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The Society of Composers and Lyricists, the main organization representing film and television composers and songwriters, has asked the Motion Picture Academy to reconsider its decision to drop the Best Song performances from the upcoming Oscars ceremony.

In a letter to the Academy on Friday obtained by Gold Derby, the Scl’s president, Ashley Irwin, said the move to eliminate the song performances is a “devaluation” of the artists who created the music and suggests even including a portion of each nominated song would be welcome.

“Our members, who number over 4,000 in more than 80 countries worldwide, including the majority of the Motion Picture Academy Music Branch, are disappointed over the decision to eliminate the Oscar-nominated song performances at the 97th Academy Awards,” the letter reads. “The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and an award like the Oscar, has always served to amplify and honor the work of talented craftspeople,...

The Society of Composers & Lyricists, whose members include many of the industry’s top songwriters and film composers, has asked the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to reconsider its decision, announced the day before nominations were announced, of eliminating performances of the five nominated songs at this year’s Oscar ceremony.

As Deadline reported, the Academy is making changes to the show this year, some in direct response to the effect of the devastating L.A. wildfires, and also to find ways to honor the filmmakers in ways that single out their honored achievements. In a letter sent to members on January 22, AMPAS CEO Bill Kramer stated, “Also, this year the Best Original Song category presentation will move away from live performances and will be focused on the songwriters. We will celebrate their artistry through personal reflections from the teams who bring these songs to life. All of this,...

The Society of Composers & Lyricists, which describes itself as “the premier organization for professional songwriters and composers working in film and other visual media” and counts all of this year’s Oscar-nominated songwriters as members, is calling on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to walk back its recently announced decision to remove the performances of Oscar-nominated songs from this year’s Oscars telecast.

In a letter sent on Friday to the Academy’s CEO, president and board of governors, as well as to the producers of the March 2 Oscars telecast, Scl president Ashley Irwin said the organization’s members are “disappointed” in the Academy’s decision, calling it “just another example of the devaluation of music, and its creators” and a move that serves to “silence songwriters.”

Noting that the performers of this year’s Oscar-nominated songs would include past Oscar winners H.E.R. and Elton John, as well as Brandi Carlile,...

Nothing had prepared William Passano for a new technology introduced in 1960 that threatened to upend his medical publishing business: the Xerox 914 photocopier. The machine offered the ability to produce cheap and quick duplicates that allowed the government’s National Library of Medicine to mass photocopy articles from his company’s copyrighted medical journals. Passano eventually sued in a case that went up to the Supreme Court, which ultimately took a cautious approach to regulating the emerging technology by ruling in 1975 that it was fair use for libraries to photocopy the originals. The justices left Congress to address the novel intellectual property issues raised in the case, leading to key revisions in copyright law a year later.

Fast forward half a century and the emergence of generative artificial intelligence has the similar potential to turn the entertainment industry on its head. While writers who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter weren’t...

Another lawsuit has been filed against OpenAI over its unauthorized collection of information across the web to train its artificial intelligence chatbot, this time by authors who say ChatGPT infringes on copyrights to their novels.

The proposed class action filed in San Francisco federal court on Wednesday alleges that OpenAI “relied on harvesting mass quantities” of copyright-protected works “without consent, without credit, and without compensation.” It seeks a court order that the company infringed on writers’ works when it illegally downloaded copies of novels to train its AI system and that ChatGPT’s answers constitute infringement.

Generative AI companies are being bombarded by legal challenges over the material used to train their AI systems as courts wrestle with whether the practice qualifies as fair use. OpenAI is facing a proposed class action claiming the billions of lines of computer code that its AI technology analyzes to generate its own code qualify as copyright infringement,...

2Nd Update, 6:00 Pm: The Society of Composers & Lyricists has rescheduled its Covid-delayed third annual Scl Awards for Tuesday, March 8, at the Skirball Cultural Center in L.A.

“After much deliberation, we have also decided to extend out final voting period,” the group said this evening. “This will allow our many mem bers who have been impacted by the surge in Covid-19 additional time to review all the nominees’ excellent work.” The voting period now will begin Monday and run through February 25.

See the list of nominations below.

Updated, 4:30 Pm: The Society of Composers & Lyricists has postponed its third annual Scl Awards amid the surge in Covid cases tied to the Omicron variant. No new date was set for the ceremony that had been set for February 1 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Here is the statement from the group’s president, Ashley Irwin:

Upon...

Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir continued her winning streak, claiming top honors for both her “Joker” and “Chernobyl” scores at Tuesday night’s inaugural awards of the Society of Composers & Lyricists at Los Angeles’ Skirball Cultural Center.

Her music for “Joker” was named outstanding original score for a studio film and her score for HBO’s “Chernobyl” was cited as outstanding original score for a television or streaming production. They followed her Golden Globe win Sunday night for “Joker” and BAFTA nomination earlier Tuesday. She won the Emmy in September for her score to the HBO miniseries “Chernobyl.”

