A vocal champion
Jeroen Willems
IN FOCUS FILM FEST GENT
Film Fest Gent has become an essential fixture for those working in film music. Geoffrey Macnab finds out why, and what the 2020 edition holds
4 Moonlight filmmaker Barry Jenkins (left) and his composer Nicholas Britell (centre) in conversation
he World Soundtrack Awards (WSA) may be celebrating its 20th anniversary this year but Film Fest Gent, which hosts the event, has been championing film music since the mid-1980s. “It all started there [at the festival], at a moment when there was no attention and no appreciation for the work of the composers of film music or the sound design of the film,” says Marijke Vandebuerie, general manager of the festival. “Composers were glad to be invited because normally they were in the shadows. They weren’t used to being invited to film festivals.” Film Fest Gent and the WSA have played a major part in pulling film music into the spotlight. From the earliest editions of the awards, legendary composers such as Elmer Bernstein and Maurice
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Jarre were lured to Ghent, along with key industry figures such as Laura Engel, co-owner of powerhouse music agency Kraft-Engel Management. “What people loved about it, and still love, is that it brings [together] film music fans and composers and professionals in the industry,” says Engel of the festival, which has been a regular fixture for many of her clients including Angelo Badalamenti, Michael Abels, Gabriel Yared and Alexandre Desplat — the latter two are both honoured here this year. Engel also pays tribute to Dirk Brossé, the musical director of the WSA, who conducts the concerts. “For a lot of the composers, especially in the earlier days, it might have been the first time they had heard their scores performed live in concert in front of a full audience with an orchestra.”
‘The festival brings together film music fans and composers and professionals in the industry’ Laura Engel, Kraft-Engel Management
Now, composers will regularly become members of the World Soundtrack Academy, which champions film music through cultural and educational activities. They, and their publicists and agents, have come to see Ghent as a chance to network. “For the longest time, it was the only peer-recognised awards [for film music],” Chandler Poling,
September 2020 | Screen International | screendaily.com
co-founder and president of Los Angeles-based White Bear PR, says of the WSA. “It was an opportunity for people in the industry, composers, agents, PR executives, who are part of the film music family, to get together and celebrate.” “It’s not just the awards show,” adds Thomas Mikusz, co-founder of White Bear. “It has panels; it brings together the film music community. It brings the studio executives to Ghent, the agents, the publicists, the composers. For people who spend their whole year working alone in a studio, it’s a great way to exchange [ideas].” For Shawn LeMone, senior vice president, film and TV music/new media at the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (Ascap), the WSA points to the “deeper appreciation in Europe of film music as an art form than we
