Tales from Outer Suburbia wins four Screen Music Awards – The acclaimed ABC animated series has completed a clean sweep at the 2026 Screen Music Awards, winning all four categories in which its composers were nominated.
Josh Hogan and Ned Beckley collected the awards in Brisbane on 28 October. Their wins covered Best Music for Children’s Programming, Best Opening Title Television Theme, Best Soundtrack Album and Best Original Song Composed for the Screen.
The result gives an Australian children’s series a rare sweep across music, theme, album and song categories. It also adds another major local honour to a production that viewers can stream in full on ABC iview.
A four-award sweep in Brisbane
The winning original song, Nothing Stays the Same, was performed live by Joni Hogan with the Screen Music Awards orchestra. Flying Bark Productions says four prizes for one composing team in a single night is understood to be a first for the awards.
APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers present the annual Screen Music Awards. The event recognises work across 16 categories spanning film, television, games and advertising.
The four wins continue a substantial awards run for Tales from Outer Suburbia. The series now holds 15 award honours and festival selections, ranging from Australian industry prizes to international events.
Music built for Shaun Tan’s strange suburbia
Hogan and Beckley composed and produced the score at Envelope Audio in Fremantle. Joni Hogan provided vocals, while Tom Allum led the sound design. The official soundtrack album was released in January and remains available across major music platforms.
Josh Hogan said Shaun Tan’s creative direction encouraged the music team to embrace the unusual tone of the stories.
Shaun’s note to us was ‘the weirder, the better’, and Noel and the producers held that line through the whole production. A children’s series that trusts its audience with strangeness and quiet is rare, and the music could only be as brave as the show let it be.
Josh Hogan, Composer and producer, Envelope Audio
Series director Noel Cleary said the score supports the emotional current that runs beneath the programme’s surreal encounters.
The score is beautifully haunting, wonderful and hopeful all at once. It holds the quiet magic of the series and helps the audience feel the emotion beneath every moment.
Noel Cleary, Series Director
Author and Creative Director Shaun Tan said the music carried the same suburban magic that first appeared in his illustrations.
The soundtrack captures the essence of what I was trying to explore in the illustrations – the magic hidden in everyday suburban life. It’s wonderful to see how the same story can be told in different forms: first as a book, then a television series, and now through music.
Shaun Tan, Author and Creative Director
International recognition for the ABC series
Tales from Outer Suburbia premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2025. It later appeared at Prix Jeunesse International in Munich, MOVE Summit Scotland and the Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival.
The production has also received recognition from the Australian Screen Editors Awards, Screen Producers Australia Awards, International Animated Film Festival ANIMATOR, Venice TV Awards, NHK Japan Prize, Australian Effects & Animation Festival Awards and Asian Academy Creative Awards.
That international journey reflects the distinctive visual approach of the adaptation. The production uses premium CG animation to create a handcrafted, stop-motion feel while translating Tan’s illustrated world for television.
How Tales from Outer Suburbia was made
Highly Spirited and Flying Bark Productions produced the series in association with Siamese. Noel Cleary directed the ten episodes, with Shaun Tan serving as Creative Director.
The story follows siblings Klara and Pim after they move with their mother Lucy to an outer suburb where the everyday world keeps giving way to strange encounters. The voice cast includes Dawn French, Shabana Azeez, Michael Theo, Geraldine Hakewill, Tony Nikolakopoulos, Brooklyn Davies, Felix Oliver Verges and Andrea Solonge.
The series premiered on ABC iview on 1 January 2026. It launched in the United States on BYUtv six days later, while the Australian Children’s Television Foundation handles international sales.
For more TV Central ABC news, head here. Australian viewers can stream Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia on ABC iview.