Hogan and Beckley Sweep Four Awards at Australia's Screen Music Awards

Western Australian composers Josh Hogan and Ned Beckley won all four categories they were nominated for at the 2026 Screen Music Awards, held on 28 October at Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall. The Billboard report credits the pair with wins for their work on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's animated children's series Tales from Outer Suburbia.

The four wins were best music for children's programming, best opening title television theme, best original song composed for the screen, shared with Joni Hogan, and best soundtrack album. The couple of nominations that did not convert into wins were not part of their total, because they only entered four categories. Every nomination they received came away with a trophy.

The night's other headline came from Adam Gock and Dinesh Wicks. They won most performed screen composer in Australia for the 12th time, for their work on MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules and Travel Guides. They also took most performed screen composer overseas, for Con Girl, Lego Masters and Married at First Sight.

Several other composers took home prizes. Finn Clarke was named emerging screen composer of the year. Helena Czajka won best music for a documentary for Sentient. Cezary Skubiszewski received the distinguished services to the Australian screen award, which recognises a career rather than a single project.

Steve Toulmin was among the nominees for best original song composed for the screen, for "Nug Luck" from the series Caper Crew. Toulmin's nomination was announced by the APRA AMCOS awards page, which also lists "Nothing Stays the Same" from Tales from Outer Suburbia among the song nominees.

The awards are an initiative of APRA AMCOS, the performing rights and music collecting society that pays songwriters and publishers when their music is played, and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers. The categories cover the music behind television, documentaries, children's shows and film, from the theme that opens a programme to the full soundtrack album.

For the composers involved, the evening was a chance to be seen by peers who rarely get a spotlight. Most screen music is written to sit underneath the picture, so the people who wrote it often work quietly. A night like this puts names to the tunes that many viewers hum without knowing who wrote them.