Screen International: odes to joy

ScreenDaily.com

September 2023

WORLD SOUNDTRACK AWARDS SPECIAL EDITION

WORL D S OUN DT RACK AWA RD S 2023

ODES TO JOY

The World Soundtrack Awards and Film Fest Gent celebrate achievement in music across film, television and gaming

Film Fest Gent is proud to present its new album in the festival’s series of annual film music recordings, devoted to the guest of honour at the 2023 World Soundtrack Awards:

L AURENCE ROSENTHAL

MUSIC FOR FILM AND TELEVISION Featuring music from: Becket • Billy the Kid • Brass Target • Clash of the Titans Fantasy Island • Meteor • Michelangelo: The Last Giant The Miracle Worker • Mussolini: The Untold Story A Raisin in the Sun • Requiem for a Heavyweight The Return of a Man Called Horse The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles Performed by the Brussels Philharmonic and conducted

by Film Fest Gent music director Dirk Brossé

Licensed exclusively to Silva Screen Records, the new album will be released during the 50th edition of Film Fest Gent (10-21 October 2023) and is available to order from:

shop.filmfestival.be and music retailers worldwide

O T H E R T I T L E S AVA I L A B L E I N T H I S S E R I E S Mark Isham Music For Film

Mychael Danna Music For Film

Shigeru Umebayashi Music For Film

Gabriel Yared Music For Film

World Soundtrack Awards Tribute To The Film Composer

Marco Beltrami Music For Film

Carter Burwell Music For Film

Terence Blanchard Music For Film

Ryuichi Sakamoto Music For Film

Alan Silvestri Music For Film

CONTACT

WORLD SOUNDTRACK AWARDS 2023

Opening track

? UK office MBI, Standard House, 12-13 Essex Street, London WC2R 3AA Tel +44 (0) 20 8102 0900 ? US office 6671 Sunset Blvd, Suite 1525, Los Angeles, CA 90028 EDITORIAL Editor Matt Mueller Supplement editor Mark Salisbury Americas editor Jeremy Kay Deputy editor Louise Tutt Executive editor, reviews and new talent Fionnuala Halligan Europe editor Tim Dams Senior editor, online Orlando Parfitt Awards/box office editor Charles Gant Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray Group art director Peter Gingell International news editor Michael Rosser Asia editor Jean Noh Senior correspondent, Asia Silvia Wong Deputy reviews editor Nikki Baughan International reporter Ben Dalton UK reporter Mona Tabbara Digital content assistant/reporter Ellie Calnan Sub-editors Willemijn Barker-Benfield, Tim Mawdsley Contributing editors John Hazelton, Wendy Mitchell, Mark Salisbury

The World Soundtrack Awards returns to champion music and image, with its unique 2x25 initiative and a new recognition of video games he 50th anniversary of Film Fest Gent has inspired the most ambitious project in the history of the World Soundtrack Awards (WSAs). The 2x25 initiative is a celebration of film score composition that saw 25 renowned composers write a short piece of music for which 25 filmmakers then created a visual accompaniment. The project has provided a unique way to honour the festival that has been home to the WSAs since its launch in 2001, as well as furthering the awards’ mission to celebrate the unique bond between directors and composers.

The illustrious list of creatives recruited for 2x25 were naturally thrilled to take part — you can read more about the project’s origins and how it was brought to fruition in this special issue (see page 2).

Their resulting creations are all available to watch on the Film Fest Gent website.

The 2x25 project offers further proof that the

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WSAs are firmly established as one of the most important events on the film music calendar. But the awards don’t stand still and this year music created for video games will be recognised for the first time, with a set of nominees that includes 2021 discovery winner Nainita Desai. Composers Gustavo Santaolalla and Stephanie Economou tell Screen International about the different discipline of scoring for games (see page 10), and a games music concert will be held on October 19.

A further focus on the special bond between composers and directors will be present with this year’s WSA guest of honour Eiko Ishibashi. The Japanese composer will perform her score for an unusual film collaboration with Drive My Car director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, titled Gift. Yet again, the World Soundtrack Awards is setting itself apart as a place to s celebrate the very best of screen music. n Matt Mueller, editor

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02 As good as gold To mark its 50th anniversary, Film Fest Gent brought together 25 leading composers and 25 filmmakers to bond on the 2x25 project 04 Bitten by the bug The career of WSA nominee and 2x25 contributor Daniel Pemberton has moved from ambient beats to Oscar nominations. He discusses Spider‑Man, Ferrari and the impact AI could have on the role of the artist

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05 The master craftsman As he receives the lifetime achievement award, nonagenarian composer Laurence Rosenthal discusses how music remains his passion 06 Can’t stop the music Returning winners, illustrious veterans and fresh talent make up the WSA nominees in film, television and games

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10 Games without frontiers Music for video games is being celebrated with a concert featuring the work of Gustavo Santaolalla and Stephanie Economou, among others 12 Drive time Eiko Ishibashi returns to Ghent as a guest of honour, and showcases her most recent collaboration with Drive My Car director Ryusuke Hamaguchi

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

IN FOCUS WSA 2023

As good as gold For its 50th anniversary, Film Fest Gent brought together 25 leading composers and 25 filmmakers for its ambitious 2x25 project.

Dan Jolin talks to contributors Rachel Portman, Daniel Pemberton and Terence Davies, while the festival heads consider the event’s unique place in the film calendar uring its five-decade history, Film Fest Gent has confidently and not-so-quietly built a reputation as a prime proponent of film score composition — a commitment that fully crystallised in 2001 with its instigation of the World Soundtrack Awards.

“It started in our search to find a unique position in the international film festival calendar,” says general director Marijke Vandebuerie.

By focusing on film music, Film Fest Gent was able to distinguish itself from other festivals.

“After all, we are based in a very small country,” notes programme director Wim De Witte, “so when it comes to films and premieres, we’re not the first in line.”

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‘It’s a wildly creative idea to pair music with images that are inspired by the music’ Rachel Portman, composer

The strategy paid off, with the festival earning widespread approval among composers and film­makers.

