Discover the nominees for the 22nd World Soundtrack Awards!

World Soundtrack Award winners
News 16 Sep 2022
Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Academy announce the final wave of nominees for the prestigious World Soundtrack Awards 2022 in the categories Discovery of the Year, Public Choice Award, Best Original Score for a Belgian Production and the Sabam Award for Best Original Composition by a Young Composer. The list features lots of WSA newcomers, such as experimental band Son Lux, Japanese singer-songwriter Eiko Ishibashi and composer Batu Sener. Nainita Desai, Discovery of the Year 2021, continues her incredible trajectory as a possible winner of the Public Choice Award 2022. All nominees for the WSA2022 have now been revealed. The Academy also announces one winner: this year's WSA Industry Award goes to the Alliance for Women Film Composers.

The 22nd edition of the World Soundtrack Awards takes place on 22 October in the renovated Concert Hall of Music Centre De Bijloke in Ghent. Guest of honour is American film composer and jazz artist Mark Isham. He will be joined by last year’s Discovery of the Year winner Nainita Desai and this year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Bruno Coulais. Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Maestro Dirk Brossé, will perform music written by these three composers during the World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony & Concert.

Discovery of the Year

With the Discovery of the Year Award, the WSA wants to shine a light on upcoming film music talent. This year’s Discovery nominees are for the most part relatively new to the field of composition for film, but have extensive experience composing for TV or as musicians in a wide range of genres, which makes for a very interesting selection. Swedish composer Karl Frid is nominated for his iconoclastic score, a mix of opera with trap and hiphop, for Ninja Thyberg’s Pleasure, which won the Explore Award at Film Fest Gent 2021. Eiko Ishibashi convinced the Academy with her mesmerising, jazzy music for the Oscar-winning Murakami adaptation Drive My Car. American post-rock/electronica band Son Lux made a perfectly fitting and daring score for box office hit Everything Everywhere All At Once by the Daniels. Maurizio Malagnini enchanted audiences with a ravishing score for the science-fiction ballet film Coppelia and Isobel Waller-Bridge seized the opportunity to create a striking, dramatic soundtrack for the spy thriller Munich: The Edge of War.

Public Choice Award

The public was given the opportunity to vote for their favourite film score of the past year. The person who has received the most votes, will take home the Public Choice Award. In the running are Belgian composer Michelino Bisceglia for the animation biopic Charlotte, Joseph Metcalfe, John Coda and Grant Kirkhope for The King’s Daughter with Pierce Brosnan in the role of King Louis XIV, Discovery of the Year 2021 Nainita Desai for the documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible, Frank Ilfman for all-female action feature Gunpowder Milkshake, and Batu Sener for Ice Age spin-off The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild.

Best Original Score for a Belgian Production

After last year’s hiatus, the Award for Best Original Score for a Belgian Production celebrates its comeback. Actor and composer Vincent Cahay is nominated for Fabrice du Welz’ Inexorable, Blaise Delafosse aka Demusmaker for Nowhere by Peter Monsaert and French indie pop band The Penelopes for the family feature SpaceBoy by Olivier Pairoux.

Sabam Award for Best Original Composition by a Young Composer

The Academy announces the nominations for the Sabam Award for Best Original Composition by a Young Composer, worth 2,500 euros. The participating composers were asked to write a score for a scene from Nosferatu, Murnau's timeless classic which celebrates its 100th birthday this year. Italian composer Giacomo Rita, American composer Robert Wallace and Greek composer John Konsolakis are the young film music talents competing for this award.

AWFC

WSA Industry Award

The Academy already announces one winner as well. This year's WSA Industry Award goes to the Alliance for Women Film Composers. The AWFC is a community of composers that strives to support and celebrate the work of women composers. Catherine Joy, President of the Alliance for Women Film Composers, will be present in Ghent to receive the award. The WSA Industry Award is presented to an individual or organisation that makes a notable and significant contribution to the film music industry. Composer Robert Kraft received the previous WSA Industry Award in 2012.

Film Composer of the Year

Among the nominees for Film Composer of the Year is Germaine Franco, the first woman to score a Disney animated feature film with 2021’s Encanto, for which she received an Oscar nomination earlier this year. Multiple award-winning composer Jonny Greenwood scores a nod in the category with his music for two highly acclaimed features: The Power of the Dog and Spencer. Composer and performer Daniel Hart is nominated for his score for the epic fantasy film The Green Knight, continuing his long-standing collaboration with director David Lowery, and his score for the Jojo Moyes adaptation The Last Letter From Your Lover. Joining the competition are previous winners Alberto Iglesias (2006, The Constant Gardener) and Daniel Pemberton (2020, Enola Holmes, Rising Phoenix, The Trial of the Chicago 7). Alberto Iglesias is nominated for his emotional and tense score for long-time collaborator Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers, while last year’s Film Composer of the Year Daniel Pemberton convinced the World Soundtrack Academy members with four very different feature film scores. Pemberton’s nominated body of work includes the scores for National Geographic’s documentary film The Rescue, Aaron Sorkin’s Amazon Original Being the Ricardos, the animation film The Bad Guys and the British comedy Brian and Charles. Multiple Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer is acknowledged for his innovative score for Dune together with his compositions for the latest James Bond entry No Time to Die and Barry Levinson’s The Survivor. It is Zimmer’s eighth nomination in the category Film Composer of the Year.

