Composers Diversity Collective to receive the 2025 WSA Industry Award
The WSA Industry Award celebrates individuals or organisations whose efforts have made a notable and lasting contribution to the film music industry. By eliminating the often-cited industry challenge of “not being able to find” music creators from diverse backgrounds, the Composers Diversity Collective (CDC) is dismantling barriers and broadening access for underrepresented voices across the creative spectrum — including composers, music supervisors, sound engineers, and musicians.
The award will be presented on Tuesday, 14 October 2025, during the WSA Nominees Celebration Reception (event on invitation only), held the evening before the 25th anniversary edition of the World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony & Concert at Music Centre De Bijloke in Ghent. Michael Abels, Sandro Morales-Santoro and Amritha Vaz will accept the award in person.
About the Composers Diversity Collective
Founded by acclaimed American composer Michael Abels, and led by co-presidents Sandro Morales-Santoro and Amritha Vaz, the Composers Diversity Collective (CDC) is a community of music creatives who actively envision an entertainment industry as diverse as our society.
“We are committed to repairing systemic underrepresentation through advocacy, education and collaborative engagement, because we believe equitable career opportunities for all will create a stronger, thriving community of storytellers”
The CDC’s vision is threefold: to increase the visibility of its members through networking and performance opportunities; to mentor and educate emerging composers from underserved communities; and to serve the broader community through music. The Collective also works to highlight the breadth of diversity within the field of composing for screen and to dispel misconceptions about the stylistic range of any minority composer.
© Eric SchwabelMichael Abels
Michael Abels is a two-time Emmy-nominated composer best known for his groundbreaking scores for Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Us, and Nope. The score for Us earned Abels the World Soundtrack Award for Discovery of the Year, the Jerry Goldsmith Award and was named “Score of the Decade” by online publication The Wrap. In 2023, Abels received the Pulitzer Prize for Music for the opera Omar, co-composed with Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Rhiannon Giddens. Most recently, he scored the Netflix worldwide #1 limited series Sirens starring Julianne Moore. Other projects include the score to HBO’s Bad Education, Star Wars series The Acolyte, Netflix’s Nightbooks and HBO’s Allen v. Farrow.
Sandro Morales-Santoro
Sandro Morales-Santoro is an award-winning Venezuelan composer based in Los Angeles, working across film, television, and interactive media. His credits include National Geographic/Disney+’s Restaurants At The End Of The World, WeTV’s Kold x Windy, Marvel Animation’s The Secret History of Venom, and the Parmount+ documentary Explant. His work on Miguel Ferrer’s The Shadow of the Sun, Venezuela’s official submission for the 2024 Oscars, highlights his growing impact on international cinema.
Amritha Vaz
Amritha Vaz is a Sundance Composers Lab alumna who writes music for film and television. Her recent work on Disney’s Mira: Royal Detective earned her two Annie nominations and an ASCAP composer’s choice award for Best TV Score. Born and raised in Canada, and now based in Los Angeles, she began writing with Academy Award-winning composer Mychael Danna on 500 Days of Summer. Prior to scoring film and television projects, Vaz was a human rights attorney, so her interest remains in telling stories with purpose.
World Soundtrack Awards 2025
Previous recipients of the WSA Industry Award include Maggie Rodford (2024), Robert Townson (2023), and The Alliance for Women Film Composers (2022).
This year’s WSA Film Music Days will run from 14 to 16 October, with the 25th edition of the World Soundtrack Awards taking place on 15 October, featuring guests of honour Debbie Wiseman and A.R. Rahman. The film music concert Minimalism in Motion: Glass, Nyman and Beyond is the closing event on 16 October.
