Less than 24 hours after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences unveiled its shortlists in 12 categories, including best original song and best original score, the Society of Composers & Lyricists revealed the nominations for its 2026 awards.

Sinners composer Ludwig Göransson and Wicked: For Good composer Stephen Schwartz are each nominated for three SCL Awards. Both composers are nominated for outstanding original score for a studio film (Schwartz alongside John Powell); both also received two song nominations. Göransson received two nods for outstanding original song for a dramatic or documentary visual media production for “I Lied to You” and “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” from Sinners. Schwartz has two nods for outstanding original song for a comedy or musical visual media production for “No Place Like Home” and “The Girl in the Bubble” from Wicked: For Good.

In addition, Göransson and director Ryan Coogler will receive the Spirit of Collaboration Award, the SCL’s most distinctive and meaningful award, which recognizes a composer/director partnership that has created a significant and enduring body of work. Since their first collaboration on Coogler’s Fruitvale Station (2013), Göransson has scored all of Coogler’s feature films as a director — Creed (2015), Black Panther (2018), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), and Sinners (2025). Göransson won an Oscar for best original score for Black Panther and received an Oscar nod for best original song for cowriting “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Composer Harry Gregson-Williams received the 2025 Spirit of Collaboration Award for his work with director Ridley Scott. Other past recipients in this category include the late composer Robbie Robertson and Martin Scorsese; Thomas Newman and Sam Mendes; Terence Blanchard and Spike Lee; Carter Burwell and the Coen Brothers; and Justin Hurwitz and Damien Chazelle.

Diane Warren is nominated for outstanding original song for a dramatic or documentary visual media production for “Dear Me” from the documentary Diane Warren: Relentless. Warren has been nominated in each of the seven years that the SCL Awards have been presented. She won in this category in both 2025 for “The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight, and in 2023 for “Applause” from Tell it Like a Woman.

Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of overlap between the SCL nominations and the Oscar shortlists. All of the SCL nominees for outstanding original score for a studio film are on the Oscar shortlist for original score.  All but one of the 2026 SCL nominees for original song for a dramatic or documentary visual media production are on the Oscar shortlist for original song. The one SCL nominee for original song that failed to make the Oscar shortlist was “The Hills of Tanchico” from The Wheel of Time, which was cowritten by Nikhil Koparkar and Rammy Park.

The Bacon Brothers, consisting of actor-musician Kevin Bacon and his older brother, composer Michael Bacon, will cohost the seventh annual SCL Awards at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 6. That’s at nearly the midpoint between the announcement of the Oscar nominations on Jan. 22 and the opening of first-round Oscar voting on Feb. 26, which makes the SCL Awards an important stop on the Oscar campaign trail.

The SCL Awards will feature a performance by Grammy-winner Melissa Manchester. (Trivia note: Dean Pitchford cowrote Manchester’s Grammy-winning song, “You Should Hear How She Talks About You,” and also wrote the screenplay and cowrote all the songs for Kevin Bacon’s breakout film, Footloose.)

Final voting for the 2026 SCL Awards will open on Jan. 19 and close on Jan. 26.

Here’s the full list of 2026 SCL Award nominees:

Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film

Ludwig Göransson – Sinners

Alexandre Desplat – Frankenstein

Jonny Greenwood – One Battle After Another

Stephen Schwartz & John Powell – Wicked: For Good

Max Richter – Hamnet

Jerskin Fendrix – Bugonia

Outstanding Original Score for an Independent Film

Dara Taylor – Straw

Bryce Dessner – Train Dreams

David Fleming – Eternity

Fabrizio Mancinelli – Out of the Nest

Jónsi & Alex Sommers – Rental Family

Sara Barone & Robert Christenson – To Kill a Wolf

Outstanding Original Song for a Dramatic or Documentary Visual Media Production

Diane Warren – “Dear Me” from Relentless

Alice Smith, Miles Caton & Ludwig Göransson – “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” from Sinners

