Since they worked together on Fruitvale Station in 2013, Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, and Ludwig Göransson have collaborated on some of the biggest films in recent memory. For their most recent project, Sinners, the three all picked up wins at the 98th Academy Awards — while Coogler picked up the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and Jordan won for Actor in a Leading Role, Göransson seemed uncontested as he collected his third award for Best Original Score.
He may often be associated with his Grammy-winning work with rapper Childish Gambino, but the 41-year-old’s success with Sinners is the most recent in a long line of successful film scores — it appears as though he has won some silverware for anything he has worked on in recent memory.
Having composed for films and television shows such as Community, New Girl, and Creed, he first won in this category for his score of Coogler’s Black Panther, the irony of which was not lost on him. He explains in an interview: “I also felt incredible pressure to pay homage to African culture and its traditional music. It’s not lost on me that I’m a Swedish guy from one of the coldest countries in the world.” To prepare for the task, he travelled to Senegal for a month, recorded with musician Baaba Maal on tour, and was particularly interested in Western African percussion. Moved by the idea that music is a language passed down through generations, he worked to make music that fit in culturally with each scene
It would be remiss to ignore that his work with Christopher Nolan soared to new heights. Having collaborated on Tenet, Nolan turned to Göransson to score Oppenheimer, which was met with widespread acclaim. Göransson’s contribution to the brilliance of the film cannot be overstated — alongside his wife Serena, an award-winning violinist herself, he set out to capture the “emotional core” of Oppenheimer’s journey, quite literally setting the tone for the inner turmoil which dominates the film’s narrative. If you remain unconvinced, ‘Can You Hear the Music’ is the perfect example of just how much Göransson contributes. It’s almost certain that his score for the upcoming epic The Odyssey will continue to complement Nolan’s ambitious filmmaking style.
Nevertheless, Sinners is by far his most personal project to date: “We moved our family to New Orleans, and we were there for the whole shoot of the movie.”
In fact, his Oscars speech this year might help to understand how his own relationship with music has fuelled his work on the film. He revealed that his father fell in love with music through the blues, and even though it came from somewhere he could not relate to, “the music was so powerful that it changed my dad’s life.” If you’ve seen Sinners, that same journey permeates the scene in which Miles Caton sings ‘I Lied to You’, written by Goransson and Raphael Saadiq. Most of the score was written on the very guitar used in the film, and as they researched 1930s and 40s juke joint music, Göransson even taught Coogler to play — the pair have certainly come a long way from making short films together at university.
Although he has a way to go before joining the likes of Alfred Newman (nine wins from 43 nominations) and John Williams (five wins from 49), Göransson is three for three in this category at the Oscars. And it’s fair to say that his numerous accolades are indeed a testament to his success, but these alone do not characterise his work. Rather, he has demonstrated dedication and mastery in creating breathtaking scores for some of the most impactful films of the 21st century — Göransson is yet to be paralleled as the foremost film composer of his generation, and long may he continue.
“LUDWIG GORANSSON Profile” by Utrikesdepartementet is licensed under CC BY 3.0.