“It’s a big celebration of film music,” says UK composer Daniel Pemberton, whose recent credits include Amsterdam, animated super­hero blockbuster Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and upcoming biopic Ferrari by Michael Mann. “I remember being at the bar

one night and looking around and thinking, ‘There’s the guy who did Back To The Future. There’s the guy who does Doctor Who. There’s the guy who did The Bourne Ultimatum…’ This is quite a solitary job, so it’s always lovely to hang out with other composers and hear everyone’s war stories.”

Around two years ago, knowing the festival was approaching its 50th edition, De Witte and Vandebuerie decided to use the anniversary event to celebrate and highlight composers like Pemberton the world over. The result was the ambitious 2x25 project.

“We were inspired by what we saw some of our bigger brother and sister festivals doing, such as when Venice asked some directors to make a film for their birthday,” explains De Witte. “But we thought that, since music is so important, why not turn the world of film music composers and directors upside down?” He and Vandebuerie came up with a concept: “Asking a composer to make some music, and then a director to make a film to this music.”

Talent search

The festival heads knew it would be a challenge. Not only would they need to find 25 composers to create original short pieces to then be recorded by the Brussels Philharmonic, but they would also need to engage 25 directors to each make a short film based on one of the pieces, with a budget of $2,200 (€2,000) for each participant. “We didn’t know if we would succeed in this,” says De Witte.

‘This project was almost daunting because you could do anything’ Daniel Pemberton, composer

Fortunately, the response from composers — who were naturally approached first — was overwhelmingly positive, with the likes of Howard Shore, Rachel Portman, Gabriel Yared, Amine Bouhafa and Eiko Ishibashi, as well as Pemberton, all coming on board.

“It’s a wildly creative idea to pair music with images that are inspired by the music. It’s the other way round from how we usually work,” says Portman, who was the first woman to win the Oscar for best score for Emma in 1997. She had a minute-long piece “in my bottom drawer, but I didn’t want it to be in my bottom drawer because I loved it so much. It’s ebullient and slightly circus-y, and in its melodic-ness it’s just doing its own thing, which is something I like doing when I write music for film.”

Pemberton, meanwhile, saw the project as an opportunity to try something new. “It’s fascinating as a composer to be asked to write orchestral music that will be turned into a film, because you’ve normally always got to be aware of what the film is, and the limitations, and the timeframe,” he says. “But with this, it was almost daunting because you could do anything. So I ended

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

(Above) The 2x25 project married composers with filmmakers, producing 25 short films that were inspired by the original music

up going very bombastic, which is not what I’d normally do. I wanted to do something that exploded halfway through.”

After Pemberton, Portman and their 23 co-participants had completed their pieces, it fell to the Film Fest Gent team to match them with directors. This was “the most difficult part”, says De Witte, “because the filmmakers take the biggest risk. There [were] some that agreed, but in the end said, ‘I don’t feel

Courtesy of Film Fest Gent

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anything with this music, so I would rather not do it.’”

Each director was sent two or three unlabelled pieces, from which to select one. “We chose filmmakers who already have a big career, like Terence Davies, Radu Jude and Paul Schrader, but a lot of them are new voices in cinema,” De Witte continues. “We wanted a diverse selection in the sense of where they come from and how they approach cinema. We didn’t always know what their approach towards music was. This was something we’ve been finding out as we receive the films. But all the films

we’ve seen so far have their own unique quality.”

“Some of them,” adds Vandebuerie, “are very personal.”

One of these came from UK director Terence Davies, who was paired via this “musical blind date,” as he puts it, with Uruguayan composer Florencia Di Concilio. “It was such a beautiful piece of music that immediately drew me in,” says the director of Benediction. As well as playing the composition over the locked image of “a breezy day in Essex”, close to his home, he also set it to a poem, Passing Time, that he had written for his sister Maisey,

‘It was such a beautiful piece of music that immediately drew me in’ Terence Davies, filmmaker

who died two years ago. “Her loss broke my heart,” says Davies.

“I heard that heartache in Florencia’s music.”

Portman’s piece, meanwhile, was selected by Vietnamese-Czech

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

director Diana Cam Van Nguyen, who gave it fresh life with animated images of fruit and foliage. “Isn’t it absolutely brilliant?” Portman says.

“What I love about it is the images are not in time with the music, and instead she’s cutting across the whole thing, which makes it an interesting match. I love that she’s using natural things like trees and fruit and flowers, but in quite a mechanical way.”

At the time of this conversation, Pemberton was yet to see the film that was made from his “bombastic” piece. In fact, he was not even aware of his director

IN FOCUS WSA 2023

pairing, leaving it to Screen International to deliver the news it is none other than Paul Schrader (The Card Counter). “Okay. That’s great. Cool,” he says. “It’s quite over the top, my piece, so I don’t know how that’s going to work with him… It’s interesting, I might have written differently if I knew he was doing it. I quite like the lucky-dip raffle of this project.

“It’s the same as when you’re a composer,” he continues. “Sometimes it’s like, ‘You’ve just got to make this scene work.’ He’s now got the job that we’ve got most of the

SPOTLIGHT DANIEL PEMBERTON Pemberton’s work on Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse became a TikTok favourite

Bitten by the bug

‘We could trust in the bond between the directors and the composers’

The career of WSA nominee and 2x25 contributor Daniel Pemberton has matured from ambient beats to Oscar nods. He discusses Spider-Man, Ferrari and the impact AI could have on the role of the artist

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Marijke Vandebuerie, Film Fest Gent

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Bas Bogaerts

time — which is, ‘Now you’ve got to make this piece of music work.’”

Pemberton will have a chance to see Schrader’s short when all the 2x25 shorts are posted online by Film Fest Gent in mid-September.

“We want to bring them to a broader audience internationally,” says Vandebuerie, “not just the public who can attend the festival.”

The shorts will also screen on site, but separately, ahead of other films rather than in a single sitting, “because each one’s atmosphere is so different,” says Vandebuerie.

