The 2026 Guild of Music Supervisors nominees offer a detailed map of where music supervision happens. Film and television lead the page, but documentaries, advertising, trailers, and video games have their own categories. Original songs sit in separate fields with their writers and performers named.
Sync is permission to use music with picture. Because the written composition and the sound recording are two separate copyright works, supervision often involves both creative selection and a path to clearance. A nominee list can show who and what was recognized. It cannot show the private brief, budget, negotiations, or alternatives behind a finished project.
The official 2026 Guild nominee page does not publish judging criteria beside the entries. The observations below come from its category names and credits. Any broader meaning is labeled as interpretation.
Most categories recognize a supervisor’s work on a project
In the four film fields, the nominee is a person or team attached to a film. The categories divide projects by major, mid-level, and low budget, plus non-theatrically released films. They do not name one track as the nominated object.
The major-budget list includes Gabe Hilfer and Karyn Rachtman for A Minecraft Movie, Niki Sherrod for Sinners, Kirsten Lane for The Running Man, Maggie Rodford for Wicked: For Good, and David Taylor and Jake Voulgarides for F1.
Television is organized differently. Drama, comedy, and reality each have a supervision category. The nominated credit is again the supervisor or team across a named season or program, such as Tiffany Anders for The Lowdown Season 1, Thomas Golubić and Olivia Schlichting for Poker Face Season 2, and Meryl Ginsberg, Sara Torres, and Jordan Young for Love Island USA Season 7.
Do not read those project nominations as lists of endorsed songs. A series may contain licensed tracks, original music, performances, or some combination. The nominee page does not identify the cue list inside each project.
Song nominations name a different unit
The two song categories are explicit: “Best Song Written and/or Recorded for a Film” and the corresponding television category. Each row identifies the song, project, songwriters, performers, and music supervisors.
The film list includes “Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless, “It Isn’t Perfect But It Might Be” from Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)” and “I Lied to You” from Sinners, “Just Keep Watching” from F1, and “My Baby (Got Nothing At All)” from Materialists.
The television song list includes “Afterlife” from Devil May Cry, “Get Millie Black Main Titles,” “NDN Kars” from Dark Winds, “Dialing In” from Smoke, “Ghosts” from The Runarounds, and “This Heart of Mine” from Virgin River.
Here the song is a named object, but the award’s wording still matters. It covers songs written and/or recorded for the work. It is not a general licensed-song category. It also credits the supervisor without turning that person into the songwriter or performer.
The official 2026 recipients page keeps the same distinctions after the ceremony, separating film and television songs from supervision in games, documentaries, advertising, and trailers. That continuity helps confirm that the song fields and project-supervision fields should not be merged.
Advertising and games split sync from original music
The advertising categories make one of the most useful distinctions on the page. “Synch — Best Music Supervision in Advertising” is separate from “Original Music — Best Music Supervision in Advertising.” Long-form advertising has another field.
The sync nominees include teams attached to The Farmer’s Dog, Pella, and two Apple campaigns. The original-music nominees include teams attached to Xbox, Apple, Mountain Dew, and Gap. The category labels tell us whether the supervision concerned synchronized existing music or original music, but they do not supply the song titles, composers, or clearance terms for every entry.
Video games use the same split. The sync field names supervisors and games including Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Dispatch, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, EA SPORTS College Football 26, and NASCAR 2025. The original-music field adds composer columns for projects including Assassin’s Creed Shadows, The Rogue Prince of Persia, Ghost of Yōtei, Battlefield 6, Death Stranding 2, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7.
Sync and original music are different assignments, and the category label tells you which one you are reading.
My interpretation is that this separation is a useful corrective for songwriters. “Game music” does not automatically mean a licensed song, and “original music” does not automatically mean a standalone track. The supervisor’s work changes with the source and function of the music.
Trailers are treated as their own assignments
Film, series, and video-game trailers each have a dedicated category. The named entry is a supervisor or team attached to a specific official trailer or teaser.
For film, the list includes trailers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Project Hail Mary, Wuthering Heights, One Battle After Another, and Jurassic World Rebirth. Series entries include Task, Stranger Things, The Narrow Road of the Deep North, Wayward, and The White Lotus. The game-trailer entries include Valorant, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Fortnite, and Battlefield 6.
This does not prove that trailer music follows one style. It shows that trailer supervision is recognized apart from supervision inside the final film, episode, or game. A trailer has its own edit, campaign role, and clearance path.
If you write with trailers in mind, the practical work is to make the recording editable. Clear sections, an instrumental, and organized stems give an editor options without changing the underlying song. This guide explains how instrumentals and stems differ.
Repeated names show range, not a league table
Some supervisors appear more than once. Gabe Hilfer is listed in major-budget film, mid-level film, television comedy, and elsewhere on the page. Niki Sherrod appears with Sinners in major-budget film and with both of its nominated songs. Hideo Kojima appears in both game sync and original-music supervision for Death Stranding 2.
Those repetitions are observable. What they mean is interpretation. They may suggest that the Guild recognizes work across different budget levels and media, but the list does not publish workload, submission totals, or a scoring method. It does not establish that repeat nomination predicts future placement success for anyone whose song appeared in the project.
The more useful study method is to follow roles. When a song category names a writer, performer, and supervisor, notice where those credits differ. When a project category names only the supervisor, do not invent a track-level conclusion. When a game or advertising category says “sync” or “original,” preserve that label.
Songwriters can prepare for the work without copying the nominees
An awards list is retrospective. A brief is a live request for music with a use, deadline, and fee. Treating one as the other leads writers to imitate finished projects rather than solve the next project’s problem.
What you can prepare is your side of the process:
- know who controls the composition and recording;
- keep signed writer shares and contact details;
- label clean, instrumental, and stem files clearly;
- describe mood, pace, vocal, and lyrical subject without inflated claims;
- answer clearance questions without waiting on an absent collaborator.
If “who can approve both sides?” is not yet an easy question, read the one-stop and easy-clear guide before you pitch.
If your catalog already has clear ownership and complete files, the next useful step is the one-stop self-audit. It gives you a track-by-track list of what is ready and what still needs documentation.