ScreenDaily.com
October 2021
WORLD SOUNDTRACK AWARDS SPECIAL EDITION
WSA 2021
LET THE MUSIC PLAY The World Soundtrack Awards and Film Fest Ghent honour outstanding achievement in music composition for screen
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The WSA bounces back with a sell-out live event, revamped awards and one eye firmly on the future of a changing industry
EDITORIAL Editor Matt Mueller Supplement editor Nikki Baughan Americas editor Jeremy Kay Deputy editor Louise Tutt Reviews editor and chief film critic Fionnuala Halligan Asia editor Liz Shackleton Senior editor, online Orlando Parfitt Awards/box office editor Charles Gant Group head of production and art Mark Mowbray Group art director Peter Gingell Senior correspondent, Europe & Middle East Melanie Goodfellow Special projects editor Michael Rosser Locations editor Chris Evans International reporter Ben Dalton UK reporter Mona Tabbara Reporter Melissa Kasule Contributing editors Nikki Baughan, John Hazelton, Wendy Mitchell
fter going online for its 20th anniversary last October, this year’s World Soundtrack Awards (WSA) is returning as a full physical event. This will be a thrill for composers, delegates and the audience who undoubtedly missed being at this popular event in person last year. Unsurprisingly, tickets for the closing ceremony and concert sold out in double-quick time. Held as always under the umbrella of Film Fest Ghent, the WSA will mark its physical return with a host of events and concerts. Among these are the Industry Days networking event, which has been extended by a day to run October 20-23 and will feature sessions connecting filmmakers with composers and — for the first time — scoring for video games, as the WSA board keeps its eyes firmly on evolution within the audiovisual industries. In another future-looking move, the WSA has tweaked eligibility requirements so documentary
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02 The crowd pleaser
The World Soundtrack Awards returns as a physical event after last year’s online edition, complemented by a standout industry programme 04 The Richter scales With dozens of memorable film scores to his name, WSA guest of honour Max Richter is also a trailblazer in the world of aural experimentation 06 The high notes This year, the WSA has opened four of its competition categories to documentary composers, and the nominees are a truly eclectic group
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08 Greece is the word Prolific Greek composer and WSA lifetime achievement award recipient Eleni Karaindrou has spent a career putting her spin on traditional music
Front cover credit Jerroen Willems
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features can now compete for film composer of the year, best original song, discovery of the year and the public choice award. That tweak to the rules sees Nainita Desai as the first documentary-music practitioner nominated in three categories, blazing a trail for others to follow. Desai is one of several composers Screen International speaks to in this special edition, in which we also spotlight 2021 guest of honour Max Richter, 2021 lifetime achievement award recipient Eleni Karaindrou, 2020 discovery of the year winner Bryce Dessner (whose music will feature in the closing concert) and many more. These composers all hope to be in Ghent in person this year — as does your humble correspondent. I will be making my first trip and look forward to celebrating the art of composing for film and television with s those making the biggest noise in this domain. n Matt Mueller, editor
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10 The music of life Documentary composers Nainita Desai, Miriam Cutler and Nathan Halpern discuss the process and challenges of making documentary music 12 Prince of darkness Cult classic Daughters Of Darkness plays at Ghent complete with a live reinterpretation of Francois de Roubaix’s memorable score. The composer’s musician son Benjamin de Roubaix reflects on his father’s legacy
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
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IN FOCUS WORLD SOUNDTRACK AWARDS 2021
The crowd pleaser The World Soundtrack Awards returns as a physical event after last year’s online edition, complemented by a standout industry programme. Geoffrey Macnab reports his year’s World Soundtrack Awards (WSA, October 23) will be a full physical event with all the trimmings, after the 2020 awards — which marked the event’s 20th anniversary — were pushed online by the Covid-19 pandemic. That means conductor Dirk Brossé and the musicians of the Brussels Philharmonic will again be performing to packed houses. Tickets for the closing ceremony and concert sold out quickly, underlining the huge public interest in the awards. “The audience is very eager to come [back],” says Wim De Witte, programme director of Film Fest Ghent, the banner under which the WSA takes place, and a stalwart who has been working for and championing the festival for more than 20 years. “Last year was a bit frustrating. We were very lucky we were able to do the festival and that the film screenings could go ahead as planned — but, of course, everything that was planned for the music…” His voice tails off as he recalls how all the “live” concerts and events had to be scrapped and moved online. Alongside the film music fans, professionals will be back to attend the WSA Industry Days networking event (October 20-23), which has been extended by a day. Among its strands is the Third Character initiative, connecting directors
