Golden Globes cuts 'Best Original Score' category from telecast; Hans Zimmmer calls it a 'shame'

The Golden Globe Awards ceremony may have added a couple of new categories to its programming in the last couple of years. Still, it’s also compromising on existing technical categories in favour of a crisper telecast. However, the axing of the coveted ‘Best Original Score’ category from the telecast hasn’t gone down well with two-time Academy Award-winning music composer Hans Zimmer.

“I think it’s a shame not to honour those people - my friends - who work so hard to become a voice,” said Zimmer on the Golden Globes red carpet on Sunday. “As a person who has been making films forever, everybody who works on a film works their utmost, doesn’t get any sleep and there are no weekends. Sometimes my children wonder who I am - I come into the house and they call the police,” he added in jest.

Zimmer also pointed out how ironic it is not to have the category as a part of the telecast this year, given 2025 was a milestone year for musical scores. “I think the work should always be acknowledged. This year is a fantastic year for composers - don’t ignore them. You don’t have a movie without them,” Zimmer told ‘Variety’.

The ‘Ramayana’ composer also claimed that he ‘wouldn’t talk to the person who came up with the last-minute decision to exclude the ‘Best Original Score’ category from the Golden Globes telecast’. “It feels a little bit ignorant,” he said, adding, “We are the psychological underbelly of the whole thing.”

Zimmer also poetically put in context how crucial the role of a composer is in elevating the film’s quality. “The composer has such an important role in making films. By the time we come to the music, the director has been through war. Our first job is to remind him why he did this film in the first place,” he told ‘Deadline’.

The ‘Best Original Category’ has always been a part of the Golden Globes ceremony telecast. However, over the past few years, due to fluctuations in the show’s ratings, the organisers have been trying to make the telecast even crisper, even though it comes at the cost of excluding key technical categories. Last year, the Golden Globes telecast recorded a rating of 9.3 million viewers, only a slight two percent dip from its 2024 ratings of 9.4 million. That was, in fact, a significant (51 percent) improvement on its 2023 ratings of 6.25 million viewers.

Also, the quest to make the telecast crisper hasn’t deterred the organisers from introducing three new categories in the past couple of years. These include ‘Cinematic and Box Office Achievement’ and ‘Best Stand-up Comedian’ last year and ‘Best Podcast’ this year. The three new categories are very much a part of the Golden Globes telecast, but the ‘Best Original Score’ category was presented during a commercial this time.