World Soundtrack Award for Discovery of the Year information

Discovery of the Year is an award handed out yearly at the World Soundtrack Awards to commemorate an excellent piece of musical work in the field of TV and movie soundtracks that seemed to come out of nowhere, hence the title of the award. It has been handed out since the World Soundtrack Awards' debut in 2001. The category sometimes has multiple nominees and sometimes does not.

• 2001 Moulin Rouge! and Kiss of the Dragon - Craig Armstrong
  • Beck - "Hämndens pris" - Adam Nordén
  • Ftina tsigara - Panayotis Kalantzopoulos
  • The Man Who Cried - Osvaldo Golijov
  • Pollock - Jeff Beal
  • Wo hu cang long - Tan Dun
• 2002 The Time Machine - Klaus Badelt
  • Thunderpants - Rupert Gregson-Williams
  • Lagaan - A.R. Rahman
  • Frailty - Brian Tyler
  • Minoes - Peter Vermeersch
• 2003 Cidade de Deus - Antonio Pinto
  • Children of Dune - Brian Tyler
  • One Hour Photo - Reinhold Heil & Johnny Klimek
  • Les Triplettes de Belleville - Benoit Charest
• 2004 21 Grams - Gustavo Santaolalla
  • Chasing Liberty and Les Fils du vent - Christian Henson
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Jon Brion
  • Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World - Iva Davies, Christopher Gordon & Richard Tognetti
  • La Puta y la ballena - Daniel Tarrab & Andrés Goldstein
• 2005 The Incredibles - Michael Giacchino
  • Dear Wendy - Benjamin Wallfisch
  • Deuda - Andrés Goldstein & Daniel Tarrab
  • Layer Cake - Ilan Eshkeri
  • The Syrian Bride - Cyril Morin
• 2006 Babam Ve Oglum - Evanthia Reboutsika
  • Les Brigades du Tigre - Olivier Florio
  • Monster House - Douglas Pipes
  • The Proposition - Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
  • The Thief Lord - Nigel Clarke & Michael Csányi-Wills
• 2007 XXY & Inheritance - Daniel Tarrab & Andrés Goldstein
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Nicholas Hooper
  • Mr. Brooks - Ramin Djawadi
  • The Science of Sleep - Jean Michel Bernard
  • La Tourneuse de Pages - Jerome Lemonnier
• 2008 American Gangster - Marc Streitenfeld
  • Aanrijding in Moscou - Tuur Florizoone [nl]
  • Before the Rains - Mark Kilian
  • The Escapist - Benjamin Wallfisch
  • El Orfanato - Velásquez Fernando
• 2009 The Reader - Nico Muhly
  • Babylon A.D. - Atli Örvarsson
  • Crying with Laughter - Lorne Balfe
  • Demain dès l'aube - Jérôme Lemonnier
  • Journey to the Center of the Earth - Andrew Lockington
• 2010 A Single Man - Abel Korzeniowski
  • Skin - Hélène Muddiman
  • The Book of Eli - Atticus Ross, Claudia Sarne, Leopold Ross
  • District 9 - Clinton Shorter
  • The Last Station - Sergey Yevtushenko
• 2011 The First Grader, The Rite - Alex Heffes
  • Limitless - Paul Leonard-Morgan
  • Natural Selection, Hamill - iZLER
  • Hanna - The Chemical Brothers (Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands)
  • X-Men: First Class and Gulliver's Travels - Henry Jackman
• 2012 Albert Nobbs - Brian Byrne
  • Immortals - Trevor Morris
  • Take Shelter - David Wingo
  • Lola Versus & Nobody Walks - Fall On Your Sword
  • The Raven, Sleep Tight, Cold Light of Day - Lucas Vidal
• 2013 Beasts of the Southern Wild - Dan Romer & Benh Zeitlin
  • Copperhead - Laurent Eyquem
  • Oblivion - Anthony Gonzalez & Joseph Trapanese
  • Hammer of the Gods & Summer in February - Benjamin Wallfisch
  • The Spectacular Now & The Way Way Back - Rob Simonsen
• 2014 Cuban Fury & The Counselor - Daniel Pemberton
  • Calvary - Patrick Cassidy
  • La Chair de Ma Chair & Zum Geburtstag - Jérôme Lemonnier
  • Gravity & The World's End - Steven Price
  • The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet - Denis Sanacore
• 2015 Birdman - Antonio Sánchez
  • But Always & Highway of Love - Zhiyi Wang
  • Ex Machina - Ben Salisbury & Geoff Barrow (Portishead)
  • A Most Violent Year - Alex Ebert (Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros)
  • Spooks: The Greater Good - Dominic Lewis
• 2016 Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation - Joe Kraemer
  • 10 Cloverfield Lane & The Boy - Bear McCreary
  • The Big Short - Nicholas Britell
  • Eddie the Eagle - Matthew Margeson
  • Synchronicity - Ben Lovett
• 2017 Moonlight - Nicholas Britell
  • Get Out - Michael Abels
  • Lady Macbeth - Dan Jones
  • Lion - Hauschka & Dustin O'Halloran
  • My Cousin Rachel - Rael Jones
• 2018 Mudbound - Tamar-kali
  • Nostalgia - Laurent Eyquem
  • Sicario: Day of the Soldado - Hildur Guðnadóttir
  • Girl - Valentin Hadjadj
  • Mary Shelley - Amelia Warner
• 2019 Us - Michael Abels
  • The Last Tree - Segun Akinola
  • Green Book - Kris Bowers
  • Where Hands Touch - Anne Chmelewsky
  • Under the Silver Lake - Disasterpeace
• 2020 The Two Popes - Bryce Dessner
  • Berlin Alexanderplatz - Dascha Dauenhauer
  • A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon - Tom Howe
  • Uncut Gems - Daniel Lopatin
  • The Personal History of David Copperfield - Christopher Willis
• 2021 The Reason I Jump - Nainita Desai
  • Wild Indian - Gavin Brivik
  • Calamity - Florencia Di Concilio
  • Infidel - Natalie Holt
  • Promising Young Woman - Anthony Willis
• 2022 Drive My Car - Eiko Ishibashi
  • Pleasure - Karl Frid
  • Everything Everywhere All at Once - Son Lux
  • Coppelia - Maurizio Malagnini
  • The Edge of War - Isobel Waller-Bridge
• 2023 Avatar: The Way of Water - Simon Franglen
  • Golda - Dascha Dauenhauer
  • Suzume - RADWIMPS / Kazuma Jinnouchi
  • Knock at the Cabin - Herdís Stefánsdóttir
  • The Menu - Colin Stetson