Guðnadóttir is among the most talked-about newcomers in film music, first for her “Chernobyl” score (built largely on sounds she recorded while visiting the nuclear power plant where it was shot) and more recently her “Joker” music (her electro-acoustic cello providing the accompaniment for star Joaquin Phoenix’s on-screen dancing). She...

A new group of music awards is joining the various other ceremonies honoring achievements in visual media: the inaugural Scl Awards, presented by composers and songwriters to their fellow music-makers, will be held on Jan. 7, 2020.

The Society of Composers and Lyricists (Scl) has, since the 1980s, been the primary organization of composers and songwriters active in the film and TV industry. It has previously presented lifetime achievement and similar career honors, but this will be its first foray into awards for individual scores for film, TV and video games.

The categories are: original score for a studio film; original score for an independent film; original score for a television or streaming production; original song for visual media; original score for interactive media; and “spirit of collaboration filmmaker award,” given by a composer to a filmmaker for “an enduring and distinguished creative partnership.”

Said Scl president Ashley Irwin: “The Scl...

The Dressmaker.

Apra Amcos and the Agsc have unveiled the nominees for this year's Screen Music Awards.

The Dressmaker is out in front, up for Best Feature Film Score of the Year and Best Soundtrack Album, thanks to the work of David Hirschfelder.

Also up for gongs are well-known names such as Cezary Skubiszewski, Antony Partos, David Bridie, Michael Yezerski, and duo Adam Gock and Dinesh Wicks.

The most nominated composers are Partos and Yezerski, up for four awards each for work across various productions.

First-time nominees include Darren Seltmann, a former member of the Avalanches, and his singer-songwriter wife Sally. Their song from The Letdown, .Dancing in the Darkness., is up for Best Original Song Composed for the Screen.

Other new faces include Adam Moses, Nicholas Robert Thayer, Tristan Dewey, Helen Grimley and Anthony Egizii.

Winners will be announced November 8 at the City Recital Hall, Sydney. Emmy Award winning...

Andrew Hansen and Chris Taylor.

The Screen Music Awards will return to Sydney in 2016, with the event to be held November 8 at the City Recital Hall.

The awards recognise the outstanding achievements of Australian composers across 12 categories, including compositions for documentaries, short films, mini-series, advertising, children.s television and feature film scores.

The 2016 awards will be hosted by The Chaser.s Chris Taylor and Andrew Hansen, who have hosted the event five times, most recently in 2013.

Emmy Award winning screen composer Ashley Irwin also will provide music direction, leading a live orchestra which will perform a selection of nominated compositions at the event.

.Our members are doing fantastic work in the film and television space, and the Screen Music Awards highlight and honour their talent and success,. said Apra Amcos chief executive Brett Cottle.

Nominees will be announced late September.

Jed Kurzel.s string-based score for Scottish director John Maclean.s Slow West won the feature film prize at the 13th Screen Music Awards.

It was the composer's second win in the category; his first was for brother Justin Kurzel.s Snowtown in 2011. Jed also scored Justin's Macbeth and Jennifer Kent.s The Babadook.

Via video link Kurzel thanked Maclean for suggesting .I write something that he could whistle.. He said he was incredibly surprised and very honoured to win the award, .particularly amongst such an amazing group of artists.. David Hirschfelder took home the gongs for best music for a TV series or serial for BBC First.s Banished and best soundtrack album for The Water Diviner.

Antony Partos won best music for a documentary for Jen Peedom.s Sherpa and best TV theme went to Roger Mason for Playmaker Media.s The Code.

Ruby Entertainment.s ABC drama...

Making all of your nightmares come true … Varèse Sarabande will be releasing A Nightmare On Elm Street 8-cd box set (limited 2000 units) on October 16, 2015.

This deluxe package contains all 8 soundtracks from the original series, over 8 hours of music including almost 3 hours of bonus tracks. New artwork has been commissioned for the set (by artist Shawn Conn, http://atomicdeadguy.com/), and configuring the sleeves together forms a larger piece of art. Before you have any nightmares, please don’t worry … the original Matthew Joseph Peak creations are included in the packaging.

The set comes complete with the trademark knitted Freddy sweater encasing the outer box.

The world was introduced to Wes Craven’s Freddy Krueger (portrayed by Robert Englund) in 1984 with A Nightmare On Elm Street. Krueger was a former child killer seeking revenge against the parents who burned him by haunting the dreams of their teenage children and killing them in their dreams.

The Screen Music Awards are set to return to Melbourne for the first time since 2012.

This year.s celebration of the union between screen and music will be held on November 12 at the Melbourne Recital Centre.

Apra Amcos chief executive, Brett Cottle said he was delighted to bring the event back to Melbourne.

"The Screen Music Awards have a long and rich history of acknowledging outstanding screen composition in this country," he said..

