havoc on your nerves! It truly highlighted the power of music and its ability to transform even the most simple of shots. The film, and score, broke many conventions of the time and stand as a masterclass in filmmaking and film score composition.’
The film scores ranking in joint 12th place
Gone with the Wind / composer: Max Steiner (1939)
The Lion King / Hans Zimmer (1994)
Once Upon a Time in the West / Ennio Morricone (1968)
Planet of the Apes / Jerry Goldsmith (1968)
Road to Perdition / Thomas Newman (2002)
Schindler’s List / John Williams (1993)
Spartacus / Alex North (1960)
There Will Be Blood / Jonny Greenwood (2007)
Under the Skin / Mica Levi (2013)
Joint 21st place
The Adventures of Robin Hood / Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1938)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind / John Williams (1977)
Jaws / John Williams (1975)
King Kong / Max Steiner (1933)
North By Northwest / Bernard Herrmann (1959)
Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope / John Williams (1977)
Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back / John Williams (1980)
The Third Man / Anton Karas (1949)
Joint 29th place
8½ / Nino Rota (1963)
Back to the Future / Alan Silvestri (1985)
The Bourne Identity / John Powell (2002)
Doctor Zhivago / Maurice Jarre (1965)
Forrest Gump / Alan Silvestri (1994)
Interview with the Vampire / Elliot Goldenthal (1994)
Journey to the Centre of the Earth / Bernard Herrmann (1959)
Lawrence of Arabia / Maurice Jarre (1962)
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence / Ryuichi Sakamoto (1983)
On the Waterfront / Leonard Bernstein (1954)
The Pink Panther / Henry Mancini (1963)
Sicario / Jóhann Jóhannsson (2015)
The Social Network / Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (2010)
Spirited Away / Joe Hisaishi (2001)
Suspiria / Goblin (1977)
The Thin Red Line / Hans Zimmer (1998)
Total Recall / Jerry Goldsmith (1990)
Honourable mentions (one vote each)
1408 / Gabriel Yared; 2001: A Space Odyssey / Various Artists; The Accidental Tourist / John Williams (1988); Adaptation / Carter Burwell (2002); Akira / Shôji Yamashiro (1988); Alien 3 / Elliot Goldenthal (1992); All About Eve / Alfred Newman (1950); All We Imagine as Light / Topshe (2024); Altered States / John Corigliano (1980); Amarcord / Nino Rota (1973); Andrei Rublev / Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov (1966); Angels and Insects / Alexander Balanescu (1995); Anna and the King / George Fenton (1999);The Apartment / Adolph Deutsch (1960); Atonement / Dario Marianelli (2007)
Basic Instinct / Jerry Goldsmith (1992); Batman: Mask of the Phantasm / Shirley Walker (1993); Beauty and the Beast / Alan Menken (1991); Ben-Hur / Miklós Rózsa (1959);Beverly Hills Cop / Harold Faltermeyer (1984); Brainstorm / James Horner (1983); Bram Stoker’s Dracula / Wojciech Kilar (1992);Braveheart / James Horner (1995)
Candyman / Philip Glass (1992); Casablanca / Max Steiner (1942); Casanova / Nino Rota (1976); A Clockwork Orange / Wendy Carlos (1971); The Conversation / David Shire (1974); Crimson Tide / Hans Zimmer (1995)
Dances with Wolves / John Barry (1990); The Dark Crystal / Trevor Jones (1982); The Dark Knight / Hans Zimmer (2008); Daybreak Express / Duke Ellington (1953); Day of the Dead / John Harrison (1985); Dekalog / Zbigniew Preisner (1989); The Double Life of Veronique / Zbigniew Preisner (1991); The Draughtsman’s Contract / Michael Nyman (1982); Dr. No / John Barry (1962); Dragonslayer / Alex North (1981); Drive My Car / Eiko Ishibashi (2021)
East of Eden / Leonard Rosenman (1955); Edward Scissorhands / Danny Elfman (1990); Empire of the Sun / John Williams (1987); The English Patient / Gabriel Yared (1996); Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind / Jon Brion (2004)
Fantasia / Various Composers (1940); Fantastic Voyage / Leonard Rosenman (1966); Finding Nemo / Thomas Newman (2003);