While she and De Witte still had some films to be delivered when speaking to Screen, they are pleased with the results so far. “I am so proud and happy,” says Vandebuerie. “It’s a good anniversary project for us because we could trust in the bond between the directors and the composers we have built up over the history of the festival.

“It fits in with our efforts to bring film and music together, and to make a bridge between the director s and the composer.” n

uring his 30-year career, Londonbased composer Daniel Pemberton has gone through a remarkable evolution, from recording ambientelectronic albums as a teenager in his bedroom to becoming one of the industry’s most in-demand composers. He received an Oscar nomination for The Trial Of The Chicago 7 in 2021 — when he was named film composer of the year at the World Soundtrack Awards — and recently had the number-one viral track on TikTok with ‘Spider-Man 2099 (Miguel O’Hara)’ from Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse.

“It’s had 6 billion plays or something, which I can’t get my head around,” says Pemberton, who still works in the same “messy part of my flat”. The celebrated composer does recognise changes in himself. “Starting out, I’d be very seduced by the expense and legitimacy that an orchestra would give a film score. Now I see that as one tool of writing and I could be just as excited by a crap noise that’s recorded on my iPhone. The most important thing is giving the audience an experience that’s new.”

One new composition tool Pemberton is not so sure about, however, is AI. “It could be used in a very intriguing and creative way, to make interesting works of art,” says the former tech journalist. “But my worry is they will be drowned out by a

tsunami of reheated works that are of little value. Artists always have the interests of humanity at their heart.

Daniel Pemberton, composer And I think AI is going to allow people without that purity of mindset to regurgitate the ideas of artists that went before into easily digestible chunks, which would prevent real artists surviving. On a personal level, I think it’s fucking terrifying. But I’m looking at it from a pessimistic view of the effects of capitalism on society.”

Pemberton’s own survival does not currently seem in question, at least. In addition to providing music for Film Fest Gent’s 2x25 project, he is in the midst of Apple TV+’s Slow Horses season three (with Toydrum), completing the album for season two of the streamer’s The Afterparty, and finalising his score for Michael Mann’s biopic Ferrari.

Ferrari “That was a crazy experience,” he says of the latter. “I came in very late and it was almost composing by gut instinct; in the same way, I guess, those guys drove in that era, with quick decisionmaking and fast reactions…

It was like driving a Ferrari!”

Dan Jolin

‘AI is going to allow people to regurgitate the ideas of artists that went before’

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

SPOTLIGHT LAURENCE ROSENTHAL

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Honour bound

Rosenthal aims to be in Belgium for the World Soundtrack Awards.

“God willing, I will be! I have not been in the best of health for several months but other things being equal, I wouldn’t miss it for anything,” he says. The Brussels Philharmonic has recorded his music, and the album Laurence Rosenthal: Music For Film And Television will be released during the festi-

Daniel Meunier, Diem Productions

aurence Rosenthal, the 96-year-old US composer who receives the lifetime achievement at this year’s World Soundtrack Awards, tells a revealing story about his former teacher Nadia Boulanger. She was a legendary figure whose students included Aaron Copland, Philip Glass and Daniel Barenboim. When Rosenthal later met Boulanger again and she asked what he was doing, he replied “rather shamefacedly” that he was writing film music.

“She looked at me and said, ‘Why do you apologise?’ Film music is an extraordinary thing because a film composer can provide an entirely new dimension to a film. He can produce in sound what the eye does not see.”

Rosenthal — whose most celebrated scores include Becket, A Raisin In The Sun, Rooster Cogburn and Clash Of The Titans — revered Boulanger: “Nothing that is said about her was an exaggeration. She was a monumental musician.” Her reflections on film composing made a huge impression on Rosenthal and convinced him that maybe he was in the right career after all.

“A film composer can get inside an actor’s mind and express more clearly what his state is and what he is thinking and feeling than he can as an actor. I feel that film music is an unappreciated art,” Rosenthal notes of his craft. “Aaron Copland once said that when music appears in a film, it warms up the film. I really believe that. It gives it a certain life, as Boulanger puts it, ‘another dimension’.”

“The versatility demanded of a film composer has always been a wonderful challenge”

The master craftsman As he receives the lifetime achievement award, nonagenarian composer Laurence Rosenthal tells Geoffrey Macnab that music remains his passion val through Silva Screen Records.

He is full of praise for the work the awards do in showcasing film music. “It’s a great honour,” he says of the lifetime achievement award.

“I have had a lot of awards but this one is quite special.”

The veteran composer acknow­ ledges there were some rocky moments early on in his career.

When UK director Peter Glenville recruited him to write the score for 1964’s Becket, legendary Holly­wood producer Hal Wallis (Casablanca, Now, Voyager) expressed bemusement. “Mr Wallis, who had a rather rough exterior, was very unhappy

at me being hired to do this score.

He said, ‘Who the hell is Rosenthal? I’ve never heard of him. Let’s get somebody famous’.” Glenville stuck by his man. “But I always felt [Wallis] was looking with great suspicion over my shoulder while I was writing the score. He wasn’t exactly unfriendly, but he was like a sinister presence all the time I was there.”

Wallis was unhappy when he heard Rosenthal intended to “end the picture on an ironic note”, and warned him this was a very bad idea. The producer felt Peter O’Toole’s Henry II was not being hypocritical when he asked the

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

Pope to make murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket (played by Richard Burton) a saint. “He said [on the phone], ‘I’d like you to know that is not my idea and that is not what I want to hear’, then hung up.”

Rosenthal was shaken but thought about Wallis’s remarks.

The music Rosenthal eventually wrote seemed triumphal but had “some very powerful dissonances in the trombones that are really saying to the sensitive listener, ‘Don’t be fooled by all of this glory. There is something rotten inside’”.

Wallis was present at the recording session. “Gradually, I saw a smile come onto his face. He walked over and said, ‘Good work, you’ve done it, Larry.’” Afterwards, Wallis asked the composer to score his next film.

