Josh Hogan and Ned Beckley win four awards at Screen Music Awards

Josh Hogan and Ned Beckley were the big winners with four victories at the 2026 Screen Music Awards, held Wednesday night (Oct. 28) at Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall. Josh Hogan and Joni Hogan won best music for children's programming, best opening title television theme, best soundtrack album, and best original song composed for the screen for Tales from Outer Suburbia, the ABC animated kids' series.

Adam Gock and Dinesh Wicks won most performed screen composer – Australia for the 12th time for their work on MasterChef, My Kitchen Rules and Travel Guides. Antony Partos won best music for a television drama for The Artful Dodger (Season 2, Episode 3). Helena Czajka won best music for a documentary for Sentient, going back-to-back in that category.

Finn Clarke was named emerging screen composer of the year. Cezary Skubiszewski was presented with the distinguished services to the Australian screen award, recognizing more than 30 years of work.

Erkki Veltheim led a live orchestra on stage for his final year as music director. The annual event is an initiative of APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers and covers 16 categories. APRA CEO Dean Ormston said the first license APRA issued was to a town hall on King Island in 1926.