The 2026 Trailaurality Awards

It’s the top of the year, and that means it’s awards season—and we don’t just mean the Golden Globes! Each year, we hand out the most prestigious (in our opinion) and peculiarly specific awards to some of the most notable trailers in the previous year, with a particular ear, of course, to their use of music and sound.

Best Cinematic Collaboration with a Musical Artist Award: Wuthering Heights

2024 had Brat summer, but 2025 brought things to new, er, heights with an entire album by Charli XCX created in tandem with this adaptation of the Brontë classic. “Chains of Love”, a single Charli calls both “elegant and brutal” for its marriage of synths and strings, mirrors the dysfunctional romance on display. Though we’ve had various degrees of collaboration between musicians and cinematographers in the past, in different forms (as songwriter-turned-composer, as licensing artist, or somewhere in between), we can’t think of one as tightly collaborative as this in recent memory.

Best Film Score Tie-in: The Mandalorian and Grogu

For fans disappointed with the conclusion of the Skywalker saga—and there were many—The Mandalorian offered respite. And not least of the factors that leant this series its charm was the main theme, Ludwig Göransson’s Western-inflected instant classic. The film adaptation, then, isn’t shy whatsoever in taking Göransson’s themes and extending and inflecting them for the bigger screen, thoughtfully infusing it with time-worn trailer music tropes. It’s calculated, but satisfyingly so.

Best Use of a Cover Song: Andor Season 2

Speaking of Star Wars—Andor similarly evades the major John Williams Star Wars themes in favour of a clever cover of Steve Earle’s 2004 tune “The Revolution Starts Now”, which is certainly on point for theme. Throughout, the trailer editors find clever ways to pair the lyrics and on-screen action, in addition to the almost-expected use of synch to the beat at multiple points. Moreover, the cover song is given star treatment, to great effect: with very little in the way of sound design or dialogue, the song is left to carry the story, and the effect is nothing short of enthralling.

Most Anticipated Release: Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2

The May 2025 _Grand Theft Auto VI _trailer is approaching 150 million YouTube views and the game’s December 2023 trailer has over 270 million YouTube views at last count. These are Guinness World Record level stats. The icing on the cake is that not only is this trailer popular, it’s also really good. Musically it stands out through its clever use of not one but six licensed tracks that bring out the flavour of the location and time period of the game. The film’s release date is November 2026—could there be yet another trailer to come before then?

Most Innovative Trailer Sound Award: 28 Years Later

Imagine being in the team meeting where someone proposes that the trailer for your upcoming film should use as its soundtrack a scratchy 100+ year old recording of a poem by a racist and imperialist British poet. Bold, likely misguided, probably disastrously bad idea, right? But in fact, somehow, Taylor Holmes’ raw and riveting performance from 1915 fits this trailer’s emotion like a glove. Enhanced by layers of synths and some explosive percussion, this trailer is so completely different and unique compared to_ all _the others created in recent years. Huge congrats to the 28 Years Later team for trying something new and absolutely crushing it.

Breaking the Mold Award: Avengers: Doomsday

Can we take a moment to acknowledge how strictly the film industry follows the tried and true model of promoting their films using some combination of teaser + official trailer + official trailer 2? It’s so ingrained in the structure that we barely notice it is a formula. Until a film comes along and throws that formula out the window. That’s exactly what Avengers: Doomsday is doing. Arguably the most successful film franchise in history (okay Avatar and_ Star Wars_, we see you, calm down), Avengers films bring the company’s biggest stars out to shine. Avengers: Doomsday, due out in December 2026, began their promo last March with a “Now In Production” video revealing the cast, accompanied by Avengers-style orchestral music and tasteful musical nods to the backstory of many of the characters. This film is taking it to the next level as we speak, releasing a series of short vignette videos hinting at the character arc of several of the film’s stars. It’s a very good sign for the entertainment industry to see the team behind a film this big to think _this far outside the box _for its promotional strategy.

Best Non-traditional Trailer Score: No Other Choice

Deep breaths, virtuosic vocalizing, pulsating orchestral strings, and some of the best rhythmic synching of sound and visuals we’ve seen: the Official Trailer for Park Chan-wook’s film No Other Choice was stunning. From the staccato vocals reminiscent of Michael Abels’ cue ‘Anthem’ from Jordan Peele’s 2019 film Us, to the exhilarating string section, and the panoply of on-screen details that are meticulously synched to the music, this trailer’s music is a masterclass in attending to detail while innovating. In an industry of trailer music cliches that make it sometimes hard to distinguish one trailer’s soundtrack from the next, this one’s score is precise, pristine, and so fresh.

— Jack Hui Litster and Curtis Perry