"We look forward to providing the opportunity for our members to not only recognise their peers but renew acquaintances and spark future creative endeavours to be awarded at next year.s event..

The event will be hosted for the second time by actor and writer Rob Carlton and will feature music direction by Emmy Award winning composer Ashley Irwin.

Staged jointly by Apra Amcos and the Agsc, the awards showcase the outstanding achievements of Australia.s film...

EW was on the scene Sunday night as the Beverly Hills Hotel played host to an intimate Q&A session with Academy Award-winning composer Alexandre Desplat. The famed French composer touched on some of his more notable bodies of work, and also discussed his inspiration for his work on this year’s Best Original Score nominee Philomena.

One of the most surprising things Desplat revealed about his latest Oscar-nominated score is that it took him merely two days to compose what would end up being the theme for Philomena. Despite the short turnaround, the composer also revealed to moderator and...

The Oscars are a little over two months away, and with so many fantastic films released throughout this year, the anticipation surrounding the announcement of the nominations next month is running on high.

So far, we’ve had the shortlists for the Best Animated Feature, the Best Visual Effects, and the Best Documentary categories.

Now the Academy has announced the list of 104 films that are eligible in the Best Original Score category, and it’s going to be very interesting to see what makes the final cut come nominations time next month.

I think Hans Zimmer’s score for The Dark Knight Rises is, hopefully, a lock, because it is amazing. I also loved James Horner’s score for The Amazing Spider-Man, but can’t decide whether or not I think it will earn a nomination.

Alexandre Desplat has three films in the running this year, with Argo, Rise of the Guardians,...

Indian composer A.R. Rahman is in the Oscar race once again for the original score at the 85thAcademy Awards. His composition for the film “”People Like Us” has found place in the long list of 104 composers vying for the nominations.

Rahman composed for the Alex Kurtzman directed “People Like Us” starring Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Jon Favreau and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Rahman won two Academy Awards for Best Original Music Score and Best Original Song at the 81st Academy Awards in 2009 for “Slumdog Millionaire”.

104 scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2012 are in contention for nominations in the Original Score category.

The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 10, 2013.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on February 24, 2013. The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below in alphabetical order by film title:

“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” Henry Jackman, composer “After the Wizard,...

One hundred four scores from eligible feature-length motion pictures released in 2012 are in contention for nominations in the Original Score category for the 85th Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today. As noted by various online Oscar pundits, most noticeably missing is Moonrise Kingdom. A Reminder List of works submitted in the Original Score category will be made available with a nominations ballot to all members of the Music Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five achievements. The five achievements receiving the highest number of votes will become the nominations for final voting for the award. Click Here for the complete rules.

In February, Ludovic Bource won the Oscar for Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) for The Artist at the 84th Academy Awards.

The eligible scores along with their composers are listed below...

As far as I'm concerned, the two most memorable scores of the year belong to Cloud Atlas and Beasts of the Southern Wild. That said, I made an egregious and unforgivable mistake when filling out my Critics' Choice nominations and forgot to include not one of them, but Both of them! Shame. I feel it. Now I have to hope my fellow Bfca members came through where I failed. However, we will discuss Critics' Choice nominations more on the upcoming episodes of the RopeofSilicon podcast, for now we're talking Oscar as the Academy has released a complete list of all 104 original scores competing for Best Original Score at the 2013 Oscars. I have not yet posted my predictions for Best Original Score and while I am making a fuss above concerning Cloud Atlas and Beasts of the Southern Wild, I think both of those stand a very strong chance at a nomination this year.

Ten-month-old Lisa has chubby cheeks, a sparkling smile and a heartbreaking pet name within her family: "Pumpkin Pie." According to her parents, the night of Oct. 3 started out like any other at their Kansas City, Mo., home. While Lisa's dad Jeremy Irwin was working the graveyard shift as an electrician, Lisa's mom Deborah Bradley put the baby to bed in her crib. But when Irwin returned home early the next morning, he found the front door unlocked, a window open, three cell phones missing - and Lisa's crib empty. Her parents say they are devastated and desperate to find Lisa...

The plot thickens in the mysterious case of baby Lisa. Authorities believe her own mother is connected to her daughter's disappearance! Deborah Irwin is preparing to be arrested for 10-month-old Lisa Irwin's disappearance, Ashley Irwin, baby Lisa's aunt, told Good Morning America today, Oct. 11. "It's what the police do, they don't have any leads, so they have to pin it on somebody," Ashley publicly said and defended her sister. "She (Deborah) doesn't care what people say about her... She doesn't care what people think about her. She just wants to bring Lisa home." Today marks the one-week anniversary of Lisa's disappearance. The little girl was supposedly kidnapped from her own bedroom late in the night on Oct. 3. However, Deborah Irwin admitted in interviews that police had told her that she failed her polygraph test. And on Oct. 6 the couple stopped speaking to detectives. What do you think, Hollymoms?...