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The 11th Annual JWFan Awards - The Best Scores and Films of 2018!


Jay

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1 minute ago, Jay said:

 

2018!

 

 

Excited again for the 11th annual Fannies!

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BEST SCORES OF 2018:

(given what was offered)

First Man

If Beale Street Could Talk

Vice

The Brother's Sisters

The Old Man and the Gun

Nutcracker and the Four Realms/Red Sparrow

Watership Down

The Girl in the Spider's Web

Free Solo

Out of the Shadows

Watership Down

Mary Poppins Returns

Solo

 

TOP 10 BEST TRACKS OF 2018:

 

Overture/Red Sparrow

The Landing/Houston/Sextant > First Man

Clara's New World/Sugar Plum and Clara > Nutcracker and the Four Realms

Demon Lore/Incantation > Out of the Shadows

Train Heist/Chicken in the Pot/Lando's Closet > Solo

Main Title > Free Solo

The Brother's Sisters/To San Francisco > The Brother's Sisters

Theme/When You Find Something To Love/Rub A Dub > The Old Man and the Gun

Eden (LES)/End Credits/What Have They Done (Bonus) > If Beale Street Could Talk

The Lineman in E-Flat Major/Iraq War Symphony/Vice Main Title Orchestral Suite > Vice

Lisbeth's Theme > The Girl in the Spider's Web

End Title Suite > Mary Poppins Returns

 

BEST CATALOG TITLES OF 2018:

 

Potter Box set/Dracula

Reincarnation of Peter Proud/The Mummy/Small Soldiers

The Mummy Returns

The Bride Wore Black

Masquerade/Legend of the Lone Ranger

Balto/Batteries Not Included

Platoon/Tours Du Monde, Tours Du Ciel

Another Stakeout

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BEST SCORES OF 2018:

 

1) Celeste (Raine)

2) Solo (Powell)

3) Ocean's 8 (Pemberton)

4) Fallen Kingdom (Giacchino)

5) Cloverfield Paradox (McCreary)

6) Incredibles 2 (Giacchino)

7) Ant-Man and The Wasp (Beck)

8.) God of War (McCreary)

9) Bad Times at the El Royale (Giacchino)

 

but there's a lot I haven't listened to yet...

 

 

 

TOP 10 BEST TRACKS OF 2018:

(unranked)

 

Resurrections from Celeste

First Steps from Celeste

Reach for the Summit from Celeste

Overture from Cloverfield Paradox

Overture from Red Sparrow

End Titles from Red Sparrow

Flying with Chewie from Solo

Train Heist from Solo

Mine Mission from Solo

Breakout from Solo

Suite from Fallen Kingdom

The Suite at the El Royale

 

 

 

BEST CATALOG TITLES OF 2018:

1) The John Williams Harry Potter Collection from La-La Land Records

2) The World Is Not Enough expanded from La-La Land Records

3) Dracula: The Deluxe Edition from Varese Sarabande

4) The Cowboys: The Deluxe Edition from Varese Sarabande

5) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves expanded from Intrada Records

6) Schindler's List 25th anniversary edition from La-La Land Records

7) The Mummy expanded from Intrada Records

8.) Die Hard 30th anniversary edition from La-La Land Records

9) Small Soldiers: The Deluxe Edition from Varese Sarabande

10) Saving Private Ryan 20th anniversary edition from La-La Land Records

 

 

FILM SCORE LABEL OF THE YEAR:

 

La-La Land Records killed it with the Harry Potter Collection, Schindler, Ryan, World is Not Enough and Die Hard.  What a banner year!

 

 

BEST FILMS OF 2018

 

1) Eighth Grade

2) A Quiet Place

3) Hereditary

4) Annihilation

 

Haven't seen anything else super great...

 

 

 

SPECIFIC HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018:

 

Nothing tops traveling to London and meeting dozens of JWFanners, seeing Azkaban Live to Projection, seeing a great concert of Williams music, interviewing Justin Freer, and Mike and Tim's great chat.  What a week!

 

Other than that?

 

The Last Jedi isolated score; 7 big Williams/Matessino expansions; beating Celeste; Seeing HP1 Live to Projection; Seeing Williams in Boston again; Discovering The Good Place ; Better Call Saul season 4 ; Westworld Season 2

 

 

SPECIFIC DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2018:

 

Joe Kraemer not scoring Mission Impossible 6.