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‘Last year we were lucky the film screenings could go ahead. But the music…’ Wim De Witte, Film Fest Ghent
and producers with composers. This year sees a session focused on scoring for video games, marking the first step towards the possible introduction of an awards category for video games. “That has been a topic at board meetings,” observes De Witte. Greek chorus
Benainous/Duclos/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Greek creatives will play a key role in Ghent this year. The festival — which runs October 12-23 — has a retrospective dedicated to Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos, the Palme d’Or winner who directed (Right) Film Fest Ghent stages a retrospective dedicated to Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos
arthouse epics including Eternity And A Day and Ulysses’ Gaze. Alongside these screenings, the WSA pays special tribute to Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou (see interview, page eight), who scored many of Angelopoulos’s films. She receives a lifetime achievement award, and will participate in a concert titled Great Greek Composers. Film Fest Ghent general director Marijke Vandebuerie sees the focus on Greece as a perfect example of the festival and the awards working in tandem, using the film programming to boost the music events and
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
vice versa. “This is what we really aim for with the festival,” she says. “We want to bring both worlds into one.” Also a guest of honour this year is Germany-born, UK-based composer Max Richter, who has scored films including Waltz With Bashir and Mary Queen Of Scots. Selections from his scores will be performed by Brossé and the Brussels Philharmonic. “His name had been on the list for quite some years,” De Witte says of Richter. “He has a magnificent body of work, both in film music and non-film music.” “He can bring a new audience to the awards,” Vandebuerie adds of Richter, who has a strong following beyond the film world. The same can be said of Bryce
Johannes De Bruycker/Film Fest Ghent
The World Soundtrack Awards will close out Film Fest Ghent — tickets for the live event sold out quickly
‘We want to bring the worlds [of film and music] into one’ Marijke Vandebuerie, Film Fest Ghent
Dessner — last year’s discovery of the year award winner — whose music will also be played at a concert on October 23 (see boxout). A new approach
As a matter of necessity, during the pandemic the WSA world competition was opened up to titles that had premiered online. That remains the case this year, but it is unclear
whether this will be a permanent fixture. Opinions are divided, but Vandebuerie suggests the event will take its lead from the composers and what they feel works best. In the meantime, key changes have already been made to the awards. Scores for feature-length documentary films can now compete for film composer of the year, best original song, discovery of the year and the public choice award. One of the nominees for film composer of the year is Nainita Desai, who is described as “a trailblazer” in the world of documentary music composition (see interview, page 10). Her scores range from For Sama to Kevin Macdonald’s Covid-19 documentary The Year That Changed Britain and autism doc The Reason I Jump. Indeed, organisers monitor all changes in the sector, and pay close attention to gender equality and diversity. It remains the case that film composing is still an area dominated by men but Vandebuerie speaks of an “evolution of young women entering the sector”. As part of its efforts to help young talent, the WSA runs the InMICS Composers Lab alongside sister events Festival International du Film d’Aubagne and Krakow Film Music Festival. Students have the chance to participate in masterclasses and workshops with some of the top names in the film music world, and are also provided with excellent networking opportunities. Meanwhile, there are opportunities aplenty for the WSA to evolve in years to come. With both the festival and WSA attracting film lovers and film music aficionados, the events are continually working in tandem to satisfy all audiences. “There is an overlap between the film and the music programming but there is definitely also a big difference,” De Witte reflects. “We have these concerts which are more experimental and [lean towards] pop-rock in a programme called Videodroom. There we notice an opening up of our programme to s another audience.” ■