‘Film music is extraordinary.

A composer can provide an entirely new dimension to a film’ Laurence Rosenthal, composer

Rosenthal has worked across many different genres. When he was scoring The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles for television, every episode took place in a different country. “One week I was writing Italian music and then the next Chinese music,” he recalls. “I have always enjoyed the challenge of writing the kind of music that I normally would not write for the concert hall. The versatility demanded of a film composer has always been a wonderful challenge for me and I thrive on it.”

Rosenthal continues to work despite his advancing years. He feels in reasonable health and has plenty of energy. His eyesight has deteriorated, but that has not held him back as he continues to compose operas and cantatas. “I am still full of music,” he proclaims. “Music is still my life, still my passion.

I don’t go a day without having cons tact with it.” n

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IN FOCUS WSA 2023 NOMINEES

Can’t stop the music Returning winners, illustrious veterans and fresh talent make up this year’s World Soundtrack Awards nominees in film and television. Mark Salisbury profiles 2023’s crop of innovators

Film composer of the year This award is given to the com-

poser judged to have created the best film music for feature or documentary in the last year,

either as an individual score or body of work. Last year’s winner was Jonny Greenwood.

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Volker Bertelmann (Ger) War Sailor, All Quiet On The

Western Front, Memory Of Water

Hannes Caspar/Camille Blake/Tristan Bejawn

Bertelmann won the Oscar and Bafta with All Quiet On The Western Front, for which he is nomi­ nated here along with War Sailor (Krigsseileren), another war movie, and Finnish dystopian drama Memory Of Water (Veden Vartija).

Bertelmann’s most recent WSA nomination was in 2018 in the tele­ vision composer category (Gunpowder, Patrick Melrose). His film scores include Lion, The Old Guard, Adrift, Ammonite and the upcom­ ing biopic One Life. He will reunite with All Quiet director Edward Berger on the score for Conclave.

Carter Burwell (US)

The Banshees Of Inisherin, Catherine Called Birdy, To Catch A Killer

The 2016 WSA film composer of the year, Burwell is perhaps best known for his longstanding partnership with the Coen brothers. Here he

is nominated for The Banshees Of Inisherin, his fourth collaboration with Martin McDonagh, as well as his scores for Lena Dunham’s Catherine Called Birdy and Damian Szi­ fron’s To Catch A Killer. In all, the US composer has written the music for more than 90 feature films, including Fargo, No Country For Old Men and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Upcoming projects include Drive-Away Dolls directed by Ethan Coen and Finestkind directed by Brian Helgeland.

Alexandre Desplat (Fr)

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Father & Soldier, Asteroid City, A Cooler Climate

A five-time winner of composer of the year, Desplat is noted for his collaborations with some of the world’s top filmmakers, among them Wes Anderson, Guillermo del Toro and Terrence Malick.

His impressive CV includes The King’s Speech, Argo, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Grand Budapest Hotel — the latter winning him a first Oscar. The second came for del Toro’s The Shape Of Water. In addition, Desplat provided both score and original songs for Net­ flix’s Oscar-winning stop-motion animated musical Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio. Other recent work includes Asteroid City, docu­ mentary A Cooler Climate, The Lost King, Father & Son and Lee, the biopic of photographer Lee Miller.

(Above from left) Volker Bertelmann, Carter Burwell, Alexandre Desplat, Hildur Gudnadottir, Daniel Pemberton, John Williams

Hildur Gudnadottir (Iceland) Women Talking, TÁR

Gudnadottir — the WSA 2020 composer of the year (Joker) and 2019 television composer of the year (Chernobyl) — is an Acad­ emy Award, Bafta, Golden Globe, Emmy and two-time Grammywinning Icelandic artist. This year she is nominated for Women Talking and TÁR. Previous work includes Tom Of Finland, Journey’s End, 20 episodes of Icelandic TV series Trapped, Sicario: Day Of The Soldado, Mary Magdalene and HBO series Chernobyl, for which she won a Primetime Emmy and Grammy. Her upcoming projects are A Haunting In Venice, Hedda and her reunion with director Todd Phillips on Joker: Folie á Deux.

Daniel Pemberton (UK) See How They Run, Enola

Holmes 2, Amsterdam, SpiderMan: Across The Spider-Verse

Winner of the discovery award in 2014, Pemberton also picked up the film composer of the year prize in 2021 and is regularly cited as one of the most original new voices work­ ing in film and television. His cred­ its include blockbuster Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and this year’s sequel Across The Spider-Verse,

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

Amsterdam, Enola Holmes and its sequel, as well as acclaimed doc­ umentaries The Rescue and Rising Phoenix — the latter winning him an Emmy. Recent work includes DreamWorks animation The Bad Guys and Apple TV+ series The Afterparty and Slow Horses, for which he also co-wrote the theme song with Mick Jagger.

John Williams (US)

The Fabelmans, Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny

In a career spanning more than six decades, Williams has composed the music for more than 100 fea­ tures, including all nine Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potters, Schindler’s List, E.T. The ExtraTerrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Superman and the Indiana Jones films. The first recipient of the WSA film composer of the year award back in 2001, Williams has won five Oscars — from 53 nomi­ nations — seven Baftas, 25 Gram­ mys, four Golden Globes and three Emmys. His other honours include the US’s national medal of arts, the life achievement award from the American Film Institute and the gold medal from the UK’s Royal Philharmonic Society. Aged 91, he wrote the music for longtime collaborator Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans as well as this year’s Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.

Jonathan Williams

TV composer of the year Established in 2016, this award

recognises the craft of scoring music for high-end television

series. Last year’s winner was Nicholas Britell for Succes-

sion, and he is nominated

again this year for the show’s final season as well as Star Wars spin-off Andor.

Chris Bacon & Danny Elfman (US) Wednesday

Bacon composed the score for Netflix series Wednesday along­ side Danny Elfman, and scored the sci-fi thriller 65. His credits include Bates Motel, the title track for The Tick, ABC limited series When We Rise and Duncan Jones’ Source Code, as well as collaborat­ ing with Elfman on the scores for Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness and Men In Black: International.