Disney Records releasing half-assed Original Trilogy OST Album remasters. 

 

Torna: The Golden Country not being as great of a score as the original Xenoblade II's score.

 

Only making it out to the movie theater 3 times (Solo, Incredibles 2, Bohemian Rhapsody)

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BEST SCORES OF 2018:

  1. Solo (Powell)
  2. The Fallen Kingdom (Giacchino)
  3. The Crimes of Grindelwald ( JNH)
  4.  The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (JNH)

TOP 10 BEST TRACKS OF 2018:

  1. L3 & Millennium Falcon (Solo)
  2. Meet Han (Solo)
  3. Reminiscence Therapy (Solo)
  4. Marauders Arrive (Solo)
  5. Newt and Jacob pack for Paris (Grindelwald)
  6. Salamander Eyes (Grindelwald)
  7. Mine Mission (Solo)
  8. Break Out (Solo)
  9. Matagots (Grindelwald)
  10. Volcano to Death (Fallen Kingdom)

 

BEST CATALOG TITLES OF 2018:

The John Williams Harry Potter Collection from La-La Land Records

FILM SCORE LABEL OF THE YEAR:

La La Land Records 

BEST FILMS OF 2018

Solo a Star Wars Story 

Avangers Infinity War

Fantastic Beasts And Crimes of Grindelwald 

 

SPECIFIC HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018:

 Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets live to Projection.

SPECIFIC DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2018:

Solo not geting a FYC 

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I've seen and listened to so little "new" this year, that I just listed everything.  I also removed "best tracks" because I don't really pay attention to the track listing while I'm listening; I folded them into Highlights and Disappointments.

 

 

BEST SCORES OF 2018:

 

1) SOLO - The Johns

2) Black Panther - Ludwig etc.

3) Don't Worry He Won't Get Far on Foot - Elf Man

4) Ready Player One - Silvestri

5) Fantastic Beasts 2 - Newton Howard

6) The Grinch -  Elf Man

7) Doctor Who Series 9 (released 2018) - Gold

8) The Haunting of Hill House - Newton Brothers

9) The Cloverfield Paradox - McCreary

10) Ant-Man and the Wasp - Beck

11) Incredibles 2 - Michael Giacchino

12) Avengers Infinity War - Silvestri

13) Deadpoop 2 - Bates

14) 50 Shades Darker - Elf Man

 

(still haven't heard Jurassic World 2 or Doctor Who Series 11 - I plan on it)

 

 

BEST CATALOG TITLES OF 2018:

1) The John Williams Harry Potter Collection

2) The Cowboys

3) Dracula

4) Schindler's List

5) Saving Private Ryan

 

These are the only five I got in 2018.  I want to pick up the two Mummy scores and Kamen's Robin Hood at some point.

 

FILM SCORE LABEL OF THE YEAR:

 

La-La Land Records/Varese Sarabande - tie

 

 

BEST FILMS OF 2018

 

1) Black Panther

2) A Quiet Place

3) SOLO: A Star Wars Story

4) Avengers Infinity War

5) Ant-man and the Wasp

6) Hereditary

7) The Director and the Jedi

8) Annihilation

9) Love, Simon

10) Deadpool 2

11) Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

12) Incredibles 2

13) Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

14) Ready Player One

15) The Strangers: Prey at Night

16) Blockers

17) Tag

18) The Cloverfield Paradox

19) A Wrinkle in Time

 

Of the movies I saw, only one was a real stinker - A Wrinkle in Time - which had potential but just pbbbbbbbbbt.  A few others were mediocre, and the rest were good.

