Perhaps it is because of his time in the punk scene that Martinez's approach to scoring is nontraditional. His scores tend towards being stark and sparse, utilizing a modern tonal palette to paint the backdrop for films that are often dark, psychological stories like "Pump Up the Volume" (1990), "The Limey" (1999) "Wonderland" (2003), "Wicker Park" (2004) and "Drive" (2011). Martinez has been nominated for a Grammy Award (Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic"), a Cesar Award (Xavier Giannoli's "À L'origine"), and a Broadcast Film Critics Award ("Drive"). He earned a Robert Award (Danish Academy Award) for his work on "Only God Forgives".