Elfman has established him­ self as one of the industry’s most versatile composers over the past 30 years, known for his collabora­ tions with Tim Burton and Sam Raimi, and scoring more than 100 films including Good Will Hunting, Edward Scissorhands, Batman and Spider-Man, among many others. In addition to his film work, Elfman wrote the iconic theme music for The Simpsons and Desperate Housewives.

Nicholas Britell (US) Andor, Succession

Last year’s TV composer of the year, Britell is no stranger to the

World Soundtrack Awards, having won five awards in total including film composer of the year in 2019 for If Beale Street Could Talk and Vice. The US composer and threetime Academy Award n ­ominee earns a nod here for his scores on Andor, the acclaimed TV spin-off of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, as well as the fourth and final sea­ son of Succession. His film credits include She Said, Cruella, The Big Short, Vice and Don’t Look Up, as well as Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Underground Railroad and the upcoming live-action Mufasa: The Lion King.

Bear McCreary (US)

The Serpent Queen, The Witcher: Blood Origin, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power

Primetime Emmy and Bafta Games Award winner McCreary began his career as a protégé of legendary composer Elmer Bern­ stein, before making a name for himself on Battlestar Galactica in 2004. Since then, McCreary has won a Primetime Emmy for Da Vinci’s Demons and been nominated for a Grammy. Recent projects include Prime Video series The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, Netflix’s

The Witcher: Blood Origin, The Serpent Queen, Foundation, Outlander, Crip Camp and Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. He also scored The Walking Dead, Mar­ vel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the video game Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge.

Gustavo Santaolalla (Argentina) & David Fleming (US)

The Last Of Us

Having scored The Last Of Us video games, Argentinian musi­ cian, producer and composer San­ taolalla — who won the discov­ ery award in 2004 for 21 Grams, and is a two-time Oscar win­ ner for Brokeback Mountain and Babel — was a shoo-in to score the HBO TV adaptation of the game. He collaborated on the post-apocalyptic series with Fleming, who began his career creating music for ringtones and commercials before working on Divergent and the Transformers film series. Fleming also com­ posed the score for the BBC’s Blue Planet II alongside Hans Zimmer, working with him again on The Lion King, Dune and Top Gun: Maverick. Fleming’s other work includes The Night Logan Woke Up and Netflix feature Damsel.

(Above from left) Chris Bacon & Danny Elfman, Nicholas Britell; (below from left) Bear McCreary, Gustavo Santaolalla & David Fleming, Cristobal Tapia de Veer & Kim Neundorf

Cristobal Tapia de Veer (Chile) & Kim Neundorf (Germany)

The White Lotus

Competing in this category for the second year in a row with the music for HBO’s The White Lotus, Chile-born, Canada-based composer Tapia de Veer is a two-time Primetime Emmy and Bafta TV-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist, whose classical music training and ingenious sense of composition opened a new dimension to cine­ matic music. He is known for his work on TV series Utopia, Black Mirror and National Treasure and feature film Smile.

Originally hailing from Ger­ many but now living in Mon­ treal, Neundorf studied classical piano and jazz harmony before becoming Tapia de Veer’s long­ time collaborator, assisting him on projects including Humans, Jamaica Inn, The Third Day and Hunters. Together they are nominated for season two of The White Lotus.

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Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Ted Sun

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

IN FOCUS WSA 2023 NOMINEES

My Sailor, My Love

Daniel Pemberton (UK)

That and exorcism chiller The Possessed, his fourth collaboration with horror director Chris Sun.

Spider-Man: Across The

Amelia Warner (UK)

Public choice award Voted for by the public.

(Belgium-Italy)

Winner in 2014 for Marina, Bisceglia was nominated last year for the animation Charlotte. He has composed the scores for films and TV series including Thieves Of The Wood and Klaus Härö’s romantic drama My Sailor, My Love.

Fabrizio Mancinelli (Italy-US) The Land Of Dreams

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Mancinelli has written the scores for The Snow Queen 4: Mirror-

Game music award Given to composers working on music for games released in 2022, this award is voted for by the public.

River Boy (Narayana Johnson) (Australia) Cult Of The Lamb

Audio director at Massive Monster, Johnson scored and produced the music for Cult Of The Lamb as well as working on voiceovers, atmospheres and SFX. As one half of Willow Beats, he has toured Australia and played festivals such as Splendour In The Grass.

Gareth Coker (UK), Grant Kirkhope (UK), Yoko Shimomura (Japan)

Mario + Rabbids Sparks Of Hope

UK composer Coker has worked

Amsterdam, Enola Holmes 2, Spider-Verse

See page 6.

Mark Smythe (New Zealand) The Reef: Stalked

New Zealand-born, Los Angeles-based Smythe scored Andrew Traucki’s shark thriller The Reef: Stalked. His other credits include romantic comedy Love You Like

on video games including Ori And The Blind Forest, ARK: Survival Evolved and Halo Infinite.

Scotland-born Kirkhope (a public choice award winner in 2022) is a composer for films and games including Viva Piñata and Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning. Shimomura is a Japanese composer best known for the Kingdom Hearts series. She also wrote music for Final Fight, Street Fighter II and The King Of Dragons.

Nainita Desai (UK) Immortality

With a Primetime Emmy nod and the 2021 WSA discovery of the year award to her credit, Desai’s recent work includes hit docs 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible and The Deepest Breath. Upcoming projects include a live-action fantasy series for Disney+ and a video game for EA Originals.

(Above from left) Michelino Bisceglia, Fabrizio Mancinelli, Daniel Pemberton, Mark Smythe, Amelia Warner

Mr. Malcolm’s List

Known for Mary Shelley, Wild Mountain Thyme, romantic comedy Mr. Malcolm’s List and the upcoming Young Woman And The Sea starring Daisy Ridley, Warner was nominated in the discovery of the year category in 2018 and had a public choice nod in 2021 for Wild Mountain Thyme.

