The 2026 Screen Music Awards will return to Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 28, marking the second consecutive year the ceremony has been held in the city, APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) announced.
The awards, presented jointly by the two organizations, recognize excellence in screen composition across 16 categories spanning short film, television, documentary, children’s programming and feature film work. This year’s ceremony falls within APRA’s centenary celebrations, marking 100 years of the performing rights organization.
Actor and APRA member Rob Collins will host, joined by guest presenters Claudia Karvan and Ayesha Madon. Composer Erkki Veltheim returns as music director for his final year in the role, leading a live orchestra through selections from nominated works. Nominees will be announced Sept. 22.
“For 100 years, APRA has existed to celebrate and support the people behind the music, and the Screen Music Awards are an integral part of that,” APRA AMCOS CEO Dean Ormston said in a statement. AGSC president Amanda Brown added that the ceremony gives the screen composition community a rare chance to gather and be recognized collectively.
Most winners are determined by panels of Australian screen composers, with two awards — Distinguished Services to the Australian Screen and Emerging Screen Composer of the Year — selected by the APRA board, and two additional categories, Most Performed Screen Composer (Australia and Overseas), decided by statistical analysis.
Last year’s inaugural Brisbane ceremony highlighted the international reach of Australian screen composition: Joff Bush won Most Performed Screen Composer – Overseas for his work on Bluey, which was the most-streamed show in the U.S. in 2024, while Cornel Wilczek took home two awards, for Fake and Netflix’s The Survivors. Other past winners include Antonio Gambale, Fred Leone, Meg Washington and Missy Higgins.
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