Television Composer of the Year

In the category Television Composer of the Year, consistent winner at the WSA Nicholas Britell returns, after winning the award in 2020 for the second season of Succession. This year, he is nominated for his work on that show’s third season. Natalie Holt & John Williams are both recognised for their compositions for the Disney+ show Obi-Wan Kenobi. Holt, who was a nominee for the 2021 Discovery of the Year Award and the Television Composer of the Year Award, became the first woman to score a live-action Star Wars project. The category is an exciting one to watch, with the inclusion of first-time nominees Jung Jae-il, Hesham Nazih, Theodore Shapiro and Cristobal Tapia de Veer. Jung Jae-il - whose career skyrocketed after working with Bong Joon-ho on Okja and Parasite - receives a nomination for his original score for the hit series Squid Game. Egyptian composer Hesham Nazih garnered worldwide acclaim with his music for the Marvel series Moon Knight, while Theodore Shapiro played a large part in the success of director Ben Stiller’s series Severance. With his outstanding tribal score for HBO’s The White Lotus, Chilean-born composer for screen Cristobal Tapia de Veer is also a contender for the Television Composer of the Year Award.

Best Original Song

Competing for Best Original Song is a mix of commercial hits and lesser-known tracks. Daniel Hart’s “Blome Swete Lilie Flour” from The Green Knight marks the composer’s second nomination this year. Among the nominees is also “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick, written by Bloodpop and Stefani Germanotta, continuing the pop music legacy of the original. Written by Nicholas Britell, Ariana Grande, Scott Mescudi and Taura Latrice Stinson, “Just Look Up” from Adam McKay’s satire Don’t Look Up features in the category, alongside Oscar winner and James Bond song “No Time To Die”, written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell. “Strange Game” (from the series Slow Horses), written by Daniel Pemberton and Mick Jagger, is the first ever track from a TV series to be nominated for Best Original Song. Finally, the WSAcademy also showed love for the worldwide hit from Disney’s Encanto “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, written by Lin-Manuel Miranda.


Overview of the nominees

  • Discovery of the Year
    • Karl Frid - Pleasure
    • Eiko Ishibashi - Drive My Car
    • Son Lux - Everything Everywhere All at Once
    • Maurizio Malagnini - Coppelia
    • Isobel Waller-Bridge - Munich: The Edge of War
  • Public Choice
    • 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible - Nainita Desai
    • Charlotte - Michelino Bisceglia
    • Gunpowder Milkshake - Frank Ilfman
    • The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild - Batu Sener
    • The King's Daughter - Joseph Metcalfe, John Coda, Grant Kirkhope
  • Best Original Score for a Belgian Production
    • Inexorable - Vincent Cahay
    • Nowhere - Demusmaker
    • SpaceBoy - The Penelopes
  • Sabam Award for Best Original Composition by a Young Composer
    • John Konsolakis
    • Giacomo Rita
    • Robert Wallace
  • Film Composer of the Year
    • Germaine Franco - Encanto

    • Jonny Greenwood - The Power of the Dog, Spencer

    • Daniel Hart - The Green Knight, The Last Letter from Your Lover

    • Alberto Iglesias - Parallel Mothers

    • Daniel Pemberton - The Rescue, Being the Ricardos, The Bad Guys, Brian and Charles

    • Hans Zimmer - Dune, No Time to Die, The Survivor
  • Television Composer of the Year
    • Nicholas Britell - Succession (Season 3)

    • Natalie Holt & John Williams - Obi-Wan Kenobi

    • Jung Jae-il - Squid Game

    • Hesham Nazih - Moon Knight

    • Theodore Shapiro - Severance

    • Cristobal Tapia de Veer - The White Lotus
  • Best Original Song
    • “Blome Swete Lilie Flour” from The Green Knight - written by Daniel Hart - performed by Daniel Hart

    • “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick - written by Bloodpop and Stefani Germanotta - performed by Lady Gaga

    • “Just Look Up” from Don’t Look Up - written by Nicholas Britell, Ariana Grande, Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi and Taura Stinson - performed by Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi

    • “No Time To Die” from No Time to Die - written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell - performed by Billie Eilish

    • “Strange Game” from Slow Horses - written by Daniel Pemberton and Mick Jagger - performed by Mick Jagger

    • “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” from Encanto - written by Lin-Manuel Miranda - performed by Adassa, Carolina Gaitán - La Gaita, Diane Guerrero, Encanto - cast, Mauro Castillo, Rhenzy Feliz, Stephanie Beatriz