Gattaca / Michael Nyman (1997); The Ghost and Mrs Muir / Bernard Herrmann (1947); Gladiator / Hans Zimmer (2000); Goldfinger / John Barry (1964); The Goonies / Dave Grusin (1985); The Grand Budapest Hotel / Alexandre Desplat (2014);
Halloween / John Carpenter (1978); Harold and Maude / Cat Stevens (1971); Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone / John Williams (2001); Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban / John Williams (2004); Hatari / Henry Mancini (1962); Hellboy / Marco Beltrami (2004); Henry V / William Walton (1944); Hereditary / Colin Stetson (2018); A Hidden Life / James Newton Howard (2019); Hook / John Williams (1991); The Hours / Philip Glass (2002);
The Ice Storm / Mychael Danna (1997); Images / John Williams (1972); Inception / Hans Zimmer (2010); In Cold Blood / Quincy Jones (1967); In the Mood for Love / Shigeru Umebayashi (2000); The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao / Gustavo Garbato (2019);
Joker / Hildur Guðnadóttir (2019); Jules et Jim / Georges Delerue (1962)
Kings Row / Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1942); Koyaanisqatsi / Philip Glass (1982)
Legends of the Fall / James Horner (1995); Leon: The Professional / Eric Serra (1994); Life is Beautiful / Nicola Piovani (1997); The Lord of the Rings Trilogy / Howard Shore (2001-03)
The Magnificent Seven/ Elmer Bernstein (1960); Mandy / Jóhann Jóhannsson (2018); Marnie / Bernard Herrmann (1964); Memoirs of a Geisha / John Williams (2005); The Mephisto Waltz / Jerry Goldsmith (1971); Midnight Cowboy / John Barry (1969); Midsommar / Haxan Cloak (2019); The Miracle Worker / Laurence Rosenthal (1962); Munich / John Williams (2005)
The Naked Island / Hikaru Hiayashi (1960); The Name of the Rose / James Horner (1986); The Nest / Richard Reed Parry (2020); Night of the Hunter / Walter Schumann (1955)
Once Upon a Time in America / Ennio Morricone (1984); Out of Africa / John Barry (1985); Paris, Texas / Ry Cooder (1984)
La peau douce / Georges Delerue (1964); La Planete Sauvage / Alain Goraguer (1973); Poltergeist / Jerry Goldsmith (1982); Il Postino / Luis Bacalov (1994); Pride and Prejudice / Dario Marianelli (2005); The Prince of Egypt / Hans Zimmer (1998); Prisoners / Jóhann Jóhannsson (2013)
Raiders of the Lost Ark / John Williams (1981); Rain Main / Hans Zimmer (1988); Ran / Toru Takemitsu (1985); The Red Pony / Aaron Copland (1949); The Revenant / Ryuichi Sakamoto and Alva Noto (2015); The Rocketeer / James Horner (1991); Rocky IV / Vince DiCola (1985); Rosemary’s Baby / Krzysztof Komeda (1968);Rumble Fish / Stewart Copeland (1983);
The Scent of Green Papaya / Tôn-Thât Tiêt (1993); Shadows / Charles Mingus (1958);Shaft / Isaac Hayes and JJ Johnson (1971); The Shawshank Redemption / Thomas Newman (1994); The Shining / Wendy Carlos (1980); Shogun’s Assassin / W. Michael Lewis et al (1980); Solo: A Star Wars Story / John Powell (2018); Sorcerer / Tangerine Dream (1977); The Sound of Music / Richard Rodgers (1965); Spellbound / Miklós Rózsa (1945); Les stance à Sophie / Art Ensemble of Chicago (1971); Star Trek: The Motion Picture / Jerry Goldsmith (1979); Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace / John Williams (1999); La Strada / Nino Rota (1954)
Talk to Her / Alberto Iglesias (2002); Taxi Driver / Bernard Herrmann (1976); The Terminal / John Williams (2004); Titus / Elliot Goldenthal (1999); To Kill a Mockingbird / Elmer Bernstein (1962); Tomorrow Never Dies / David Arnold (1997); Tron / Wendy Carlos (1982); Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me / Angelo Badalamenti (1992); The Umbrellas of Cherbourg / Michel Legrand (1964)
Wall Street / Stewart Copeland (1987); War and Peace / Nino Rota (1956); West Side Story / Leonard Bernstein (1961); Wilde / Debbie Wiseman (1997); Woman in the Dunes / Toru Takemitsu (1964)
You Only Live Twice / John Barry (1967)
How did the composers vote?