Maclaine Diemer (US) Firmament

Diemer has worked on some of the highest profile titles across multiple console generations as well as PC. Notable credits include ArenaNet’s Guild Wars 2, Firmament from Cyan Worlds, Harmonix’s Rock Band franchises, Riot Games’ League Of Legends and Amazon Game Studios’ Crucible.

Gregory Nicolett (US) Potionomics

When Voracious Games needed a Pixar-­inspired aesthetic for Potionomics, they turned to Nicolett who had scored four Disney animated series, including Pupstruction. Past projects include a score for mobster feature Chicago Overcoat, additional music for Smallville and the scores for more than 40 shorts, including Sundanceselected film Above And Beneath.

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

Tristan Bejawn, Scott Hardie, Bas Bogaerts

Michelino Bisceglia

lands and thriller Coyote Lake, among others. Recently he wrote the music and lyrics for The Land Of Dreams, which features an orchestral score and 10 original songs.

Best original score for a Belgian production Awarded to the best score for a recent Belgium feature.

Dirk Brossé (Belgium) Onze Natuur

The World Soundtrack Academy’s music director, Brossé’s scores include Parade’s End and Knielen.

He is nominated for Onze Natuur.

Hannes De Maeyer (Belgium) Rebel

A winner in 2020, De Maeyer is a collaborator of directing duo Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, and is nominated for their film Rebel.

Valentin Hadjadj (France) Close

In 2012 Hadjadj received the WSA award for best young European composer. He is now nominated for Lukas Dhont’s 2022 Cannes grand prix winner Close.

Sabam award for best original composition by a young composer A composition contest for composers under 36 years old.

Emile Cooper Leplay (France) A multi-instrumentalist, Cooper Leplay has composed the music for 30 shorts and released one compilation album Construction.

Emma Kélalèche (France) A graduate of Paris’s Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional, Kélalèche works as a solo artist while pursuing her film score education.

Alec Sievern (US) A composer for media and the stage, Sievern is best known for his additional music on Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story and Marvel’s Secret Invasion.

IN FOCUS WSA 2023 NOMINEES

Bas Bogaerts, Anna Maggy

Dascha Dauenhauer

Simon Franglen

Herdis Stefansdottir

Discovery of the year Awarded to a feature or documentary composer who had a breakthrough year on the international stage.

Dascha Dauenhauer (Russia) Golda

Dauenhauer completed her master’s in film music at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf. Since then she has worked on numerous productions as a composer and music producer.

In 2020, Dauenhauer’s music for Berlin Alexanderplatz won best original score at the European Film Awards and she was also a WSA discovery nominee. Her further work includes Evolution, The Swarm and the biopic Golda.

Simon Franglen (UK)

Avatar: The Way Of Water

Franglen is well-known for his longtime collaboration with the late James Horner as arranger and score producer on films

Best original song Awarded to the best original

Kazuma Jinnouchi

RADWIMPS

such as Avatar, The Amazing Spider-Man, Titanic and others. He completed the score for The Magnificent Seven after Horner’s death in 2015, and took over scoring duties on the Avatar sequel.

led by singer/songwriter Yojiro Noda, is a Japanese band best known internationally for the soundtracks to Shinkai’s films including Your Name and Weathering With You, as well as Suzume.

Kazuma Jinnouchi (Japan), RADWIMPS

Knock At The Cabin

A multimedia composer, songwriter and electronic musician, Stefansdottir’s scores include M Night Shyamalan’s Knock At The Cabin, Y: The Last Man, The Essex Serpent (with Dustin O’Halloran), The Sun Is Also A Star and HBO series We’re Here. She won at the

by US singer/songwriter Taylor Swift for the 2022 murder mystery film Where The Crawdads Sing.

‘Keep Rising’

With more than 20 years’ experience scoring for screen and video games, Jinnouchi has worked on numerous notable game titles and is nominated here for Makoto Shinkai’s animated fantasy adventure feature Suzume. RADWIMPS,

‘Ciao Papa’

‘No Time To Die’, written by Bil-

Alexandre Desplat’s second nomination this year, ‘Ciao Papa’ is written by Desplat, Guillermo del Toro and Roeban Katz and performed

by Desplat, Dominique ‘Solrey’ Lemonnier and Gregory Mann.

lie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell.

‘Carolina’

Where The Crawdads Sing

‘Carolina’ is written and performed

Herdis Stefansdottir (Iceland)

Suzume

song in a film or TV series. Last

year’s winner was Bond theme

Colin Stetson

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

The Woman King

The closing anthem to Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical action film The Woman King, ‘Keep Rising’ is written by Jessy Wilson, Jeremy Lutito, Angélique Kidjo and performed by Wilson and Kidjo.

‘Lift Me Up’

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

This heartfelt lullaby was written

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

Icelandic Edda Awards for her score on Blackport in 2023.

Colin Stetson (US) The Menu

Best known for collaborating with indie rock acts Arcade Fire and Bon Iver, as well as with Lou Reed, LCD Soundsystem, The National and The Chemical Brothers, Stetson works across film, TV and games, scoring Hereditary, Red Dead Redemption 2, Among The Stars, 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Menu, for which he is nominated here.

by Temilade Openiyi, Robyn Fenty (aka Rihanna), Ludwig Göransson and Ryan Coogler, and is performed by Rihanna.

‘Your Personal Trash Man Can’

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Written by Thomas Mizer and Curtis Moore, this catchy musical number was performed by the s Mrs. Maisel cast during season five. n

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Centre stage

To further celebrate the form, Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards this year present a games music concert, Press Play: Music In Games, on October 19 at Capitole Ghent. Hosted and curated by Austin Wintory, composer of the music for video games Flow and Journey and a strong advocate of recognition for games music, the concert will be performed by Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Dirk Brossé and feature the work of Economou, Borislav Slavov (Baldur’s Gate III), Gordy Haab (Star Wars Jedi: Survivor) and Wintory himself. During the concert, the first WSA game music award will be handed out.

