Composer Christopher Lennertz has been presented with the 2018 International Film Music Critics Association Award for Best Original Score for Television by IFMCA member Jon Broxton, for his work on the Netflix reboot of the classic sci-fi show Lost in Space. This is Lennertz’s second IFMCA Award; he previously won a Special Award for initiating the charity project A Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project in 2011. He was also previously nominated for his work on the video game Warhawk in 2007, the comedy film Vampires Suck in 2010, and the video game Starhawk in 2012.
The other nominees in the Television category were Mark Chait for Frontier of Love, Ramin Djawadi for Game of Thrones, Federico Jusid for La Catedral del Mar, and Brian Tyler for Yellowstone.
Christopher Lennertz was born in Massachusetts in January 1972. He studied at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, and began his career working as an assistant to composer Basil Poledouris, before making his film music debut in 2002 on the sci-fi horror thriller Saint Sinner. Since then Lennertz has become one of the most in-demand and acclaimed young composers in Hollywood, especially of blockbuster comedies and animations; his most well-known works include Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007), Horrible Bosses (2011), Hop (2011), Think Like a Man (2012), Identity Thief (2013), Ride Along (2014), The Wedding Ringer (2015), and Bad Moms (2016).
In addition to his film work, Lennertz has also scored the TV series Supernatural, Revolution, Galavant, and Agent Carter, and written several acclaimed video game scores including the aforementioned Warhawk and Starhawk, three titles in the Medal of Honor series, three titles in the Mass Effect series, From Russia With Love, and Gun.
Lost in Space is Netflix’s big-budget reboot of the classic 1960s Irwin Allen television series, which was famously scored by a young John Williams. It stars Molly Parker, Toby Stephens, and Parker Posey as members of the Robinson family, who are chosen to lead an exploration to find a new planet for humans to colonize, but who become hopelessly lost in the depths of space when their mission is sabotaged by a sinister stowaway.
In describing the score, IFMCA member Jon Broxton praised Netflix for “the fact that they gave Lennertz the freedom to be this creative, this emotional, and this epic” and said that he had “written a daring, explosive, thrilling orchestral score that fully acknowledges the show’s heritage, but is modern enough to appeal to today’s audiences.” Similarly, IFMCA member James Southall called the score “first-rate big, orchestral space fantasy music, the kind we don’t really get any more,” while IFMCA member Mihnea Manduteanu praised the score’s “overall tone, the optimism and positive atmosphere,” and described it as “rich and dense … one of my favorite scores of the year so far.”
See below for the acceptance speech video interview:
Click on the thumbnails for larger photo images:
