music for film

Anton Sanko is a composer and music producer from New York City.
He has been scoring for film and TV since 1991.

His first commission in film was for Jonathan Demme, whom he met while playing keyboards for Suzanne Vega in the mid 80’s. Demme offered Anton the opportunity to score his documentary Cousin Bobby.

In 2023, Anton was nominated for the second time for a French Academy Award (The Cesar) for his score to Mikhael Hers' film LES PASSAGERS DE LA NUIT, starring Charlotte Gainsberg. He received his first nomination in  2019 for his work on Hers’ film AMANDA. He recently completed THE HALF OF IT for director Alice Wu and FRACTURED for director Brad Anderson. Both projects were for Netflix.

Sanko’s other notable film credits include: Rabbit Hole starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart from director John Cameron Mitchell; Ouija for Blumhouse/Universal; Jessabelle for Blumhouse/Lionsgate; and The Possession, for Lionsgate, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick and directed by Ole Bornedal. In 2018, he was co-composer for the film
adaptation of The Seagull, along with Nico Muhly which starred Annette Bening, Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss and Corey Stoll, directed by Michael Mayer. Warren Beatty gave him a big hug at the premiere.

Earlier popular film composition works include Scotland, PA, Party Girl and Saving Face.

In television, Anton created music for two episodes of the highly-acclaimed television show The Romanoffs by Mad Men creator Matt Weiner, and the series Siren for Disney/Freeform.

In 2017, Anton was nominated for the 37th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards for Outstanding Music and Sound, for documentary, E.O. Willson – Of Ants and Men.

Also in television, Anton is supremely proud of his work on three seasons of Big Love for HBO, Garry Trudeau’s Alpha House for Amazon Studios and as the music consultant on HBO’s Getting On.

He also scored the epic seven-part television event Great Migrations for National Geographic and was the recipient of the 32nd Annual News & Documentary Emmy Award for his work.

In 2013, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in Outstanding Music Composition for his work in the Lifetime Original Movie Ring Of Fire.

Sanko’s prominent music production credits include producing and writing with Suzanne Vega on Solitude Standing (seven Grammy nominations) and Days of Open Hand (one Grammy award), and producing and writing on Jim Carroll’s last album Pools of Mercury. He has also produced Skeleton Key’s Fantastic Spikes Through Balloon (one Grammy nomination) as well as albums for Lucy Kaplansky and Anna Domino.