Carter Burwell, this year's guest of honour is mostly known for being Joel and Ethan Coen's house composer, having created a significantly loyal relationship with the brothers, in which sound designer Skip Lievsay also plays a crucial role. Burwell's subtle scores for 15 Coen films are proof of his predilection for the eccentric, the experimental and the minimalistic. This makes Carter a real iconoclast, a composer who stays true to the spirit of an independent despite being an A-lister. With themes from seven Coen films, Burwell's original approach to genre-conventions (his western music for True Grit), his talent for playful pastiche (Hail, Caesar!), his love for dark atmospheres (The Man Who Wasn't There) and his piercing melancholy (A Serious Man) are only a few of the aspects you will be able to witness. Among his work for other directors, we encounter a homage to strong women in the HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce and the Patricia Highsmith adaptation Carol, both directed by Todd Haynes. For the first film of The Twilight Saga Burwell created the strongest score of the series, adding an extra dimension to the story. It is with pride that Film Fest Gent announces the premiere of Carter Burwell’s music by a symphonic orchestra - Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Dirk Brossé – during this 18th edition of the World Soundtrack Awards.
The Lifetime Achievement Award will be awarded to the already legendary French composer Philippe Sarde (1948), who seems to be the musical incarnation of French quality cinema between the 70s and now. In his extensive career, Sarde became the main composer for at least half a dozen French or Francebased directors. The result of those different collaborations is to be heard during this homage, with the Bernard Herrmann-like score for André Techiné's Barocco; the melancholic title track for Claude Sautet's Les Choses de la Vie; the incredibly moving love theme for Jean-Jacques Annaud’s La guerre du feu; the theme song for Bertrand Taverniers Coup de torchon; and two Roman Polanski features: the credits music from Le locataire, in which Sarde evokes a climate of paranoia, and a suite from Tess, in which he uses existing English folk music dating from Thomas Hardy's time. All of this is but a glimpse of his extraordinarily rich filmography with one question to be asked: is there a genre in which Sarde does not excel?
As always, we invite the winning composer of the previous year's Discovery of the Year Award. This year, we welcome American composer, pianist and producer Nicholas Britell. Get ready for the amazing chamber music for piano, violin and cello from Barry Jenkins' Oscar-winning Moonlight. To top it all off, we are honoured to present the world premiere of a suite from Jenkins' and Britell's newest collaboration: If Beale Street Could Talk.