Film Fest Gent celebrates 25 years of World Soundtrack Awards with three albums
Debbie Wiseman: Music for Film and Television
Film Fest Gent proudly presents Debbie Wiseman: Music for Film and Television, featuring all-new studio recordings of selected suites and pieces from 2025 World Soundtrack Awards guest of honour Debbie Wiseman, OBE. Debbie Wiseman is one of Britain’s most treasured composers. Four of her albums reached number 1 in the UK Classical Chart and she has been Classic FM’s Composer in Residence since 2015.
Wiseman’s work can be heard in staples of British cinema and television series. Her music for Channel 4 and collaborations with filmmakers like Peter Kosminsky, John Hay, and Lewis Gilbert have earned her numerous award nominations and wins from prestigious institutes. Furthermore she collaborated with Sir Stephen Fry on several occasions, including the album The Mythos Suite, a combination of audiobook and soundtrack based on Stephen Fry’s retelling of the Greek myths in Mythos. She was commissioned to compose music for both the Diamond and Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II, create a five-movement suite and celebratory album for the Queen’s 90th and 95th Birthday Celebration respectively, and write two Alleluias for the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla.
This new Film Fest Gent album focuses specifically on her career in film and television. With 200-plus credits to her name, Wiseman has written iconic themes and scores such as for Wilde (1997) (nominated for the Ivor Novello Award for Best Original Film Score), Father Brown (2013-) and Wolf Hall (2015-2025) (winner of the International Music+Sound Award for Best Original Composition: Television Programme Score). Other highlights recorded for the album include a suite from Lewis Gilbert’s Haunted (1995), powerhouse pieces from Jean-Paul Salomé’s Arsène Lupin (2004) and first-time re-recordings from her wonderful scores for Edie (2017) and the Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal biopic To Olivia (2021).
The album also contains two previously unreleased pieces: “Accession 2023”, written for BBC’s coverage of The Coronation of TM The King and Queen Camilla (2023) and a suite from Andrew Davies’s television adaptation of He Knew He Was Right (2004). The cherry on top is Wiseman’s piano solo performance of “Viv and Maurice” from Brian Gilbert’s Tom & Viv (1994).
Craig Armstrong: Music for Film (2-CD)
The second album is Craig Armstrong: Music for Film, an expanded reissue of the very first official FFG album, originally released in 2007. Consisting of studio recordings now available internationally for the first time, the album features highlights from the film scores of Craig Armstrong, OBE.
It contains selections from the Scottish composer’s scores for Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Moulin Rouge! (2001) – including a cover of his arrangement of “One Day I’ll Fly Away” –, Phillip Noyce’s The Bone Collector (1999) and The Quiet American (2002), Richard Curtis’s Love Actually (2003) and Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center (2006). For this expanded edition, three additional pieces have been recorded: the “Love Theme” from Thomas Vinterberg’s Far from the Madding Crowd (2015) and “Dark Red Theme 1” and “Dark Red Theme 3” from Paul McGuigan’s Victor Frankenstein (2015).
World Soundtrack Awards – 25th Anniversary Celebration
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the World Soundtrack Awards in style, Film Fest Gent releases a unique vinyl set, bringing together iconic music from many of the guests of honour and Lifetime Achievement Award laureates who have graced the stage over 25 editions of the World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony & Concert. This limited edition of 500 copies is exclusively available on vinyl. The first three LPs contain selections from every one of Film Fest Gent’s studio recordings over the years - from both the ‘For the Record’ and ‘Music for Film’ album series. The fourth is a bonus LP, featuring live recordings (all premiere releases on album) of memorable performances from two-and-a-half decades of WSA concerts.
Among the many highlights, the box set contains selections from the World Soundtrack Award-winning scores Frida (2002), Life of Pi (2012), Moulin Rouge! (2001) and Twilight (2008), two pieces (by Rachel Portman and Gustavo Santaolalla) that were used in Film Fest Gent’s golden jubilee project ‘2x25’, a previously unreleased cue from Marco Beltrami’s Ben-Hur (2016), and many special concert arrangements from Back to the Future (1985), The Conversation (1974), Homeland (2011-2020), The Imitation Game (2014), Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence (1983), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992-1993) among other scores. Also included are Elmer Bernstein’s “World Soundtrack Awards Fanfare” and John Williams’s “Tribute to the Film Composer”.
World Soundtrack Awards – 25th Anniversary Celebration contains pieces by guests of honour Craig Armstrong, Marco Beltrami, Terence Blanchard, Carter Burwell, Sean Callery, Mychael Danna, Georges Delerue, Alexandre Desplat, James Newton Howard, Alberto Iglesias, Mark Isham, Cliff Martinez, Rachel Portman, Max Richter, Philippe Rombi, Gustavo Santaolalla, Howard Shore, Alan Silvestri, Shigeru Umebayashi, Debbie Wiseman, and World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award honourees Angelo Badalamenti, Elmer Bernstein, Bruno Coulais, Frédéric Devreese, Patrick Doyle, Philip Glass, Elliot Goldenthal, Marvin Hamlisch, Eleni Karaindrou, Krzysztof Penderecki, Laurence Rosenthal, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Philippe Sarde, David Shire and Gabriel Yared.
On certain tracks the composers also feature as performing artists: Sean Callery, Eleni Karaindrou, Philippe Rombi, David Shire and Gabriel Yared on piano; Mark Isham on trumpet; and Cliff Martinez produced the electronics for Contagion (2011). The vinyl set concludes with the late lyricist Alan Bergman’s performance of “The Way We Were”.
With this triple album release, Film Fest Gent pays homage to the composers whose music and performances have shaped a quarter century of celebrating music for screen at the World Soundtrack Awards. The music on each album is performed by the Brussels Philharmonic and Vlaams Radiokoor, conducted by Film Fest Gent music director Dirk Brossé. The albums will be released during the 52nd edition of Film Fest Gent in October 2025 by Silva Screen Records.