SPOTLIGHT BRYCE DESSNER Bryce Dessner
A bigger vision WSA discovery of the year 2020 and The National rocker Bryce Dessner tells Geoffrey Macnab why he finds the world of film music so exciting
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ryce Dessner may have been last year’s WSA discovery of the year, but the Paris-based American is far from a newcomer. He has a formidable body of work as a member of rock band The National
and a composer who has collaborated with the likes of Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. “I have long been aware of the World Soundtrack Awards. It felt quite special to be acknowledged by my peers,” Dessner says of his award. And, no, he was not offended to be labelled a ‘discovery’ in spite of his achievements in both the rock and classical worlds. “I understand that within the film community, my name might be less known
‘Cinema has become what opera was in the 19th century. It’s the big collaborative art’ Bryce Dessner
next to an Alexandre Desplat, a Howard Shore or a Carter Burwell,” he says. “I was happy to be recognised. For years, I was playing in the band [but] I’ve been a classical musician my whole life. I do have a very active concert career, working with major orchestras.” Dessner credits Inarritu, who asked him to work on The Revenant, with helping him take his “first big step” into film music. Dessner believes cinema has “become what opera was in the 19th century. It’s the big collaborative art. It’s exciting to work in a big team, contributing to a bigger vision.” Some of Dessner’s film music is playing in the closing concert in Ghent, including pieces from The Two Popes and The Revenant and his latest film Cyrano. “I actually have the premiere of a major violin concerto with the San Francisco Symphony two days before… but if I can be there [in Ghent], I will be,” he says.
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
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SPOTLIGHT MAX RICHTER
The Richter scales With dozens of memorable film scores to his name, WSA guest of honour Max Richter is also a trailblazer in the world of aural experimentation. Dan Jolin meets the man behind the music ax Richter has been professionally creating and experimenting with music since the mid-1990s. As well as scoring dozens of films, including Haifaa Al Mansour’s Wadjda, Scott Cooper’s Hostiles and James Gray’s Ad Astra (see boxout), his influential blend of classical and electronica has resulted in a number of lauded solo albums, such as 2004’s The Blue Notebooks (his response to the Iraq War) and 2020’s Voices (a celebration-cum-elegy for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). One heartrending piece from The Blue Notebooks, ‘On The Nature Of Daylight’, has featured in several movies and TV shows, including Shutter Island, Arrival and The Handmaid’s Tale. In short, Richter has much to be proud of, and the fact he is a guest of honour at this year’s World Soundtrack Awards (WSA) should come as no surprise… except, perhaps, to the man himself. “I always assume no-one’s ever listening to anything I do,” Richter says. “So when a thing like this happens, you realise that maybe some people are listening. Which is really nice.”
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This should not be mistaken for false or even misplaced modesty. “For a lot of years it was true,” he laughs, speaking from his UK studio, where he is preparing for his first post-Covid live performance the following day. “I would make a record and then no-one would hear it. Composing is not a career which makes any sort of rational sense. I just internalised the attitude that I’d work on a project, release it and no-one would care.” Mood music
For years, music was something that just happened inside Richter’s head. As a child growing up 45 miles north of London in Bedford (where he moved soon after being born in Hameln, Germany), it always circled his mind. Occasionally, he would have what he describes as “an intense musical experience”, where he would hear a composition and realise he was relating to it differently than anyone else around him. “I was physically moved, affected, changed by pieces of music I was hearing. Maybe it was obvious all along that I would be some way involved with it.” Music is deeply personal to Richter, with his own work frequently described as ‘moody’ or
‘I was physically moved, affected, changed by pieces of music I was hearing’ Max Richter, composer
‘introspective’. A fair appraisal, he agrees. “The music I write is the outcome of my experience of being in the world. If we look around ourselves, we can agree that the world is not in great shape at the moment. So it’s perhaps inevitable that a kind of melancholia is going to creep in.”