Raphael Saadiq & Ludwig Göransson – “I Lied to You” from Sinners

Sara Bareilles – “Salt Then Sour Then Sweet” from Come See Me in the Good Light

Nikhil Koparkar & Rammy Park – “The Hills of Tanchico” from The Wheel of Time

Ed Sheeran, Blake Slatkin & John Mayer – “Drive” from F1

Outstanding Original Song for a Comedy or Musical Visual Media Production

EJAE & Mark Sonnenblick – “Golden” from KPop Demon Hunters

Stephen Schwartz – “No Place Like Home” from Wicked: For Good

Stephen Schwartz – “The Girl in the Bubble” from Wicked: For Good

Jack Black & Jared Hess – “Steve’s Lava Chicken” from A Minecraft Movie

Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt & Jack Black – “I Feel Alive” from A Minecraft Movie

Blake Slatkin, Shakira & Ed Sheeran – “Zoo” from Zootopia 2

Outstanding Original Title Sequence for a Television Production

Cristobal Tapia De Veer – The White Lotus

Carlos Rafael Rivera – Dept. Q

Dave Porter – Pluribus

Sean Callery – The Beast in Me

Amanda Jones – Murderbot

Jeff Beal – All Her Fault

Outstanding Original Score for a Television Production

Theodore Shapiro – Severance

Antonio Sánchez – The Studio

Brandon Roberts – Andor

Dave Porter – Pluribus

Cristobal Tapia De Veer – The White Lotus

David Fleming & Gustavo Santaolalla – The Last of Us

Outstanding Original Score for Interactive Media

Austin Wintory – Sword of the Sea

Gordy Haab – Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of the Giants

Wilbert Roget II, Cody Matthew Johnson & Jon Everist – Star Wars Outlaws: A Pirate’s Fortune

Maclaine Deimer – Wildgate

David Raksin Award for Emerging Talent

Cameron Moody – Washington Black

Chin-Shan Chang – Laws of Man

Raashi Kulkarni – A Nice Indian Boy

Greg Nicolett – Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches

Freya Berkhout – Ride or Die

Sara Trevino – The Map That Leads You

The Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective (BMC) will host the fourth annual Recording Academy Honors , celebrating the careers of Pharrell Williams, Brandy and Kirk Franklin, on Thursday, Jan. 29. The Grammy Week event will take place at the Fairmont Century Plaza, just three nights before the 68th annual Grammy Awards are presented at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Williams will be presented with the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award, recognizing not only his musical achievements but also his entrepreneurial innovation, philanthropic efforts and cultural influence. Brandy and Franklin will receive the Black Music Icon Award, recognizing Black music creators whose artistry, innovation and service have shaped the industry and inspired generations around the world.

Franklin was initially set to be honored during the 2025 event prior to the Recording Academy’s decision to condense Grammy Week programming to prioritize Los Angeles wildfire response.

Franklin, 55, is a 20-time Grammy winner. He is nominated again this year for best gospel performance/song for “Do It Again.” Williams, 52, is a 13-time Grammy winner. He has four nominations this year, including album of the year as producer of Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out. Brandy, 46, has won one Grammy, best R&B performance by a duo or group with vocal for “The Boy Is Mine,” her Hot 100-topping collab with Monica.

“Pharrell, Brandy and Kirk are true visionaries and masters of their craft,” Harvey Mason jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “Each has built a legacy that transcends genre, defies convention and shapes culture. Their artistry continues to inspire generations of artists around the world. I’m thrilled to join the Black Music Collective in honoring three of music’s brightest stars in January and celebrating their immeasurable contributions to the industry.”

Since its inception, the BMC has been dedicated to championing and empowering Black music creators and industry leaders. Past honorees include Alicia Keys, Dr. Dre, JAY-Z, John Legend, Lenny Kravitz, Lil Wayne, Mariah Carey, Missy Elliott, and Sylvia Rhone. In further support of its mission to cultivate the next generation of Black leaders in music, the BMC awarded $85,000 in scholarship grants last year to Black college students and HBCU music programs.

Returning for the fourth consecutive year to produce Recording Academy Honors is MVD Inc, with Adam Blackstone also returning as music supervisor.

Billy Joel will be feted at New York’s Carnegie Hall on March 12 where an all-star group of performers will play his songs to benefit music programs for kids. Among the guest vocalists who will be joined by Joel’s live band are: Matchbox20 singer/songwriter Rob Thomas, Joel’s daughter singer Alexa Ray Joel, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Train’s Pat Monahan, Gavin DeGraw, Bettye Lavette, Matt Nathanson, Joy Oladokun, Tanya Tucker, War & Treaty and Rufus Wainwright, with more artists to be announced soon.

