20th Annual Golden Trailer Awards Announced

On May 29th, the 20th annual Golden Trailer Awards were held at the Ace Theatre in Downtown LA. Once again, we learned that Trailaurality covered many of the trailers that would go on to be recognized for their excellence, not least due to the role that music and sound plays in their narrative power (though the GTA officially has only two awards exclusively devoted to music).

This year’s nominees for Best Music included trailers for A Star is Born (“Not Alone”; Warner Bros. / GrandSon); Rocketman (Paramount Pictures / Workshop Creative); White Boy Rick (“Love”; Sony Pictures / Trailer Park) and Yesterday (Universal Pictures / Motive). We reviewed the trailers to Rocketman and Yesterday previously on this blog. While the choices are perhaps obvious, as we seem to be in a year where the musical biopic is particularly popular, they are nevertheless great choices; both Rocketman and Yesterday play with diegetic and non-diegetic sound in a compelling way while diving into the creative process of Elton John and the Beatles, respectively. 

However, the trailer for Us (“Enemy”; Universal Pictures / Inside Job) won out, possibly for its excellent use of music in a more challenging context—i.e., not for a motion picture centred on some oeuvre of popular music or aspect of the industry.

Elsewhere, we assessed the music for trailer nominees in the categories of Best Horror (Ma); Best Drama (Bohemian Rhapsody); Best Independent (Mid90s); Most Original (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs); and Best Summer 2019 Blockbuster (Godzilla: King of the Monsters), among others.

Also notable were the nominees and winners for Best Original Score (in other words, cover versions of songs and pre-existing tracks would not qualify): we blogged about the trailer featuring MOCEAN’s track “Capstone” for Avengers: Endgame, but the others are worth a listen as well. 

The list is long and varied; have a look at their website for the complete list.

— Curtis Perry