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
CASE STUDY AD ASTRA Richter did not long remain undiscovered. In 2003, it took a “completely accidental” film-scoring gig to shift him blearily into the limelight, with Ari Folman’s animated documentary Waltz With Bashir. The Israeli filmmaker loved Richter’s work, and pitched him with a 90-second trailer. “I had never seen storytelling like that,” Richter recalls. “The animation illuminated the documentary aspect. It was a brilliant way to convey the material. I thought it would be a wonderful thing to be involved with.” Since then, Richter has maintained a fine balance between scoring and his ongoing solo work. “The solo thing is just me sitting in a room, and scoring is me talking to other people,” he explains. “I enjoy that counterpoint.” But he chooses his film and TV projects carefully. “Most are in some way about the important stories of our time,” he says. “Waltz With Bashir was obviously like that, and so were Miss Sloane or Wadjda or John Ridley’s [mini-series] Guerrilla. All of these are about the problems we’re facing in the world. Those are the things which draw me in.” Over the years, Richter’s creative process has remained largely unchanged. “The craft of composing, from my standpoint, is about how you put notes together to come up with something which is more than the individual notes,” he explains. Although he does point out that, when it comes to incorporating computers and synthesisers, “They’re not about notes. They’re about sculpting sound objects, and that’s a whole other thing. It’s about finding a relationship between those things that makes sense.” The digitally driven blurring of the lines between sound design and scoring is something that interests Richter. “In recent years
there’s been more of an acceptance that music can also populate the sensorial world of the pictures, in a way that we might have seen as sound design in the old days,” he says. “Because of the tools we now have, the music can just kind of seep into the picture of the world.”
Brad Pitt in Ad Astra
Record maker
Richter is the kind of creator who, it seems, can never be too ambitious nor too busy. As well as maintaining a steady stream of solo albums, including a recomposition of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and an eight-hour
Max Richter tells Dan Jolin about creating the score to James Gray’s 2019 sci-fi Ad Astra
‘It’s not really work. I just go to the studio, I have a nice time, then I go home’
The approach “[Director] James Gray and [actor/producer]
Max Richter
happening, so I think Ad Astra had a lot of personal resonance.
lullaby titled ‘Sleep’, he has also worked on an app (related to ‘Sleep’) and established his own record label. Most recently, he scored Apple TV+’s sci-fi series Invasion, and is currently considering film projects for next year. But foremost on his mind right now is the completion of his studio in Oxfordshire — an “orchestral-size recording studio” complete with Dolby Atmos mixing room and other inter disciplinary art spaces. A calm and level presence, Richter does not appear overwhelmed by all his commitments and responsibilities. In fact, the idea that he should be does not seem to have occurred to him. “I feel very privileged to be involved with music because that makes me feel good,” he says. “It’s not really work. I just go to the studio, I have a nice time, then I go home. I’m incredibly lucky in that way. I enjoy s writing music.” n
Brad Pitt were already cutting when they contacted me. They had some of my music in the edit and just called. We talked about all kinds of crazy ideas.” The brief “There wasn’t really one. All of us are of an age
that we were tiny kids when the Apollo programme was I definitely wanted to be an astronaut when I was a kid.” The innovation “The story sees Brad leaving Earth and flying to the edge of the solar system. I realised we’ve already done that, with the Voyager probes. I happened to know they recorded magnetic field data all the way along, so I got all that data from the University of Iowa’s plasma physics lab and turned it into computermodelled instruments. When there was a shot of Brad zooming past Saturn, I would go to my ‘Saturn instrument’ and make music out of the bits of data that had been gathered at that site.”
‘We were kids when the Apollo programme was happening, so Ad Astra had personal resonance’ Max Richter
The challenge “There was a huge amount of recutting and rewriting quite late in the process. So in a way I wrote the score twice. I wrote a lot of music for one edit, then there was a pause for recutting, and then I wrote a bunch more to accommodate all the changes. It was a lengthy process and very iterative.” The result “I love that film. There are things in it which came out beautifully. James is a wonderful filmmaker and great to
work with. He appreciated that a composer can bring a lot to a project, especially a film like that where you’ve got all these amazing, beautiful, empty images to be filled with music.”
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
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IN FOCUS WSA 2021 NOMINEES
The high notes This year, the WSA has opened four of its competition categories to documentary composers, and the nominees are a truly eclectic group. Nikki Baughan profiles the musicians in the running
Since it was established in this
award
has
rec-
ognised the craft of scoring for high-end TV. Last year’s winner
was Nicholas Britell for Succes-
sion; he is nominated again
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this year for The Underground
Railroad and, alongside his fellow composers, for best origi-
nal song for Cruella’s ‘Call Me Cruella’.
