ACL 2024

The Year’s Best Film Scores

In 2024, the top twelve global movie releases were all sequels to pre-existing blockbusters. The bright spots were found farther down, in original screenplays and under-the-radar gems. We've chosen a wide selection of film scores to honor this year, from the familiar to the relatively unheard. By some strange coincidence, five of them are ocean-based; perhaps we should call this feature Best Water Music!

The best film scores don't even need a film; one can listen to them over and over and honor the images in one's own head. This year we've even chosen our #1, months before the industry giants. Tailored for the home stereo as well as the multiplex,, our picks are listed in alphabetical order by film name.

Alexander Stratonov ~ Call Sign "Batman"
The fullest and finest of Stratonov's three latest OSTs, Call Sign "Batman" offers a sense of rising drama to match its subject matter. The documentary's story may be horrific, but Stratonov makes it just palatable enough to watch, while refusing to turn away from the atrocities it reports. We expect Hollywood to come calling soon.

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Volker Bertelmann ~ Conclave (Back Lot Music)
Volker Bertelmann (known to our readers as Hauschka) is having quite a year. In addition to writing the score for Conclave, he's also providing the music for the MAX series Dune: Prophecy. Conclave demonstrates a wide range of emotion, never letting go of its central suspense. The strings are particularly powerful, marking a massive shift in the artist's oeuvre.

BONUS: Nika Son ~ DRIFT (Futura Resistenza)
An expansion of the impressionistic score for this 2027 film, DRIFT dives into the vast expanses of blue to find memory, transformation and peace. Snippets of the film are sprinkled throughout the score, though there are few dialogue samples; for the most part, the film is dialogue-free. The sea becomes the score, nudged by light instrumentation.

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Gints Zilbalodis & Rihards Zalupe ~ Flow (Dream Well)
In most cases, a film score is intended to enhance a film, not to bear its weight. Flow is dialogue-free, leaving the enchanting animation, exquisite sound design and enticing score to further the plot. It's also the rare case in which the director (Zilbaldos) also has a hand in the composition. This late-year Latvian release is one of 2024's best surprises.

Jang-Young Gyu ~ The Last of the Sea Women (Apple)
This charming, understated film, produced for Apple TV, is enhanced by a beguiling score that emphasizes tradition while underlining the challenges of a dying industry. These South Korean women hold a unique place in the world, their profession as crucial as an endangered species or language. The tenderness of the score is extended to the viewer and returns to the subjects.

WINNER: Clint Mansell ~ Love Lies Bleeding (A24)
Love Lies Bleeding is one of those "wow" scores that makes one want to see the movie; and yet it also stands well on its own. Mansell wrings the maximum amount of drama from this pulsating soundtrack, while offering a throwback to the pulp scores of the mid-80s. Violence seems always ready to erupt; and in both film and score, it does. This is our favorite film score of the year.

Robin Carolan ~ Nosferatu (Back Lot Music)
While we'll have to wait until Christmas to see how the music works in the film, the score is already making waves, in no small part to the immersive, eight-minute "Daybreak." Most of the tracks are short; there are 51 tracks on the already-released OST. The pressure is on Carolan, as so many artists have already tried their hand at creating new OSTs for the original film; but this is a modern remake, and thanks to director Robert Eggers, we expect great and disturbing things.

Bryce Dessner ~ Sing Sing (A24)
Bryce Dessner of The National teams up with the London Contemporary Orchestra to present this moving score to a highly emotional film. Sing Sing is about the power of theatre to transform lives, even in the harshest places under the hardest of conditions. The tone is transcendent, allowing the listener to share the dreams of the protagonists, even when they don't come true.

Cristobal Tapia De Veer ~ Smile 2 (Lakeshore)
Music is so integral to this film that one can't imagine it without the score. When played separately, the glissandos and distortions retain their unsettling effect. The viewers, listeners and protagonist are constantly on guard, never knowing what lies around the corner, or even whether to trust their senses. The disorientation leads to a devastating finale.

Molecule ~ 29 173 NM
Here's one that may have slipped beneath many filmgoers' radars: a documentary about a single skipper attempting to complete the Vendée Globe, traveling through rough seas and savage storms. Molecule's exciting score keeps the pulse racing along with the sailboat. As a bonus, the record is pressed on gorgeous sea swirl vinyl and includes a download of the film.

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Amelia Warner ~ Young Woman and the Sea (Walt Disney)
One of the year's strangest film stories of the year is that Disney buried this critically-acclaimed, audience-pleasing movie, relegating it to a brief limited release, failing to report its proceeds and providing limited promotion, even when it debuted on Disney+. We won't do it such a disservice; we love both the movie ~ about the first woman to swim the English Channel ~ and the score.

(Richard Allen)