Sixty two film and television composers sent in the titles of the film scores they would include in their top five. Here's how they voted..
| Segun Akinola | The Lion King (Zimmer) | Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace (Williams) | The Bourne Identity (Powell) | The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Morricone) | Under The Skin (Levi) |
| David Arnold | Taxi Driver (Herrmann) | The Adventures of Robin Hood (Korngold) | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Williams) | You Only Live Twice (Barry) | The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Morricone) |
| Esin Aydingoz | Cinema Paradiso (Morricone) | Schindler's List (Williams) | The Lion King (Zimmer) | Harry Potter and the Philiosopher's Stone (Williams) | Beauty and the Beast (Menken) |
| Lorne Balfe | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Williams) | The Ghost and Mrs Muir (Herrmann) | The Goonies (Grusin) | Rain Man (Zimmer) | Wall Street (Copeland) |
| Stephen Barton | The Mission (Morricone) | How To Train Your Dragon (Powell) | Psycho (Herrmann) | There Will Be Blood (Greenwood) | Alien 3 (Goldenthal) |
| Tyler Bates | Doctor Zhivago (Jarre) | Planet of the Apes (Goldsmith) | Dr. No (Barry) | The Shawshank Redemption (T Newman) | No Fifth Vote |
| Volker Bertelmann | Once Upon a Time in the West (Morricone) | There Will Be Blood (Greenwood) | Joker (Guðnadottir) | The Revenant (Sakamoto; Noto) | Under The Skin (Levi) |
| Joseph Bishara | Suspiria (Goblin) | Sorcerer (Tangerine Dream) | Rosemary's Baby (Komeda) | Halloween (1978) (Carpenter) | Altered States (Corigliano) |
| Daniel Blumberg | The Naked Island (Hiayashi) | Shadows (Mingus) | Woman in the Dunes (Takemitsu) | Les Stance A Sophie (Art Ensemble of Chicago) | Dekalog (Preisner) |
| Bruce Broughton | The Adventures of Robin Hood (Korngold) | The Miracle Worker (Rosenthal) | Chinatown (Goldsmith) | How To Train Your Dragon (Powell) | Spartacus (North) |
| Jose Manuel Cancela | King Kong (Steiner) | Psycho (Herrmann) | Cinema Paradiso (Morricone) | Jaws (Williams) | American Beauty (T Newman) |
| Robin Carolan | The Ice Storm (M Danna) | Images (Williams) | Angels and Insects (Balanescu) | There Will Be Blood (Greenwood) | Gattaca (Nyman) |
| Stewart Copeland | The Pink Panther (Mancini) | Goldfinger (Barry) | American Beauty (T Newman) | Hatari (Mancini) | War and Peace (Rota) |
| John Corigliano | East of Eden (Rosenman) | Psycho (Herrmann) | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Williams) | On the Waterfront (L Bernstein) | The Red Pony (Copland) |
| Kevon Cronin | The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Morricone) | Psycho (Herrmann) | Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope (Williams) | Gone with the Wind (Steiner) | Chinatown (Goldsmith) |
| Miguel d'Oliveira | Hereditary (Stetson) | Jaws (Williams) | American Beauty (T Newman) | Psycho (Herrmann) | The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Morricone) |
| Alexandre Desplat | Amarcord (Rota) | Vertigo (Herrmann) | Chinatown (Goldsmith) | La peau douce (Delerue) | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Williams) |
| Vince DiCola | The Bourne Identity (Powell) | Solo: A Star Wars Story (Powell) | Schindler's List (Williams) | 1408 (Yared) | The Dark Knight (Zimmer) |
| Patrick Doyle | Fantasia (Various Composers) | Psycho (Herrmann) | The Sound of Music (Rodgers) | The Godfather (Rota) | Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Williams) |
| Anne Dudley | The Third Man (Karas) | Basic Instinct (Goldsmith) | Midnight Cowboy (Barry) | Road to Perdition (T Newman) | The Grand Budapest Hotel (Desplat) |
