Awards season for film music is officially under way. On November 2, the nominations for the 17th Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA) were announced. The ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, November 18, at the historic Avalon Hollywood.

The HMMAs are watched as one of the precursors to the Oscars, and they are known for having a lot of very specific categories: film, of course, but also TV, documentaries, shorts, games and even trailer music. With so many categories, the list picks up names that rarely make headlines next to the Hollywood blockbusters. Thanks to that level of detail, this year's list includes several names that will feel familiar to anyone who got into scores through anime or games.

The Big Picture: Many of the Scores We Followed This Fall

According to AwardsWatch's tally, the most-nominated titles in the film categories, with three nominations each, are Behemoth!, The Odyssey, Michael, Brother Verses Brother and Linda Perry: Let It Die Here. Among individuals, Daniel Pemberton and Mina Samy lead with four nominations each, followed by Kris Bowers with three.

Pemberton's four come from Project Hail Mary, The Drama, the series Slow Horses, and "Let Me Sell You a Dream," a song he co-wrote with David Byrne. Bowers' three are for Disney Animation's Hexed, the series Spider-Noir and the documentary The Eyes of Ghana.

The fun part of reading the lineup is how many of the titles we have covered on GBmedia this fall made it in.

  • Score – Feature Film: Behemoth!, scored by nine composers under the name The Behemoth! Collective, Carter Burwell's Wild Horse Nine, Ludwig Göransson's The Odyssey and more
  • Score – Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film: Hans Zimmer's Dune: Part Three, John Williams' Disclosure Day, James Newton Howard's new Hunger Games film, Michael Giacchino's Spider-Man: Brand New Day and more
  • Score – Horror/Thriller Film: Volker Bertelmann's Clayface, Danny Elfman's Send Help and more
  • Score – Animated Film: seven titles, including Dario Marianelli's Wildwood, Kris Bowers' Hexed, Brian Tyler's The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Randy Newman's Toy Story 5 and Steven Price's Coyote vs. Acme

As game-music fans, it is also a small treat to see a Mario movie in the animated film category.

Kevin Penkin and Monster Hunter in the Mobile Game Category

Here is the main point. In the "Score/Song – Mobile Video Game" category, you will find Kevin Penkin, nominated for Dear Van Gogh. It is a special experience inside thatgamecompany's Sky: Children of the Light, available since July 17. Players walk through 3D recreations of Van Gogh's paintings while following the letters between Vincent and his brother Theo.

Anime fans in Japan know Penkin as the composer of Made in Abyss. The man who scored a descent into a deep abyss, with a mix of grandeur and unease, has now scored a journey through brushstrokes. He is great at turning the texture of his subject into sound, so it is easy to imagine why the match works.

The same category also includes Monster Hunter Outlanders (Tadayoshi Makino, Yuko Komiyama). A mobile title with the Monster Hunter name now sits on a Hollywood awards list, which we think counts as one more sign that the series' "hunting music" is being heard properly overseas. It is also typical of this category that Asian titles stand out, including Wuthering Waves and Reverse: 1999.

Kazuma Jinnouchi in Trailer Music, Drops of God in TV

The "Trailer Music Design" category includes Kazuma Jinnouchi's Guild Wars 3. ArenaNet announced Jinnouchi as the lead composer of Guild Wars 3 on July 30, introducing him as a BAFTA-nominated composer who has worked on Halo, Star Wars, Metal Gear and Ghost in the Shell. The team also includes Asuka Ito, known for Rhythm Heaven, and Maclaine Diemer, the composer of Guild Wars 2. A Japanese composer has been trusted with the sound that defines a major Western MMO, and it is fitting that the work was recognized by an award at the trailer stage.

And in "Score – TV/Limited Series (Foreign Language)," there is Ian Arber's Drops of God Season 2. Based on a Japanese manga, it is an international drama that switches between French, English and Japanese. The language of the original manga's home country is part of what puts it in a "foreign language" category, another interesting result of how detailed the HMMAs are.

So Where Should You Look?

To be honest, we have not yet seen Japanese score composers lined up in the HMMA's main categories. But this year's list shows composers and titles with ties to Japanese anime and games firmly placed in the side categories: mobile games, trailers and foreign-language drama. The center of any awards show is always the big films, but new trends usually show up first at the edges.

At the November 18 ceremony, Penkin's brushstroke music, Jinnouchi's big-MMO sound and Monster Hunter's hunting music will share the table with Hollywood's best-known scores. Whatever the results, score fans should make sure not to miss the announcements in the side categories.