The latest film music and festival news
On 25 April 2021, the awards season reaches its climax with the presentation of the Oscars. In the final days leading up to the event, Raf Butstraen takes a closer look at the nominees in the categories of Best Original Score and Best Original Song, while establishing quite a few links with the World Soundtrack Awards.
The World Soundtrack Academy, the premier organization preserving and celebrating the art of film music, has announced rule changes for World Soundtrack Awards eligibility. Most importantly, scores for feature-length documentary films will from now on be eligible for the WSAwards for Film Composer of the Year, Discovery of the Year and the Public Choice Award.
We have produced an eleven-minute documentary, directed by Mathijs Poppe, about twenty years of the World Soundtrack Awards. The documentary combines both archival material and new interviews with among others Angelo Badalamenti, Dirk Brossé, Jacques Dubrulle, Ennio Morricone and Maggie Rodford. Check it out below!
To discuss the issue of diversity in composing for screen, the WSA has recorded an online panel talk on the topic. Michael Abels (2019 Discovery of the Year), Lolita Ritmans (2020 WSA nominee for Public Choice) and WSAcademy members Diego Baldenweg with Nora Baldenweg & Lionel Baldenweg and Nainita Desai get into an nuanced conversation, moderated by Milena Fessmann.
Exclusively for the WSA, composer Alexandre Desplat sat down with Matt Mueller of Screen International to talk about his many creative collaborations. "Like an actor, I have different characters to play, but I try to stay myself", explained the Oscar-winning film composer. Get to know the ins & outs of Desplat's process and learn from the very best.
How else could we celebrate twenty years of WSA than talking with five-time Film Composer of the Year winner Alexandre Desplat about his work and inspirations. "I jump from film to film. But the story, the characters and their emotions, the images, that's where I really start, that's what makes me move on", says the world-renowned composer. Find out more about Desplat's methods in this twenty-minute talk.
For the special occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the World Soundtrack Awards, FFG music director Dirk Brossé spoke with Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Gabriel Yared about how he approaches composing for screen, his writing process and where he gets his inspiration from.
Hildur Guðnadóttir and Nicholas Britell, respectively Film Composer and TV Composer of the Year, win again at the World Soundtrack Awards. The Belgian composer Hannes De Maeyer is also victorious for his original music in Torpedo. The other winners are Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo, Bryce Dessner, Alfonso G. Aguilar and Ana Kasrashvili. Gabriel Yared receives the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Always wanted to read the thoughts of film composers? Now is your chance: listen to Soundtrack Maestro - our podcast made together with Radio 1 - in which Annelies Moons and FFG music director Dirk Brossé interview four world-renowned film composers, in honour of the twentieth anniversary of the World Soundtrack Awards. Get to know the secrets of these musicians, discover the petites histoires behind their greatest works and follow their journey from blank page to iconic soundtrack.
These are confusing and difficult times, for all of us. The safety of our audience, our guests and our crew is of the utmost importance. Due to the current circumstances, we will adapt our WSA industry programme.
Film Fest Ghent commemorates Frédéric Devreese, who died at 91, a festival friend and a fascinating composer who mastered both film and classical music.
Over the past few years, Film Fest Ghent cooperated with two partner festivals, Festival International du Film d’Aubagne and Kraków Film Music Festival, and four higher arts education institutions (CNSMD de Lyon, KASK & Conservatorium Ghent, University of Montreal’s Faculty of Music and Conservatorio G. B. Martini Bologna) on the International Master in Composition for Screen. At the 47th edition of the festival, the first generation of InMICS composer talents will graduate.
Film Fest Ghent will explore the cross-pollination between film and music at its 47th edition with VIDEODROOM 2020. In collaboration with Kunstencentrum Vooruit, the festival will present film classics such as Solaris, Koyaanisqatsi and The Shining while giving them a VIDEODROOM make-over. Live music concerts and performances will propose experimental perspectives on the film canon while offering unforgetable experiences.
