Ivors Composer Awards return on November 17, and Ivors CEO Roberto Neri calls generative AI “a major issue”

Hans Zimmer can walk down the street without anyone recognising him, says Roberto Neri. That’s the problem a new awards night in London is trying to fix.

The Ivors Academy relaunches the Ivors Composer Awards on November 17, 2026, at Grosvenor House, with 36 composers and librettists nominated. And in an interview with The Big Issue on November 8, Neri, the Academy’s CEO, put AI at the centre of why composers need the spotlight: “generative AI is a major issue.”

Ivors Composer Awards 2026: date, venue and categories

The ceremony runs on November 17 at Grosvenor House on Park Lane, hosted by Petroc Trelawny. The Ivors Academy says the awards are sponsored by PRS for Music and run in association with BBC Radio 3, and the nominated categories are judged by composers.

It’s the centrepiece of The Ivors Composer Week, from November 16 to 20. The new ceremony takes the place of the Ivors Classical Awards and puts film, TV and video game scores next to concert music, theatre and community work, with a new category for original documentary scores this year.

The Academy announced the nominees on October 20, and Classical Music has the full list. Categories include Best Original Film Score and Best Original Video Game Score.

What Roberto Neri said about generative AI and composers

Neri draws a line between AI as a helper and AI trained on people’s work without asking:

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As an assisted tool, AI could be an amazing asset. However, generative AI is a major issue. Allowing a creator's work to be used without permission or understanding if there will ever be compensation is not acceptable.

His bigger worry is what he calls the “faceless composer”. Most people know Zimmer’s soundtracks, but not his face, and Neri says that makes people “less sympathetic around music replacing composers as their work is often unseen.”

Neri is working with the actors’ union Equity and others on better conditions, and he points to Denmark’s digital replica law as a blueprint. “We will continue to petition the government that licensing frameworks must be put in place,” he said. That’s the same fight UK music has been having since the government scrapped its AI training opt-out, and the Academy has pushed it in Ireland too, backing an AI copyright motion in the Dáil.

Max Richter and Ludovico Einaudi at the 2026 Ivors Composer Awards

Two of the night’s special awards go to composers whose music reaches far more people than their faces do.

Max Richter receives the Ivor Novello Award for Innovation. He hasn’t been quiet about AI either: he told Bloomberg that AI was built on stolen data.

Ludovico Einaudi will be inducted into Fellowship, the Academy’s highest honour, announced on November 2.

In October, Australia’s screen composers made the same case with the Human Made campaign. If you write for screen or games, the winners are named on November 17, and BBC Radio 3 airs the highlights.