Christophe Beck (Canada) WandaVision
Prolific Canadian composer Beck has created scores for films including Free Guy, Ant-Man and Frozen, and TV shows including Buffy The Vampire Slayer. He is nominated here for his WandaVision score, which also has a Primetime Emmy nomination. Nicholas Britell (US)
The Underground Railroad
composer judged to have created the best film music in the last year, for feature or documentary, either as
an individual score or a body of work. Last year’s winner
was Hildur Gudnadottir for Joker.
The Mandalorian
Natalie Holt (UK) Loki
National Film and Television School-trained UK composer Holt has provided music for films including Pin Cushion and Journey’s End (which she co-scored with Hildur Gudnadottir) and TV shows such as Victoria (for which she was nominated, along with her co-composers, for a Primetime Emmy), Wallander and Deadwater Fell. She is nominated here for her score for Disney+’s Loki. Carlos Rafael Rivera (US)
Hacks (season one); The Queen’s Gambit
Rivera’s score for Netflix hit The Queen’s Gambit secured him a Primetime Emmy nomination this year. It now joins his work on the first season of HBO Max drama Hacks to see him in the running for WSA TV composer of the year.
Emile Mosseri (US) Kajillionaire; Minari
US composer Mosseri received an Oscar nomination for Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, which is also recognised here alongside his work on Miranda July’s heist comedy Kajillionaire.
Nainita Desai (UK)
American Murder: The Family Next Door; Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests; The Reason I Jump
Documentary composer Desai (who scored the Oscar-nominated For Sama) is recognised for her work on a trio of non-fiction films, including Jerry Rothwell’s Sundance audience award winner The Reason I Jump. Desai is also nominated in the discovery of the year and public choice categories.
Daniel Pemberton (UK)
Enola Holmes; Rising Phoenix; The Trial Of The Chicago 7
Winner of the 2014 discovery of the year award, Pemberton’s score for Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial Of The Chicago 7 was nominated for an Oscar. It joins an impressive recent body of work, which has secured him a third WSA film composer of the year nomination.
James Newton Howard (US)
News Of The World; Raya And The Last Dragon
Having previously won the category in 2008 — when he was recognised for Charlie Wilson’s War, Michael Clayton and I Am Legend — Howard is this year nominated for his scores on two very different films: Paul Greengrass’s western News Of The
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross & Jon Batiste (US) Soul
Nominated last year in the best TV composer category for their work on HBO’s Watchmen, Reznor and Ross now join Batiste in a nomination for their Oscar-winning soundtrack for Pixar’s Soul.
Neil Grabowsky/Montclair Film
Britell — a WSA discovery of the year in 2017 — was Oscar-nominated for his scores for Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, the latter of which combined with Vice to win him WSA film composer of the year in 2019. He is nominated here for his work on Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad, after winning last year for season two of Succession.
Göransson’s collaborative relationship with director Ryan Coogler has resulted in scores for Fruitvale Station, Creed and Black Panther, for which the Swedish composer won an Oscar and a Grammy. After previously scoring features such as Christopher Nolan’s Tenet and TV shows including comedy New Girl, he is nominated here for his work on season two of Disney+’s The Mandalorian.
World and Don Hall’s Disney animation Raya And The Last Dragon.
This award is given to the
Ludwig Göransson (Sweden)
TV composer of the year 2016,
Film composer of the year
Best original song
Public choice award Film music fans vote for
this award, which is now
open to feature and documentary scores. Last year’s winner
was
Alfonso
G
Aguilar for Netflix animated feature Klaus.
Nainita Desai (UK) The Reason I Jump
The first documentary composer to be nominated for WSA film composer of the year, Desai is also in the running for discovery of the year for this experimental score. Susan DiBona (US) & Salvatore Sangiovanni (Italy)
Bad Habits Die Hard
Collaborators Di Bona and Sangiovanni are in the running for their score to Italian comedy Bad Habits Die Hard. Benji Merrison (UK) SAS: Red Notice
UK composer Merrison has worked on TV shows such as Tin Star and Victoria; his nod here is for his first feature, Netflix actioner SAS: Red Notice. Amelia Warner (UK)
Wild Mountain Thyme
UK actor/musician Warner composed the score for Haifaa Al Mansour’s Mary Shelley, for which she was nominated for WSA discovery of the year. Her nod here is for John Patrick Shanley’s romantic comedy Wild Mountain Thyme. Ralf Wengenmayr (Germany) & Marvin Miller (Germany)
Jim Button And The Wild 13
Wengenmayr and Miller were also nominated for best score at the German Film Awards for this family adventure.