The show is latest gig from promoter Michael Dorf in support of his Music Of benefit series that has raised more than $2 million for music education programs in New York over the past twenty years. Previous honorees in the series have included Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, Prince, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, R.E.M. and more.

General admission tickets for the Joel event have already sold out, but VIP packages are still available here.

Joel is on a break from touring while he recovers from the neurological condition normal pressure hydrocephalus, which earlier this year caused the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer to cancel all of his planned 2025 shows due to the diagnosis. In an interview with Bill Maher in July, Joel said that he was feeling okay at the time, but cautioned, “it’s not fixed… it’s still being worked on.”

Seated at a piano, Joel told Maher that he felt “fine,” but admitted that, “My balance sucks. It’s like being on a boat. [My condition] used to be called ‘water on the brain.’ Now it’s called normal pressure hydrocephalus.”

Jack Black took a moment during his visit to Late Night With Seth Meyers on Tuesday night (Dec. 16) to pay tribute to late Hollywood legend Rob Reiner. Just days after Reiner and wife Michele Singer Reiner were found in their Los Angeles home after police say they were stabbed to death — the couple’s 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner, has been charged with two counts of first degree murder in the case — Black said he would “feel weird” if he didn’t talk about Reiner’s influence on his career.

“I don’t really want to talk about anything other than Rob Reiner because he was such an incredible inspiration to me,” said Black of the producer/writer/director and actor who began his nearly 60-year career on Normal Lear’s landmark All in the Family sitcom before going on to direct such beloved films as This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally…, A Few Good Men and modern other classics.

“There is no Tenacious D without Spinal Tap,” Black said of the profound influence Reiner’s directing debut about a hapless group of heavy metal has-beens had on his bombastic, joketastic hard rock duo with partner Kyle Gass. “And anyone out here, any of the young millennials that haven’t seen Spinal Tap do yourself a favor. There’s no School of Rock without Spinal Tap,” Black noted of his beloved 2003 comedy about a school teacher/frustrated rocker who whips a group of fifth graders into a proper rock back for a crucial Battle of the Bands competition to raise rent money.

“I love so many of his movies. It’s like an incredible oeuvre of films that he made. What a genius,” Black added of the much-praised and beloved second-generation Hollywood talent who was also a die-hard supporter of many charitable causes and loud and proud liberal activist who supported same-sex marriage after California passed Prop 8, which banned it in the state, and who also helped chair the campaign to create early childhood development services funded by a tax on tobacco products in the state.

“I just wanted to really quick give a shout-out to one of the biggest inspirations of my life and send love to the universe to one of the greats. He brought so much joy,” Black said.

He joined a massive list of political, entertainment and public figures who paid homage to Reiner following what appears to be the shocking alleged double parricide, a list that includes such friends and contemporaries as Albert Brooks, close friend Billy Crystal, Paul McCartney, Larry David, Jamie Lee Curtis, Princess Bride star Cary Elwes, Stephen King, Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern, former Presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden and hundreds of others.

Not included on that list is Donald Trump, whose initial post on Reiner’s death he claimed was “reportedly… due to the anger he caused others,” blaming the tragic incident on what he deemed “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” an apparent reference to Reiner’s loud and frequent criticism of the president. The comments drew angry rebukes from a number of Reiner fans, with Gracie Abrams decrying Trump’s “poisonous & vile narcissism,” Jimmy Kimmel, who slammed Trump’s comments as “hateful and vile” and Jack White, who dubbed Trump’s dark eulogy as “vile” and “narcissistic.“

During his visit, Black also reminisced about hosting Saturday Night Live 20 years ago on the episode that featured Lonely Island’s breakthrough viral video, “Lazy Sunday,” a song Black said he remembered Beck calling “a legit banger.”

“And I was like, ‘yeah it is,’ and that’s when I knew these guys were, you know, for real,” Black said of the trio comprised of lifelong friends Andy Samberg and director/writers Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer. Black can be seen in the new remake of the 1997 Jennifer Lopez/Ice Cube camp horror classic Anaconda alongside pal Paul Rudd, Steve Zahn, Thandie Newton and Selton Mello, which is out on Christmas Day.

Watch Black on Late Night below.