 

SPECIFIC HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018:

 

Shuri in Black Panther (film)

The reveal of Wakanda in Black Panther (score)

The sense of humor in SOLO (film)

Mine Mission in SOLO (film and score)

Lando's Closet in SOLO (score)

The BRASS in SOLO, especially in the Kessel run (score)

Domino in Deadpoop 2 (film)

The Juggernaut choir in Deadpoop 2 (score)

The Harry Potter children's suite (score)

The Grindelwald rally in Fantastic Beasts (film)

The non-earthbound storylines in Avengers 3 - Thor/Groot/Rocket and Iron Man/Spider-man/Cumberbund (film)

The accident and immediate aftermath in Hereditary (film)

The beginning of the Shining sequence in Ready Player One (film)

Silvestri's big themes in Ready Player One (score)

The pool scene in The Strangers: Prey at Night (film)

The opening credits in Cloverfield Paradox (film/score)

 

 

SPECIFIC DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2018:

 

The reliance on being over-referential to existing elements of the SW universe (which also plagued the Expanded Universe books) - SOLO (film)

Prequelitis (explaining meeting Chewie, meeting Lando, winning the Falcon, the Kessel Run - all within like a two day span?) - SOLO (film)

The continued backlash of Star Wars fans post-TLJ (life)

The shrug of the earthbound storylines in Avengers 3 - Captain America and Wakanda (film)

The sameiness of Incredibles 2 (score)

Lack of big thematic moments in Avengers 3 (score)

No new John Williams scores

Clickbait and terrible sourcing on websites to perpetuate rumors and drive hits (all movie websites and Mike Zeroh, in example)

 

HAVEN'T SEEN BUT WANT TO SEE MOST (top 10 out of my remaining 30-some to-watch 2018 movies):

 

1) Spider-man into the spider-pans

2) Sorry to Bother You

3) Ralph Breaks the Internet

4) Won't You Be My Neighbor

5) M:I Fallout

6) Halloween

7) Eighth Grade

8) Anna and the Apocalypse

9) Bumblebee

10) First Man

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Top 5 film scores of 2018 - these 5 would have been my Oscar nominees:

 

The Sisters Brothers - Alexandre Desplat

Out of the Shadows - Christopher Gordon

Most Beautiful Island - Jeffery Alan Jones

Thoroughbreds - Erik Friedlander

You Were Never Really Here - Jonny Greenwood

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BEST SCORES OF 2018:

1. Solo: A Star Wars Story by John Powell

2. First Man by Justin Hurwitz

3. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom by Michael Giacchino

4. VICE by Nicholas Brittel

5. Isle of Dogs by Alexandre Desplat

6. Avengers: Infinity War by Alan Silvestri

7. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindlewald by James Newton Howard

8. Ant-Man and the Wasp by Christophe Beck

9. Black Panther by Ludwig Goransson

10. If Beale Street Could Talk by Nicholas Brittel

11. Incredibles 2 by Michael Giacchino

12. Creed II by Ludiwg Goransson

13. Ready Player One by Alan Sivestri

14. Ocean's 8 by Daniel Pemberton

15. Mission Impossibe: Fallout by Lorne Balfe

 

TOP 10 BEST TRACKS OF 2018:

1. The Adventures of Han (John Williams: Solo: A Star Wars Story)

2.The Landing (Justin Hurwitz: First Man)

3. At Jurassic World's End Credits Suite (Michael Giacchino: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom)

4. Conclusion: The Transplant (Nicholas Brittel: VICE)

5. End Titles (Alexandre Desplat: Isle of Dogs)

6. Mine Mission (John Powell: Solo: A Star Wars Story)

7. Waterfall Fight (Ludwig Goransson: Black Panther)

8. End Credits (Justin Hurwitz: First Man)

9. Reminiscence Therapy (John Powell: Solo: A Star Wars Story)

10. Salamander Eyes (James Newton Howard: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindlewald)

 

FILM SCORE LABEL OF THE YEAR:

La La Land Records

 

BEST FILMS OF 2018

I only watched:

1. First Man

2. Solo: A Star Wars Story

-

-

-

3. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

 

I will be watching:

Isle of Dogs, VICE, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindlewald

In 2019.

 

HIGHLIGHTS AND DISSAPOINTMENTS

SCORE

HIGHLIGHT: John Powell scoring Solo: A Star Wars Story; waiting for the OST to arrive at my house (fun wait back in May); Williams writing The Adventures of Han

HIGHLIGHT: Justin Hurwitz working with Damien Chazelle again

HIGHLIGHT: The unexpected fun when listening to Nicholas Brittel's VICE

HIGHLIGHT: How Alexandre Desplat's Isle of Dogs grew on me

HIGHLIGHT: Kaseykockroach and I both loved Michael Giacchino's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

HIGHLIGHT: Williams announced for Galaxy's Edge

BUGGER: No new score from Williams

 

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BEST SCORES OF 2018:

1. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald by James Newton Howard

2. Westworld Season 2 by Ramin Djawadi

3. Red Sparrow by James Newton Howard

4. Solo: A Star Wars Story by John Powell

5. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom by Michael Giacchino

6. Black Panther by Ludwig Göransson

7. Avengers: Infinity War by Alan Silvestri

8. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms by James Newton Howard

 

BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR:

1. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

2. Mission Impossible: Fallout

3. Avengers: Infinity War

4. Black Panther

5. Isle of Dogs

 

FILM SCORE LABEL OF THE YEAR:

La-La Land Records

 

BEST CATALOG TITLES OF 2018:

1. Harry Potter 1-3

2. Jack the Bear

3. Schindler's List

4. The World Is Not Enough

 

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BEST SCORES OF 2018:

 

• Alexandre Desplat’s Isle of Dogs

• Justin Hurwitz’s First Man

• Ludwig Göransson’s Black Panther

• Michael Giacchino’s Incredibles 2

• Alan Silvestri’s Avengers: Infinity War

• John Powell’s Solo: A Star Wars Story

 

BEST FILMS OF 2018:

 

• Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs

• Brad Bird’s Incredibles 2

• The Russo Brothers’ Avengers: Infinity War

• John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place 

• Paul King’s Paddington 2

 

Hoping to catch Into the Spider-verse in theaters sometime soon. 

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SPECIFIC HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018:

 

That London thing.

 

SPECIFIC DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2018:

 

Having tickets to see Williams conduct three concerts, and him getting sick and not conducting any of them.

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BEST SCORES OF 2018:

 

Ready Player One by Alan Silvestri

Solo: A Star Wars Story by John Powell

First Man by Justin Hurwitz

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse by Daniel Pemberton

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom by Michael Giacchino

 

TOP 10 BEST TRACKS OF 2018:

 

"Main Theme" from Ready Player One

"The Landing" from First Man

"London Suite In C Major" from Mortal Engines

"Reminiscence Therapy" from Solo: A Star Wars Story

"Spider-Man Loves You" from Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse

"At Jurassic World's End Credits" from Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

"Arthur" from Aquaman

"Spread The Word" from Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald

"United Nations/End Titles" from Black Panther

"Stairs & Rooftops" from Mission Impossible: Fallout

 

 

FILM SCORE LABEL OF THE YEAR:

 

As Jerry said, easily La-La Land Records.

 

 

SPECIFIC HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018:

 

The Harry Potter Soundtrack Collection. Because wow.

 

SPECIFIC DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2018:

 

The scores for Bumblebee and Venom. I enjoyed neither.

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32 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Having tickets to see Williams conduct three concerts, and him getting sick and not conducting any of them.

 

I know one was London and one was Vienna; What was the third?

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4 minutes ago, Jay said:

I know one was London and one was Vienna; What was the third?

 

I had tickets for both Vienna concerts (Saturday & Sunday).

 

BEST SCORES OF 2018:

As usual for the past years, I've seen and heard way too little new stuff to make a proper judgment on last year's output (and I've largely lost interest in new film scores, broadly speaking, aside from highlights and a few specific composers). But Willis's score for The Death of Stalin surely is a standout. And Solo is lots of fun, of course.

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I will just list the best tracks of the year

 

1. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald - James Newton Howard

 

 

 

2. The Landing - Justin Hurwitz

 

 

3. A Comedy of Errors - Christopher Willis

 

 

4. Blunt Und Boden - Terenence Blanchard

 

 

5. The Adventures of Han - John Williams

 

 

Runner-Up: Forge - Alan Silvestri

 

 

Runner-Up: Ready Player One - Main Title - Alan Silvestri

 

 

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Not surprisingly, I'm very different from the JWFAN community when it comes to annual film and score lists. But I do have a couple of overlaps -- THE NUTCRACKER features on my top 10 list, for example, and I have both READY PLAYER ONE and SOLO among the 'honourable mentions'.