Ubisoft

t the 65th annual Grammy Awards in February, US composer Stephanie Economou won the first ever Grammy for best score soundtrack for video games and other interactive media with her work on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn Of Ragnarök. Introduced to recognise the impact of music written specifically for video games and other interactive media, the award was a monumental moment for composers plying their trade in video games, an often overlooked sector of the entertainment industry.

“The Grammy was huge,” says Economou, who has composed music for games including the aforementioned Dawn Of Ragnarök as well as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: The Siege Of Paris, films such as Dreamworks’ animation Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken and Universal’s My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, and TV projects including Netflix’s Jupiter’s Legacy. “Many in the game music world fought for decades to get game music recognised as its own category,” adds Economou.

“It is validation for every composer, every musician who has worked on a game. And for gamers too. The video-game industry is more profitable than the film and music industries combined. And music is such a big part of the storytelling.”

Stephanie Economou won a Grammy for scoring the video game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn Of Ragnarök

IN FOCUS MUSIC IN GAMES

Games without frontiers Music for video games is being celebrated with a concert featuring the work of Gustavo Santaolalla and Stephanie Economou among others. Mark Salisbury talks to both about how scoring for games differs from film and TV The concert will also feature the work of Argentina-born composer Gustavo Santaolalla, who won the discovery of the year award in 2004.

His scores for the revolutionary action-adventure game The Last Of Us and its sequel, alongside the HBO TV series adaptation, have earned him legions of new fans, as well as a Primetime Emmy nod.

The winner of back-to-back Oscars for his scores to Brokeback Mountain and Babel, Santaolalla found himself in demand not just for film and TV projects but also video games. “I have always been interested in any media where music can play a part,” he says.

A self-confessed “terrible gamer”, Santaolalla nevertheless enjoys watching others play, particularly

‘With games, they want composers to be part of the world-building, so you’re a crucial storyteller with the music’ Stephanie Economou, composer

his son. But he turned down all video game offers, waiting for the right one, a game that connected with the players on “an emotional level, not so much with the head and the physical but the heart”, he says. “[This] was confirmed when we learned people were crying playing [The Last Of Us], where people

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

felt the intense emotion that leads them to cry, just like in the movies.”

When it comes to writing game music, Economou, who will deliver a talk as part of the awards’ Film Music Days on October 19, notes the creative process is not that different to how she approaches a film or TV score. “I am trying to unlock what is going to make that story special,” she says. “What is the sound of this world? What is a theme for these characters? What is a theme for this story? Is there a stylistic influence I want to include?

Those are the same questions I have regardless of what I’m working on.

“In the early stages,” she continues, “I am making choices, finding performers I want to collaborate with, building a library of sounds

‘The fans have this intense relationship with the music.

I think it’s because they spend hours with it’ Gustavo Santaolalla, composer

Gustavo Santaolalla created the scores for the adventure game The Last Of Us as well as the HBO TV series adaptation

Stephanie Economou

and a palette, and seeking out weird instruments, which was the case for Assassin’s Creed.”

What is different is the point at which a composer is brought on to score a video game — often years in advance. “In TV and film, usually you have a couple months,” says Economou. “With games, they want composers to be part of the world-building, so you’re a crucial storyteller with the music.

But because you’re starting so early, there’s very little material to work with — a text document that tells you the story and some rendered images of what they’re hoping some of the environments are going to look like. It takes a good bit of imagination to get in there and tell that story musically.”

Gustavo Santaolalla

Another key difference in writing for games is that with film and TV, composers are mostly (although not always) scoring to picture, meaning scenes have a fixed beginning and end. Not so in games where the music — aside from cut scenes — must be interactive.

“I always start by trying to write a theme suite, a four- or fiveminute track purely inspired by the story synopsis and maybe some of the concept art,” says Economou. “[Then] I can start to have conversations with the creative team about, ‘Do you like the instrumentation? Do you like the pace?’

From there, every game is different but the music has to be interactive, the music has to respond to what the player is doing, which means

the music itself is non-linear. So I might be asked to write a track that’s three minutes long and the intention is to have it be exploration music, maybe when the player is exploring the map and you’re seeing the environments.”

But often the composer is required to create a series of layers for each track, which can be played individually or as part of a whole.

“The base layer is a bit more ambient and spacious,” says Economou.

“Then if the player happens onto something that might become a fight, there will be a layer that goes on top, for example a low-tension layer. On top of those two layers, you might have a high-tension layer or a fight layer that comes in when you’re enticed into some active situation. So the music has to be malleable. It has a lot of responsibility to affect the player’s experience.

“That’s a big undertaking for a composer,” she continues. “Not only do you have these technical requirements for how the game needs to operate, it has to loop at the end of the three minutes. But just because it must loop doesn’t mean the self-contained music has to be loopy. It can go places, it can break down, modulate.”

When it came to The Last Of Us, Santaolalla’s haunting and highly evocative score — performed mostly on ronroco, a small Andean stringed instrument, and a Fender six-string bass from the 1960s — was treated somewhat differently.

“One of the things they implemented, which hadn’t been done in any game, was we had layers that moved randomly, so the music would not repeat for days,” he recalls. “So it was always changing.

That was a fantastic improvement

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

because even if you’re not giving the music your full attention, at a certain point your brain realises, ‘Oh, this is a loop.’ We’re starting to hear the same thing. That didn’t happen. That was great.”

Given that gamers can spend weeks, even months immersed inside a game, listening to the score, video game music has become popular outside of the actual games, with most warranting soundtrack releases. “I love that a lot of game soundtracks are pressed to vinyl,” says Economou, who reworks her game scores specifically for a soundtrack release. “My most streamed music is game scores, so it’s definitely reached people.”

Fan connection

“I am incredibly impressed by the impact the music has in the gamers,” agrees Santaolalla. “The fans of the video game music have this intense relationship with the music.

