Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards / Best Score

Since 1976, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards have honored the film with the best score.

Award winners

Note: Since 2004, composers placed second have also been announced by the LAFCA jury.

year	Award winners	Movie	German title
1976	Bernard Herrmann	Taxi driver	Taxi driver
1977	John Williams	Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope	war of stars
1978	Giorgio Moroder	Midnight Express	12 noon - Midnight Express
1979	Carmine Coppola	The Black Stallion	Black, the black lightning
1980	Ry Cooder	The Long Riders	Long riders
1981	Randy Newman	ragtime	ragtime
1982	James Horner The Busboys	48 Hrs.	48 hours only
1983	Philip Glass	Koyaanisqatsi	Koyaanisqatsi
1984	Ennio Morricone	Once Upon a Time in America	Once Upon a Time in America
1985	Toru Takemitsu	Ran	Ran
1986	Herbie Hancock Dexter Gordon	Round Midnight	At midnight
1987	David Byrne Ryūichi Sakamoto Cong Su	The Last Emperor	The last emperor
1988	Mark Isham	The Moderns	The Moderns
1989	Bill Lee	Do the right thing	Do the right thing
1990	Richard Horowitz Ryūichi Sakamoto	The Sheltering Sky	Sky over the desert
1991	Zbigniew Preisner	The Double Life of Veronique At Play in the Fields of the Lord Europa, Europa	The two lives of Veronika At Play in the Fields of the Lord Hitlerjunge Salomon
1992	Zbigniew Preisner	Damage	Doom
1993	Zbigniew Preisner	Blue The Secret Garden Olivier	Three colors: blue The secret garden Oliver, Oliver
1994	Howard Shore	Ed Wood	Ed Wood
1995	Patrick Doyle	A little princess	A little princess
1996	Hal Willner The Hey Hey Club Musicians	Kansas City	Kansas City
1997	Philip Glass	Kundun	Kundun
1998	Elliot Goldenthal	The Butcher Boy	The Butcher Boy
1999	Trey Parker Marc Shaiman	South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut	South Park: The movie - bigger, longer, uncut
2000	Tan Dun	臥虎藏龍 (Wòhǔ Cánglóng)	Tiger and Dragon
2001	Howard Shore	The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring	The Lord of the Rings: The Companions
2002	Elmer Bernstein	Far from Heaven	So far from heaven
2003	Benoît Charest	Les Triplettes de Belleville	The great race of Belleville
2004	Michael Giacchino	The Incredibles	The unbelievable
2005	Joe Hisaishi Youmi Kimura	ハ ウ ル の 動 く 城hauru no ugoku shiro	Howl's Moving Castle
2006	Alexandre Desplat	The Painted Veil The Queen	The colorful veil The Queen
2007	Glen Hansard Markéta Irglová	Once	Once
2008	AR Rahman	Slumdog Millionaire	Slumdog millionaire
2009	T-Bone Burnett Stephen Bruton	Crazy Heart	Crazy Heart
2010	Alexandre Desplat	The Ghost Writer	The ghostwriter
2010	Trent Reznor Atticus Ross	The social network	The social network
2011	The Chemical Brothers	Hanna	Who is Hanna?
2012	Benh Zeitlin Dan Romer	Beasts of the Southern Wild	Beasts of the Southern Wild
2013	T-bone Burnett	Inside Llewyn Davis	Inside Llewyn Davis
2014	Jonny Greenwood	Inherent Vice	Inherent Vice - Natural Defects
2014	Mica Levi	Under the skin	Under the skin
2015	Carter Burwell	Anomalisa Carol	Anomalisa Carol
2016	Justin Hurwitz Benj Pasek Justin Paul	La La Land	La La Land
2017	Jonny Greenwood	Phantom thread	The silk thread
2018	Nicholas Britell	If Beale Street Could Talk	Beale Street
2019	Dan Levy	J'ai perdu mon corps	I lost my body

Second place film composer

1. ↑ In 2004, Alexandre Desplat took second place for Birth
2. ↑ In 2004 Ryūichi Sakamoto took second place for Tony Takitani
3. ↑ In 2006 Thomas Newman took second place for The Good German and Children of Men
4. ↑ In 2007, Jonny Greenwood took second place for There Will Be Blood
5. ↑ In 2008, Alexandre Desplat took second place for The Strange Case of Benjamin Button
6. ↑ In 2009, Alexandre Desplat took second place for The Fantastic Mr. Fox
7. ↑ In 2011, Cliff Martinez took second place for Drive
8. ↑ In 2012, Jonny Greenwood took second place for The Master
9. ↑ In 2013, Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett took second place for Her
10. ↑ In 2015, Ennio Morricone took second place for The Hateful Eight
11. ↑ In 2016, Mica Levi took second place for Jackie: The First Lady
12. ↑ In 2017, Alexandre Desplat took second place for Shape of Water - The Whispering of Water
13. ↑ In 2018, Justin Hurwitz took second place for Aufbruch zum Mond
14. ↑ In 2019, Justin Hurwitz took second place for Aufbruch zum Mond