The 2026 Academy Awards are currently under way, and our music winners have been revealed. For Best Original Score, the Oscar goes to Ludwig Göransson's Sinners, beating out Jerskin Fendrix's Bugonia, Alexandre Desplat's Frankenstein, Max Richter's Hamnet, and Jonny Greenwood's One Battle After Another. Best Song goes to HUNTR/X's "Golden" from KPop Demon Hunters, winning over Diane Warren's "Dear Me" from Diane Warren: Relentless, Raphael Saadiq and Ludwig Göransson's "I Lied To You" from Sinners, Nicholas Pike's "Sweet Dreams Of Joy" from Viva Verdi!, and Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner's "Train Dreams" from Train Dreams.
HUNTR/X's KPop Demon Hunters hit "Golden" and Göransson's Sinners score won Best Song and Best Score, respectively, at both the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards this year — although at the Globes, Best Score was controversially presented during a commercial break. Sinners also won Best Original Music at the BAFTAs, which does not have a song category. Göransson, who was also nominated for the Best Song Oscar with Raphael Saadiq's “I Lied to You," is the first composer to win Best Score three separate times in the 21st century.
In his speech, Göransson mentioned the 1932 dobro he wrote the score on, which he also recently showed CBS Mornings:
Lionel Richie, who won Best Original Song in 1986 for "Say You, Say Me," presented the Best Song award to "Golden," the first K-pop song to win in Oscars history. Earlier tonight, Kpop Demon Hunters also won for Best Animated Feature, and the HUNTR/X trio Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami performed the song onstage.
Diane Warren's loss to "Golden" writers Ejae and Mark Sonnenblick means she's broken the record for most Oscar nominations without a win.
Susie Cave and Nick Cave and Bryce Dessner and Mina Tindle at tonight's 98th Oscars. Cave and Dessner are nominated for Best Original Song for "Train Dreams" from Clint Bentley's film of the same name.[?: Julian Hamilton, Mike Coppola/Getty Images]
— Stereogum (@stereogum.com) 2026-03-15T23:28:35.105Z
