Ludwig Göransson won best original score for Sinners at the Academy Awards on Sunday (March 15). The Swedish composer is the first three-time winner for best original score in the 21st century. He previously won for Black Panther in 2019 and Oppenheimer in 2024.
In his acceptance speech, the composer reflected on how his path to a career in music began. “My dad bought his first blues album in Sweden 1964. It was a John Lee Hooker album. … The music was so powerful that it changed my dad’s life and he devoted his life to music,” he shared. “When I was 7, he put a guitar in my arms … it was the guitar that opened up a lot of doors for me … brought me to the States, and led me to one of the great storytellers of our time, Ryan Coogler. Ryan, thank you for your vision. Thank you for making a movie that resonated with the whole world.”
Coogler directed both Black Panther and Sinners. Göransson is the first composer to win two Oscars for best original score working in tandem with the same director since Howard Shore, who won for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2004, both directed by Peter Jackson.
Göransson’s Sinners score had previously won at the Critics Choice Awards, the Golden Globes and the Grammys, among others.
This year’s other Oscar nominees for best original score were Jerskin Fendrix for Bugonia, Alexandre Desplat for Frankenstein, Max Richter for Hamnet and Jonny Greenwood for One Battle After Another.
A sign of Göransson’s dominance this year is that he was the only composer who was nominated for both best original score and best original song. He shared a song nod with Raphael Saadiq for “I Lied to You” from Sinners. Another sign: This marked the first time that Göransson was nominated for both best original score and best original song in the same year.
Here are five other records Göransson set:
First composer in nearly two decades to win two best original score Oscars in the space of three years
He’s the first composer to make it back to the winners podium this quickly since Gustavo Santaolalla won back-to-back Oscars in 2006 and 2007 with Brokeback Mountain and Babel.
Second-youngest composer in Oscar history to win three Oscars in scoring categories
Göransson is just 41. The only composer who was even younger upon winning his third scoring Oscar was André Previn, who was 35 in 1964 when he won his third Oscar for Irma LaDouce.
Second composer to go 3-0 in scoring categories
Göransson is the first composer to win on his first three nominations in scoring categories since Alan Menken, who won on his first four scoring nominations – The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahantas.
Third living composer with three or more scoring Oscars
Göransson is the 16th composer to win three or more Oscars in scoring categories, but most of them are no longer living. The only other three-time winners who are still living are John Williams, 94, who has won five scoring Oscars, and Alan Menken, 76, who has won four.
Fourth person born in Sweden to win three Oscars (in any category)
Göransson is the fourth person who was born in Sweden to win three Oscars. The first three were actress Ingrid Bergman; sound and sound effects editor Per Hallberg; and sound editor and mixer Paul N.J. Ottosson.
Director Ingmar Bergman directed three films that won the Oscar for best foreign film, but the only Oscar he personally won was an Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1970.
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