| Danny Elfman | Psycho (Herrmann) | The Godfather (Rota) | Vertigo (Herrmann) | Casanova (Rota) | The Shining (Carlos) |
| Ilan Eshkeri | Casablanca (Steiner) | Vertigo (Herrmann) | Rocky IV (DiCola) | Back to the Future (Silvestri) | Interview with the Vampire (Goldenthal) |
| Ben Foster | Tomorrow Never Dies (D Arnold) | The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Legrand) | Back to the Future (Silvestri) | Planet of the Apes (Goldsmith) | Psycho (Herrmann) |
| Germaine Franco | On the Waterfront (L Bernstein) | Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (Walker) | Talk to Her (Iglesias) | Road to Perdition (T Newman) | How to Train Your Dragon (Powell) |
| Lisa Gerrard | The Name of the Rose (Horner) | Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Herrmann) | The Thin Red Line (Zimmer) | Pride and Prejudice (Marianelli) | Jaws (Williams) |
| Michael Giacchino | King Kong (Steiner) | Lawrence of Arabia (Jarre) | Planet of the Apes (Goldsmith) | Chinatown (Goldsmith) | The Mission (Morricone) |
| Murray Gold | Rumble Fish (Copeland) | Once Upon a Time in the West (Morricone) | Total Recall (Goldsmith) | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Williams) | 8 1/2 (Rota) |
| Hildur Guðnadóttir | Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Sakamoto) | Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me (Badalamenti) | The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Morricone) | Blade Runner (Vangelis) | Koyaanisqatsi (Glass) |
| Jack Halama | Sicario (Jóhannsson) | La Planete Sauvage (Goraguer) | Blade Runner (Vangelis) | Psycho (Herrmann) | Under The Skin (Levi) |
| Alexandra Harwood | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Williams) | Raiders of the Lost Ark (Williams) | Cinema Paradiso (Morricone) | Blade Runner (Vangelis) | Spirited Away (Hisaishi) |
| Alex Heffes | Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope (Williams) | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Williams) | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Williams) | North By Northwest (Herrmann) | Planet of the Apes (Goldsmith) |
| Nigel Hess | The Mission (Morricone) | The Adventures of Robin Hood (Korngold) | Henry V (Walton) | Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Williams) | The Lion King (Zimmer) |
| Natalie Holt | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Brion) | The Conversation (Shire) | A Clockwork Orange (Carlos) | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Williams) | A Hidden Life (Howard) |
| Nathan Klein | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Williams) | Atonement (Marianelli) | The Social Network (Reznor/Ross) | The Prince of Egypt (Zimmer) | Road to Perdition (T Newman) |
| Abel Korzeniowski | The Godfather (Rota) | The Hours (Glass) | Memoirs of a Geisha (Williams) | In the Mood for Love (Umebayashi) | Inception (Zimmer) |
| John Lunn | Chinatown (Goldsmith) | Doctor Zhivago (Jarre) | Night of the Hunter (W Schumann) | Road to Perdition (T Newman) | Blade Runner (Vangelis) |
| Mark Mancina | The Mission (Morricone) | American Beauty (T Newman) | Interview with the Vampire (Goldenthal) | Leon: The Professional (Serra) | The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Morricone) |
| Dario Marianelli | Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Williams) | 8 1/2 (Rota) | The English Patient (Yared) | North By Northwest (Herrmann) | Spirited Away (Hisaishi) |
| Dave Metzger | Vertigo (Herrmann) | Spartacus (North) | West Side Story (L Bernstein) | Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Williams) | How to Train Your Dragon (Powell) |
| Blair Mowat | Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Williams) | Edward Scissorhands (Elfman) | Adaptation (Burwell) | Once Upon a Time in the West (Morricone) | Vertigo (Herrmann) |
