Tales from Outer Suburbia and Addition among Screen Music winners

The ABC children's animation series Tales from Outer Suburbia was one of the biggest winners at the 2026 Screen Music Awards.

West Australian composers Josh Hogan and Ned Beckley took home four awards: Best Music for Children's Programming, Best Opening Title Television Theme, Best Soundtrack Album, and Best Original Song Composed for the Screen, the latter shared with Joni Hogan.

MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules and Travel Guides helped longtime collaborators Adam Gock and Dinesh Wicks continue their winning streak in the Most Performed Screen Composer — Australia category.

The pair also won Most Performed Screen Composer — Overseas for their work on Con Girl, Lego Masters and Married at First Sight.

Million Dollar Secret won Best Music for Unscripted or Reality Television Series, with Gock and Wicks among the team of composers recognised alongside Adam Sofo, Brontë Horder, Cassie To, David Bruggemann, Lydia Davies, Mitch Stewart and Rory Chenoweth.

Red Dog composer Cezary Skubiszewski received the award for Distinguished Services to the Australian Screen in recognition of his incredible body of work spanning more than 30 years.

Australian documentary Sentient won Best Music for a Documentary, recognising Helena Czajka's score.

Christopher Larkin took out Best Music for a Video Game or Other Interactive Media for his work on the highly anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Finn Clarke was named Emerging Screen Composer of the Year, following his 2025 win for Best Soundtrack Album.

The charming rom-com Addition won the highly contested Feature Film Score of the Year award for composers Piers Burbrook de Vere and first-time winner Rose Mackenzie-Peterson.

First-time winners were also recognised across several categories, with Lego — Project Vehicles winning Best Music for an Advertisement for Benjamin Lam, Trading Cards earning Best Music for a Short Film for Nicholas Gardiner, and The Witchy Girls (Episode 6) taking out Best Music for a Television Comedy for Georgina Darvidis, Matthew Sheers and Peter Corrigan.

During the ceremony, composers, musicians and industry leaders wore special badges in solidarity, opposing the use of Australian creative work to train AI without creators’ consent, licensing or fair compensation.

The government is currently considering whether to allow technology companies to use copyrighted material to train AI models.

The initiative was spearheaded by composer Antony Partos and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers.

One participating composer was Nigel Westlake, best known for his score for the Australian classic Babe.

Westlake discovered that 180 of his compositions had been included in AI training datasets without his knowledge.

Among them was a requiem he wrote after the death of his son in a road rage incident in 2008.

“Our creative industries cannot become collateral damage in the race to attract AI investment,” Partos said in a statement.

The ceremony took place in Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall on October 28, 2026, and was hosted by Rob Collins, Claudia Karvan OAM and Ayesha Madon.

In his final year as music director, composer and performer Erkki Veltheim led a live orchestra through selections from nominated scores.

The Screen Music Awards, presented by APRA AMCOS in collaboration with the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC), celebrate excellence and innovation in screen composition.