Not only have 2025 blockbusters found significant success at the box office, but they also garnered acknowledgement at the upcoming 68th Annual Grammy Awards.
With nominations announced earlier this month, repeat titles in popular and soundtrack categories were also among some of the most notable movies this year. Making its way into Song of the Year, a category known as part of the ‘Big Four,’ Netflix hit KPop Demon Hunters was nominated for its motivational electropop anthem “Golden.” The song, sung by fictional animated group Huntr/x (or Korean artists Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami), will be up against mainstream powerhouses, live–acts like Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Bad Bunny, Doechii, Lady Gaga, Rosé featuring Bruno Mars, and Kendrick Lamar featuring SZA. A majority of these nominees have multiple golden gramophones in their possession, making the category one to beat for the KPop sensation.
And Demon Hunters returns as a nominee for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media, where it will face off against Sinners, F1 the Album, A Complete Unknown, and Wicked. Arguably the statement song from the latter film, power ballad “Defying Gravity,” competes against “Golden” for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. While F1 songs like Tate McRae’s “Just Keep Watching” and Chris Stapleton’s “Bad As I Used To Be” land as nominees for Best Dance Pop Recording and Best Country Solo Performance, respectively, it’s music from Sinners that takes the lead across three categories and five nominations overall.
What does this achievement mean for the reemergence of movie musicals, or flicks that otherwise have a heavy soundtrack presence? Cinephiles have shown a collective push towards embracing long form videos as having musical merit, since acclaimed visual albums by Beyoncé (Homecoming, Black Is King), Janelle Monáe (Dirty Computer), Prince (Purple Rain) Michael Jackson (Moonwalker) have earned either Grammy wins or nominations in the past. With the exclusion of Wicked, most of this year’s nominations arise from original films that have created fandoms and legacies that fans have built community through, and the Recording Academy is finally taking notice.
Recognizing period horror drama Sinners was a must for the Recording Academy, not just for its soundtrack, which masterfully blended oldies, blues, and folk with contemporary R&B, but because director Ryan Coogler and his longtime composer, Ludwig Göransson, dared to elevate the theatrical paradigm. The movie, which has become a cultural phenomenon since its April release, centers on a pair of gangster-slash-entrepreneurial twins, the determined Smoke and hellion Stack, who return from Chicago to the Mississippi Delta to open a juke joint. A bloodthirsty Irish vampire, Remmick, aims to sink his teeth into the venue and possess the euphonious talent of the twins’ cousin, Sammie (or “Preacherboy”), turning the juke joint into a battle between humans and the living dead. Göransson’s haunting and soulful score adds texture to the film, even further brought to life on the OTS, where renditions are sung by movie characters and known artists. Statement track “I Lied to You,” performed by Sinners star Miles Caton, is up for Best Song Written for Visual Media, as is Brittany Howard’s rendition of “Pale Pale Moon,” originally sung by actress Jayme Lawson. The film also nabbed rapper-singer Rod Wave his first-ever Grammy nomination in the Best Song Written for Visual Media category.
As the horror epic continues its awards season campaign headed into the Oscars, it helps that Coogler landed a historic deal to receive full ownership of Sinners in the next 25 years. This means we probably haven’t heard the last of the movie; it can become a franchise or Broadway musical and expand the Sinners sound.
Commercial juggernauts among children and mostly female audiences, both Demon Hunters and Wicked are similar in their candied and ambitious musical approach. The first theatrical installment of Wicked, released last November after spending over twenty years as a Broadway classic, brought together powerhouse vocalists Cynthia Erivo as the misunderstood Elphaba and Ariana Grande as her pompous but well-meaning university roommate Galinda (and later, Glinda). Along with soundtrack, score, and instrumental score Grammy categories, Erivo and Grande’s harmonious “Defying Gravity” is nominated for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance against “Golden” from Demon Hunters. If either song wins in the category, it’ll be the first movie composition to take home the award since the Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper duet “Shallow” from A Star Is Born in 2021.
Both Wicked and Demon Hunters have a magical composition bravura, but their respective statement songs, the aforementioned “Defying Gravity” and “Golden,” balance vulnerability and strength, meeting the criteria for the category. On its own, “Golden” was a moon shot, and young Americans are gradually showing more interest in international pop genres than those stateside.
Merging U.S. and global acts is F1 The Album, the companion soundtrack to the Brad Pitt-led sports drama F1. Fitting the movie’s exhilarating synopsis, the OTS is replete with songs that combine high energy and swagger, which its Grammy nominations reflect. With F1 in the visual media soundtrack category with Demon Hunters, Sinners, and Wicked, the Chris Stapleton-performed “Bad” could earn the country star his twelfth Grammy, but Tate McRae has gotten her first career nomination for “Just Keep Watching.” In the running for Best Dance Pop Recording, the song has a heart-pounding ambience and unforgettable hook that could take on fellow nominees like PinkPantheress (“Illegal”) and Zara Larsson (“Midnight Sun”).
If Demon Hunters, F1, Sinners, and Wicked are any proof, it’s that music-oriented films moved the needle across genres. Even movies that were snubbed, like Netflix documentary Songs from the Hole and concert flick Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS World Tour, were some of the most progressive watches over the last year. More than just being placed in soundtrack fields at the 2026 Grammys, films will be contenders against today’s biggest artists, showing that music has staying power in theaters and on airwaves.