| David Newman | Spartacus (North) | All About Eve (A Newman) | The Apartment (Deutsch) | Ben-Hur (Rozsa) | The Accidental Tourist (Williams) |
| Daniel Pemberton | The Third Man (Karas) | Once Upon a Time in the West (Morricone) | Blade Runner (Vangelis) | Vertigo (Herrmann) | Beverly Hills Cop (Faltermeyer) |
| Martin Phipps | The Draughtsman's Contract (Nyman) | The Mission (Morricone) | Crimson Tide (Zimmer) | The Social Network (Reznor/Ross) | Under The Skin (Levi) |
| Michael Richard Plowman | Blade Runner (Vangelis) | Cinema Paradiso (Morricone) | Empire of the Sun (Williams) | Spellbound (Rozsa) | The Rocketeer (Horner) |
| Rachel Portman | To Kill a Mockingbird (E Bernstein) | The Mission (Morricone) | The Godfather (Rota) | American Beauty (T Newman) | Schindler's List (Williams) |
| Max Richter | 2001: A Space Odyssey (Various Artists) | Andrei Rublev (Ovchinnikov) | Harold and Maude (Stevens) | Daybreak Express (Ellington) | The Scent of Green Papaya (Tiêt) |
| Batu Sener | Finding Nemo (T Newman) | Cinema Paradiso (Morricone) | The Terminal (Williams) | The Pink Panther (Mancini) | The Lion King (Zimmer) |
| Aldo Shllaku | Cinema Paradiso (Morricone) | Gone with the Wind (Steiner) | Munich (Williams) | Titus (Goldenthal) | The Magnificent Seven (Bernstein) |
| Howard Shore | Ran (Takemitsu) | La Strada (Rota) | Jules et Jim (Delerue) | The Mission (Morricone) | North By Northwest (Herrmann) |
| Colin Stetson | The Thin Red Line (Zimmer) | Prisoners (Jóhannsson) | There Will Be Blood (Greenwood) | Poltergeist (Goldsmith) | The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Shore) |
| Tamar-kali | Shogun's Assassin (Lewis, Lindsay, Muari, Sakurai) | Akira (Yamashiro) | Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Sakamoto) | The Double Life of Veronique (Preisner) | Shaft (Hayes, JJ Johnson) |
| Alexander Taylor | Candyman (Glass) | Suspiria (Goblin) | Mandy (Jóhannsson) | Marnie (Herrmann) | Day of the Dead (Harrison) |
| Robert ToTeras | Psycho (Herrmann) | In Cold Blood (Q Jones) | Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope (Williams) | American Beauty (T Newman) | Sicario (Jóhannsson) |
| Marcus Trumpp | Once Upon a Time in America (Morricone) | Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Williams) | Forrest Gump (Silvestri) | Total Recall (Goldsmith) | Bram Stoker's Dracula (Kilar) |
| Corey Wallace | Psycho (Herrmann) | Hook (Williams) | Hellboy (Beltrami) | The Dark Crystal (T Jones) | Braveheart (Horner) |
| Isobel Waller-Bridge | The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao (Garbato) | Midsommar (Haxan Cloak) | All We Imagine As Light (Das; Topshe) | The Nest (Richard Reed Parry) | Drive My Car (Ishibashi) |
| Stephen Warbeck | Paris, Texas (Cooder) | Life is Beautiful (Piovani) | The Third Man (Karas) | Il Postino (Bacalov) | The Godfather (Rota) |
| Amelia Warner | Gladiator (Zimmer) | Gone with the Wind (Steiner) | Blade Runner (Vangelis) | Legends of the Fall (Horner) | Forrest Gump (Silvestri) |
| Sam Watts | Psycho (Herrmann) | Tron (Carlos) | How To Train Your Dragon (Powell) | Anna and the King (Fenton) | Wilde (Wiseman) |
| Edwin Wendler | Kings Row (Korngold) | Spartacus (North) | Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Goldsmith) | Brainstorm (Horner) | Schindler's List (Williams) |
| Debbie Wiseman | The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Morricone) | Lawrence of Arabia (Jarre) | Gone with the Wind (Steiner) | Out of Africa (Barry) | Dances with Wolves (Barry) |
| Christopher Young | King Kong (Steiner) | Journey to the Centre of the Earth (Herrmann) | Fantastic Voyage (Rosenman) | The Mephisto Waltz (Goldsmith) | Dragonslayer (North) |
