What Is a Film Score? A film score refers to the original music that accompanies a film. In most cases, movie music is written by a film composer hired for the production. The movie score heightens the film's emotion, creating an aural mood for each scene, along with sound effects and dialogue. What is a film soundtrack? A film soundtrack is more a selection of songs chosen to be featured in a film. In most cases they are existing tracks that have been licensed by the film's producers; in rarer cases films feature original songs, written especially with the film's story in mind.