The World Soundtrack Academy proudly presents this year's nominees for the renowned WSAwards. The wide range of selected composers includes our guest of honour Alexandre Desplat, Thomas Newman, Benjamin Wallfisch and John Williams. Moreover, last year's Television Composer of the Year, Hildur Guðnadóttir, is now nominated for the Film Composer of the Year Award whereas last year's Film Composer of the Year, Nicholas Britell is now nominated for the WSAward for TV Composer of the Year. As this demonstrates the blurring boundaries between film, television and other audiovisual media, the World Soundtrack Awards will more than ever celebrate the art of composition for screen.
Each year, Film Fest Ghent is devoutly committed to the art of film music by hosting the World Soundtrack Awards as well as coordinating the WSA Industry Days. A manifold of events introduces the film music industry and young aspiring film composers to the modi operandi of renowned film music talent. Guest speakers and attendants of this year's Industry Days include 2020 WSA Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Gabriel Yared, Alexandre Desplat and Nainita Desai.
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the World Soundtrack Awards, Film Fest Ghent devotes its annual album to all thirteen winners of the coveted World Soundtrack Film Composer of the Year Award over the past two decades. The album will be released on 23 October 2020 and is called World Soundtrack Awards: Tribute to the Film Composer. Just as WSA’s previous albums, the music is performed by Brussels Philharmonic and conducted by maestro Dirk Brossé.
On Monday (6 July 2020), the World Soundtrack Academy and Film Fest Ghent were saddened by the news that Ennio Morricone had deceased at the age of 91 in his hometown of Rome. We would like to express our condolences and deepest sympathy to his family members. As a festival that focuses on film music, we feel highly privileged to have welcomed the world-renowned Italian composer as a guest of honour twice (in 1987 at the festival and in 2000 at a concert organized by Film Fest Ghent), where he performed his music live with the Belgian National Orchestra.
The 20th anniversary edition of the World Soundtrack Awards will be celebrated in a special way. Adapted to current circumstances, this year's WSA will be an online edition, livestreamed from Kinepolis Ghent, where the ceremony itself will take place. This will give the festival's international audience the chance to enjoy the award ceremony and concert from everywhere around the world in a safe and corona-proof manner. The World Soundtrack Awards will be the closing event of Film Fest Ghent.
For several weeks now, we have all been living a different reality: we face an unprecedented health crisis, and we see the enormous damage it is causing worldwide. Film Fest Ghent empathizes with all those affected and hopes that the solidarity with those who are struggling and with those who are committed to the public interest will survive in post-corona times.
Film has made avant-garde composer Krzysztof Penderecki world famous. Starting as two separate sources of inspiration, film and music became one and enriched each other. Precisely for this reason, Penderecki received a Lifetime Achievement Award of the World Soundtrack Academy, last year at Film Fest Ghent 2019.
Last call for registrations and submissions for the 19th edition of the World Soundtrack Awards Film Music Composition Contest! The deadline for application is 31 May 2020. This is your chance to win the Sabam Award for the Best Original Composition by a Young Composer. This year participants are invited to write an original composition for a selected excerpt from J'ai perdu mon corps (I Lost My Body), Jérémy Clapin's 2019 film (which was part of the Official Competition at Film Fest Ghent 2019). The winner will receive the Sabam Award for the Best Original Composition by a Young Composer.
The 2019 Film Fest Gent album 'Marco Beltrami: Music for Film' has been nominated for an IFMCA Award in the category 'Best New Archival Release - Compilation'. These annual awards, organised by International Film Music Critics Association, celebrate the best film music and film music releases of the year.
This year, multiples of twenty play a major role in the life of our music director Dirk Brossé: not only can he blow out 60 candles on 18 February, but it is also the 40th year of his thriving career. On top of that, he will celebrate the 20th edition of the World Soundtrack Awards, which he will be conducting again in 2020.
She was nominated for the World Soundtrack Discovery of the Year Award and has now received the Oscar for best original score. In between, she also picked up a Bafta, a World Soundtrack Award, an Emmy and a Grammy. In recent months things have been moving fast for Icelandic composer and cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir. Proof once again that the World Soundtrack Academy has an eye and a good ear for new talent.