I think it’s because they spend hours with it. The connection with the gamers is incredibly strong.” These fans will travel to his live shows just to hear performances from The Last Of Us, often unaware of his work as a solo artist, a member of several bands, or a film composer.

For the Music In Games concert, Santaolalla will perform two pieces from The Last Of Us, which he recently performed at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. “We still have the ronroco, but now we have strings and other instruments, and the music works fantastic. I’m very excited to do it again in Ghent.”

Economou, too, is looking forward to hearing her Dawn Of Ragnarök suite reinterpreted by the Brussels Philharmonic. “The Ragnarök score is mostly black metal, so I’m adapting it for the symphony orchestra, but I will have layers of black metal in it too. It’s a fun experience to take something that’s not super symphonic and see how I can blend those together for the cons cert stage.” n For the full WSA Film Music Days programme of concerts and talks, visit  wsawards.com

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‘Hamaguchi has a clear vision. He helps me realise things I hadn’t before’ Eiko Ishibashi, composer

new project,” she says. Ishibashi then sent Hamaguchi some music she had been working on, around which he wrote a rough scenario and assembled some actors.

Before long, the project had ballooned into two films, cousins of sorts, which share the same footage but feature radically different edits: the silent Gift, and a sound version Evil Does Not Exist, which premiered at Venice and also features music by Ishibashi.

After two collaborations (or three, depending on how you count the afore­ mentioned split films), Ishibashi has nothing but praise for Hamaguchi. “He has a clear vision, which helps when it comes to communication. It’s easy for me to suggest new ideas, and hearing his opinion inspires ideas on my

Guest of honour Eiko Ishibashi also contributes to Film Fest Gent’s 2x25 project

Bas Bogaerts

iko Ishibashi will have little time to rest during the World Soundtrack Awards.

The Japanese singer/songwriter was feted with the discovery of the year award in 2022 for her jazz-inflected soundtrack on director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Oscar-winning Drive My Car. This year, she returns to Ghent as a guest of honour with multiple projects, including another Hamaguchi collaboration: a silent film called Gift, which will have its world premiere as part of Film Fest Gent’s Videodroom programme.

Ishibashi will perform the score live, using multiple instruments, electronics and recordings with text projected behind her.

The new Hamaguchi-Ishibashi project had its start when the composer was asked whether she might like to perform a live film accompaniment. “I had so much fun working with Hamaguchi on Drive My Car, so I asked him if he had any interest in joining in, and he mentioned he had been looking for a

adds Ishibashi, who alongside Hamaguchi takes part in a discussion on creative partnerships (October 20) as part of the awards’ Film Music Days.

Finally, Ishibashi has composed a song celebrating the 50th anniversary of Film Fest Gent for the festival’s 2x25 project, which brings together composers with filmmaking talent from across the globe.

‘I want to continue to work with directors who I trust and who are fun to work with’ Eiko Ishibashi

SPOTLIGHT EIKO ISHIBASHI

Drive time Eiko Ishibashi returns to Ghent as a guest of honour to showcase her most recent collaboration with Drive My Car director Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Matt Schley reports part, too. He helps me realise things I hadn’t before.”

Many pandemic restrictions were still in place when Drive My Car was made. For Gift, Ishibashi was able to spend more time working with Hamaguchi in person. “The shoot took place near where I live, so we had many chances to meet up and talk,” she says. “It didn’t change my impression of him, per se, but it gave me a better sense of what he was aiming for.”

Ishibashi has experience playing music alongside silent films, having previously accompanied movies such as Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 classic The Passion Of Joan Of Arc.

The format, she explains, gives her a chance to combine pre-prepared material with improvisation for an experience that is “a lot of fun”.

Meanwhile, the World Sound­ track Awards ceremony and gala will feature pieces from both Drive My Car and Hamaguchi’s new film(s), performed by the Brussels Philharmonic. The original Drive My Car soundtrack was played by a group of six or so members, so giving it an orchestral arrangement, says Ishibashi, has “transformed it into something totally new”.

“So far, I’ve only listened to the MIDI version, so I’m excited to hear how it sounds in real life,”

September 2023 | Screen International | screendaily.com

Her piece will be accompanied by a short film by Argentinian director Laura Citarella. “It’s only two minutes, so it ended up being quite a compact, dramatic song,” says Ishibashi. “I initially thought I might have squeezed too much into it, but when I heard the orchestra play it, it was quite romantic and nice.”

Dual careers

Ishibashi, who came up in the underground Japanese music scene playing in punk bands, now writes and performs as a solo artist and with groups such as Kafka’s Ibiki, a trio that includes Ishibashi’s partner Jim O’Rourke, a US musician who played on the Drive My Car soundtrack. She returned the favour, contributing vocals for O’Rourke’s soundtrack to the Rinko Kikuchi-starrer Yoko. Her most recent soundtrack is for Hotsureru, Takuya Kato’s latest film that was released in Japan in September.

She also has a new solo album in the works. For Ishibashi, finding a balance between her dual careers as a film composer and a singer/ songwriter is key. “Rather than doing lots of movie work, I want to continue to work with directors who I trust and who are fun to work with,” she says.

“Creating music for movies is fun, but I want to keep creating my own music on my own terms in s various forms.” n

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CELEBRATING

50 YEARS The whole Kinepolis Team congratulates Film Fest Gent on their 50 years!

STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR Original Video Game Soundtrack

Music By

Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab Music Supervisor

Steve Schnur

“A CLASSIC SOUNDTRACK...

One of the biggest and most dynamic scores in franchise history. It’s a worthy successor not only to Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order but also to every Star Wars score to date.” — Spin

SOUNDS FROM THE GALACTIC SKYLANES

Various Artists

Music By

Original Music From Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

Music Supervisor

“THE MOST ECLECTIC STAR WARS MUSIC YET...

A lot of thought went into craaing a different musical experience, and all that effort has paid off. This mix of different sounds and genres is exactly what makes this music album so fantastic.” — The Loadout

Steve Schnur

©&™ Lucasfilm Ltd.