Composer John Powell performs onstage at the 33rd Annual ASCAP Screen Music Award. (Photo: Lester Cohen/Getty Images for ASCAP)

It was a night of art and social awareness for ASCAP members at the 33rd annual ASCAP Screen Music Awards last night, with composers John Powell and Germaine Franco taking center stage. 

Powell, who created the mind-blowing music for The Bourne Identity and sequels, and Franco — his protege and one of the few women composing music for blockbuster feature films, most recently Coco — received the Henry Mancini and Shirley Walker awards, respectively. Backed by a 24-piece orchestra, the duo performed tour-de-force sets that bookended the evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.

Franco conducted an inspired set of songs from Coco and the new TV series Vida, kicking things off on a high note by getting many in the crowd of about 700 onto their feet. Powell took to the stage and grabbed an accordion for the evening’s powerhouse finale, humbly opting to perform music by the man for whom his award was named, including music from The Pink Panther and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. A self-described “little drummer girl” – Franco sat in on Powell’s set, playing timbales and demonstrating the rhythmic chops that underscore her unique talent.

The evening saw three ASCAP Composers’ Choice winners unveiled: Dave Porter picked up the TV Composer of the Year trophy for his work on Better Call Saul, The Blacklist, Preacher and more. Film Score of the Year was a tie between Jonny Greenwood for Phantom Thread and Hans Zimmer for Dunkirk. Video Game Score of the Year went to Gordy Haab for Star Wars Battlefront II. The ASCAP Composers’ Choice Awards were inaugurated by ASCAP in 2014 and are voted on exclusively by the ASCAP composer and songwriter community.

Awards for Most Performed Themes and Underscore went to TV composers Joel Beckerman, Cat Gray, Jared Gutstadt, Jeffrey Lippencott, Didier Lean Rachou, Ed Robertson, Mark Snow, David Vanacore, Mark T. Williams and Hans Zimmer. The award for Top Network TV Series went to Dan Romer for ABC’s The Good Doctor; Top Box Office Film went to Heitor Pereira for Despicable Me 3 and Top Cable Television Series went to Trent Reznor for his work on the PBS series The Vietnam War.

In addition to music from Powell and Franco, the packed ASCAP Screen Music Awards audience of composer and industry executives enjoyed live versions of top TV and movie themes from some of the evening’s winners. Dan Romer conducted a medley of his themes from The Good Doctor and composer Michael Abels was joined by the combined choral voices of Tonality and DC6 for the live world premiere the extended theme to the Oscar-winning film Get Out.

Kudos to show producer Nancy Munoz for an exceptional evening, outstanding in creative and technical aspects.

Anthony Gonzalez, who sang Germaine Franco’s tunes in Coco, joins the composer to perform onstage at the 33rd Annual ASCAP Screen Music Awards. (Photo: Lester Cohen/Getty Images for ASCAP)

Powell, a prolific composer who has scored more than 60 films — including Disney’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, opening today — received the ASCAP Henry Mancini Award for overall outstanding achievements and contributions to the world of film and television music. Powell and Franco are both represented by Kraft-Engle.

In addition to the Bourne music, Powell received an Oscar nomination for the score to How to Train Your Dragon, and also includes among his credits Ferdinand, Antz, Shrek, three Ice Age sequels, Rio and more. Onstage, Powell paid tribute to the late Henry Mancini, by conducting the orchestra in a thrilling medley of the composer’s music, including “Lujon” (from the Mancini 1961 album Mr. Lucky Goes Latin), “A Shot in the Dark” (from the 1964 Pink Panther film of the same name) and “Something for Cat” (from 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s). Dean DeBlois, director of How to Train Your Dragon, and Bruce Broughton, Emmy-winning TV and film composer, bestowed the award to Powell.

Franco was recognized with the ASCAP Shirley Walker Award honoring those whose achievements have contributed to the diversity of film and television music. Franco was songwriter, co-orchestrator, arranger and producer for the Disney/Pixar film Coco, conducted the orchestra and performed alongside 14-year-old Anthony Gonzalez, who voiced the role of Miguel in the film. Her set consisted of the songs “Un Poco Loco” and “Proud Corazón,” which she co-wrote for the film, as well as several of her works from the upcoming film TAG and new Starz series Vida. Adrian Molina, co-director, screenwriter and lyricist of Coco, and Erin Scully, Executive Vice President at New Line Pictures, were on hand to present the award to Franco.

Walker, who died at 61 in 2006, was a composer and orchestrator who collaborated closely with Danny Elfman. She got her start as a soloist with San Francisco Symphony while in high school and performed with various hotel, jazz and art bands in San Francisco from 1964 – 1967.

View a complete list of 2018 ASCAP Screen Music Awards winners and credits, visit www.ascap.com/screenawards18 .

ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, is a professional membership organization of songwriters, composers and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP’s mission is to license and promote the music of its members and foreign affiliates, obtain fair compensation for the public performance of their works and to distribute the royalties that it collects based upon those performances. ASCAP members write the world’s best-loved music and ASCAP has pioneered the efficient licensing of that music to hundreds of thousands of enterprises who use it to add value to their business – from bars, restaurants and retail, to radio, TV and cable, to Internet, mobile services and more.

The ASCAP license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. With more than 660,000 members representing more than 11.5 million copyrighted works, ASCAP is the worldwide leader in performance royalties, service and advocacy for songwriters and composers, and the only American performing rights organization (PRO) owned and governed by its writer and publisher members.