After more than four decades of supporting Stateside composers and lyricists working across visual media, the Society of Composers & Lyricists has opened its first permanent international chapter in London.

SCL UK was christened this evening with an intimate reception at the legendary AIR Studios in North London. SCL President Ashley Irwin was present alongside the SCL UK Steering Committee, which is led by Nainita Desai. They were joined by dozens of UK-based composers and lyricists from all corners of the industry.

“We’ve got so many members over here already, coming back and forth from the States and vice versa, working on American productions that it became obvious that we should have something here,” Irwin said of the SCL’s decision to open a UK chapter.

Irwin continued: “So what’s the SCL all about? For those of you who don’t know, we’re about advocacy and education. This is a community, first and foremost, of people who write music for audio-visual, whether it is film, television, or video games. Anything where there’s an image.”

After the opening speeches, a small band of musicians gathered to perform compositions created by five SCL UK members: Ruth Barrett, Stephen Barton, Atli Örvarsson, Carly Paradis, and Daniel Pemberton. All five musicians were present this evening and shared personal stories about how the SCL has helped them navigate their careers.

Before introducing a performance of his Project Hail Mary score, Pemberton said of the SCL: “This is an organization that has really had a unique place in advocating for us in the absence of a union. Without it, we might not have this ability to be able to come together.”

He added: “To everybody who keeps this going and to this new venture here in London, which is fantastic, thank you so much for everything you’re doing.”

The evening ended with a tribute to the late British composer George Fenton, who died on October 5, aged 76. Fenton was Oscar-nominated five times across his decades-long career for Gandhi (1983), Cry Freedom (1988), Dangerous Liaisons (1989), and The Fisher King (1992). He also wrote the music for David Attenborough’s The Blue Planet.

“George, his career was incredibly prolific,” American-British composer and SCL UK Steering Committee member Mike Ladouceur said, opening the tribute. “And even greater was his generosity. I knew George as a colleague. He was a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music. He was really such a big contributor not just there but throughout the whole musical ecosystem.”

Ladouceur added: “George Fenton not only defined a style of writing but really invented a genre of writing for natural history docs and so much more. So let’s celebrate George Fenton.”

The musicians performed a special medley of Fenton’s work.

The full SCL UK Steering Committee includes Mat Andasun, Claire Batchelor, Paul Farrer, Andrew Kremer, Mike Ladouceur, Bankey Ojo, and David Tobin.

Alongside the original LA chapter, the SCL also has outposts in New York, Chicago, and Nashville.

Festival favorites Musk, Misty Green and Fjord debut in limited release in a crowded indie market with awards season rolling along.

Bleecker Street’s documentary by Oscar-winner Alex Gibney opens in four theaters in New York (Angelika and Lincoln Square, and LA (AMC Century City and Burbank). The buzzy portrait of Tesla, X and SpaceX chief Elon Musk premiered at Venice to critical acclaim, currently sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (off 28 reviews, see Deadline’s here). The world’s richest person, MAGA donor, chainsaw waver, baby daddy and would-be Mars colonizer takes a thrashing. He didn’t participate in the doc and has trashed it on X but wanders across the frames as CGI avatar speaking words that Musk has spoken.

Weekend Q&A screenings with Gibney were sold out in NYC and selling fast in Los Angeles, featuring producer and Pulitzer Prize-winner Ronan Farrow, journalist Zoe Schiffer, and former conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair, who shares a child with Musk and appears in the film. She refused to accept a financial settlement after her split with the multi-billionaire that would have required her to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

The doc, which also screened at fests from TIFF to Zurich, Hamptons, Mill Valley Film Festival, Beyondfest and more, is a hefty 225 minutes long – plus a ten-minute intermission – which limits showtimes. Expands to about 300 screens next week.

Musk has converged with Sony’s wide release this weekend of Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning, a sequel to The Social Network focused on the dangerous, sordid side of Facebook under founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. And Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, a damning look at OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman isn’t coming out until December but has been making headlines since its world premiere at the New York Film Festival this week.

Filmmakers clearly have big tech on their minds, especially AI, which is everywhere in the national conversation heading into the mid-term elections.

Neon launches Cristian Mungiu’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning drama Fjord starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve at four theaters in NY and LA. A devout Romanian Norwegian couple named Gheorghius resettle in a village in a distant fjord where they become close to their neighbors, the Halbergs. Their children bond. When adolescent Elia Gheorghiu shows up at school with bruises, the community questions the traditional education the Gheorghiu children are getting from their parents. Rotten Tomatoes Certified Fresh at 91%. Deadline’s review here.

The film reps the second Palme d’Or for Mungiu and the seventh consecutive win for Neon. The film also took the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes and is Romania’s Oscar entry for Best International Feature.

A24 debuts Chris Rock’s Misty Green at six theaters across New York (Lincoln Square, Alamo, Union Square) and LA (Grove, Burbank, Century City). The TIFF-premiering original indie drama has a first-time lead in Rosalind Eleazar and sees Rock as a filmmaker returning to the director’s chair after more than a decade. Eleazar stars as a talented actress whose career has stalled fighting for a second act years after her Hollywood breakthrough. See Deadline review.

Cohen Media Group is out with Winter Of The Crow starring Lesley Manville in 30+ markets and 63 screens, a mix of AMCs, Landmarks and arthouses. Manville’s U.K. professor Dr. Joan Andrews is invited to Warsaw to give a lecture in 1981 just as martial law is being imposed. As chaos engulfs the city, she witnesses a murder by the secret police and becomes a fugitive on the run fighting for her life and those of the students with whom she has allied. Directed and co-written by Kasia Adamik from a short story by Nobel and Booker Prize-winner Olga Tokarczuk. Premiered at TIFF 2025. Agnieszka Holland (Adamik’s mother) is an executive producer. At RT 94% off 16 reviews.

More to come