 

SCORE:

 

I've heard somewhere between 3-400 scores this year, don't have the exact number. You can see my top 10 selections, or hear the 1-hour programme here: http://celluloidtunes.no/celluloid-tunes-59-the-10-best-scores-of-2018-20th-international-edition/. I've "cheated" a bit this year, and included both TV scores and shared spots. But since most won't click the link, I can just list them here:

 

1. VIDEOMAN (Waveshaper & Robert Parker)'

2. Nostalgia (Laurent Eyquem)

3. Papillon (David Buckley)

4. The Last Kingdom (John Lunn)

5. Mandy (Jóhann Jóhannsson) & Stella Blómkvist (Helgi Sæmundur)

6. The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (James Newton Howard)

7. Cargo (Thorsten Quaeschning)

8. Michael Palin in North Korea (Miguel d'Oliveira)

9. Ocean's 8 (Daniel Pemberton) & King of Thieves (Benjamin Wallfisch)

10. Mary Queen of Scots (Max Richter) & Mary Shelley (Amelia Warner)

 

Honourable mentions to: Future World (Toydrum), Nae Pasaran (Patrick Neil Doyle), Solo: A Star Wars Story (John Powell), Torn (Gary Schyman), Don't Worry He Won't Get Far On Foot (Danny Elfman), Mute (Clint Mansell), Yellowstone (Brian Tyler), Ready Player One (Alan Silvestri), Mary Poppins Returns (Marc Shaiman), Halvdan Viking (Gaute Storaas), Cobra Kai (Zack Robinson & Leo Birenberg)

 

FILM:

 

I've seen 248 films this year (not counting films I've seen again), out of which 168 are films from 2018. You can see the whole ranked list here: https://mubi.com/lists/2018-films-ranked . But again, for those who are too lazy to click links, I can list the top 20 here (be aware that these are Norwegian release dates, so some may qualify as 2017 films internationally):

 

1. The Post

2. Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda

3. Mandy

4. Solo: A Star Wars Story

5. The Florida Project

6. A Quiet Place

7. Let the Corpses Tan

8. The Lodgers

9. Annihilation

10. Per Fuggeli: Siste resept

11. Quincy

12. Summer 1993

13. Upgrade

14. Leave No Trace

15. Shoplifters

16. First Reformed

17. The Shape of Water

18. Lady Bird

19. Call Me By Your Name

20. Blackkklansman

 

ARCHIVAL:

 

I don’t know, really. Expanded releases basically don’t exist in my mind, so I would only count premiere releases of previously unreleased scores, or possibly straight reissues of LPs or OOP CDs. In that regard, I could maybe mention Hider in the House (Young), Love Thy Neighbour (Delerue), Sin of Innocence (Delerue), And Justice for All (Grusin), White of the Eye (Mason), A Show of Force (Delerue), Fletch (Faltermeyer/various)….but I’d like to see a list of this type of item to choose from first.

 

DISAPPOINTMENTS

 

A lot of mainstream, traditional, symphonic Hollywood scores. They were really very disappointing this year, overall. Stuff like BLACK PANTHER, FIRST MAN etc., I didn't care for at all.

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BEST SCORES OF 2018:

 

1) Solo

...

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Ready Player One

Black Panther

BlacKkKlansman

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

 

TOP 10 BEST TRACKS OF 2018:

 

The Adventures of Han (Solo)

Corellia Chase (Solo)

Mine Mission (Solo)

Salamander Eyes (FB:CoG)

Wands Into The Earth (FB:CoG)

Forge (Infinity War)

At Jurassic World's End Credits/Suite (JW:FK)

Blut Und Boden (Blood and Soil) (BlacKkKlansman)

Wakanda (Black Panther)

Main Title (Ready Player One)

 

BEST CATALOG TITLES OF 2018:

 

Harry Potter 7-CD Set

 

BEST FILMS OF 2018:

 

BlacKkKlansman

Infinity War

Solo

Widows

Mission Impossible: Fallout


SPECIFIC HIGHLIGHTS OF 2018:

 

Running back from the library after a day's revision for finals, while listening to The Adventures of Han, just after it had come out, and then listening to Solo in full once I got back!

Winning John Powell's FB competition and getting free signed things!

 

SPECIFIC DISAPPOINTMENTS OF 2018:

 

The Sony Star Wars remasters, no Joe Kramer for Mission Impossible: Fallout, no Solo FYC, and getting an import tax bill for the signed JP things 😛 

 
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Regarding 'archival', I completely forgot Andrew Powell's ROCKET GIBRALTAR, which was THE major archival highlight for me last year. Geez; I'm going senile.

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