This award recognises the best
Discovery of the year
TV series. The 2020 winner was
This award goes to a com-
Joshuah Brian Campbell and
through year on the interna-
original song used in a film or ‘Stand Up’ from Harriet, by Cynthia Erivo.
‘Call Me Cruella’ (Cruella) The title track for Disney’s Cruella is a collaboration between US songwriters Nicholas Britell, Steph Jones, Jordan Powers and Taura Stinson, and the UK’s Florence Welch. ‘Fight For You’
(Judas And The Black Messiah)
This collaboration between US songwriters H.E.R (Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson), Dernst Emile II and Tiara Thomas won the Oscar for best original song this year. ‘Hear My Voice’
(The Trial Of The Chicago 7)
This Oscar-nominated song is written by UK composer Daniel Pemberton — who is also nominated for film composer of the year — and US-UK singer-songwriter Celeste Waite, who performs the track. ‘Husavik (My Hometown)’ (Eurovision Song Contest: The Story Of Fire Saga)
This collaboration between US songwriter Savan Kotecha, Swedish composer Rickard Göransson and Fat Max Gsus is performed by star Will Ferrell and Molly Sanden (although Rachel McAdams appears to be singing on screen). ‘Loyal Brave True’ (Mulan) UK composers Jamie Hartman, Harry Gregson-Williams and Billy Crabtree team up with Israel’s Rosi Golan for this composition, performed by Christina Aguilera. ‘Rain Song’ (Minari) US composer Emile Mosseri was nominated for an Oscar for his score for Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari. He is also in the running for WSA film composer of the year.
score for autism doc The Reason I Jump. She also receives nods in the film composer of the year and public choice categories.
poser who has had a break-
Florencia Di Concilio
tional stage, and is now open
Calamity, A Childhood Of
score composers. Previous
ner will be invited to perform
Montevideo-born Di Concilio is nominated for her score on Rémi Chayé’s animated film, which won best feature at this year’s Annecy film festival.
Film Fest Ghent.
Natalie Holt (UK)
Gavin Brivik (US)
UK composer Holt is nominated here for her score on Infidel, and in the TV composer of the year category for Disney+’s Loki. She had a Primetime Emmy nod for TV series Victoria, and recently composed the score for Phyllida Lloyd’s feature Herself.
to feature and documentary
winners include Bryce Dessner (The Two Popes) and
Michael Abels (Us). The wintheir score at next year’s
Wild Indian
US composer Brivik won the WSA Sabam award for best original composition by a young composer in 2017. He is nominated here for his work on thriller Wild Indian, which premiered at Sundance in January. Nainita Desai (UK)
(Uruguay)
Martha Jane Cannary
Infidel
Anthony Willis (US)
Promising Young Woman
The Reason I Jump
Willis also received a Bafta nod for Emerald Fennell’s revenge thriller. His credits include additional music for features including Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Best original composition by a young composer
Matthew Lucado-Donner (US) California-born Lucado-Donner originally wanted to be a singer, but turned his attention to composing after losing his singing voice to vocal nodules. Now pursuing a professional career in composition, he is particularly inspired by his longstanding passion for jazz.
Desai, who has been composing for documentary film for several years, is nominated in this category for her experimental
The Sabam award is a composi-
tion contest, with talents under the age of 36 invited to write a symphonic score for an excerpt
from a selected film or TV series. The winner is chosen by a professional jury headed by
maestro and Film Fest Ghent music director Dirk Brossé.
Dougal Kemp (UK) London-born Kemp joined the Lyon National Superior Conservatory of Music and Dance in 2019 after achieving a film music master’s degree. He is interested in composing many different styles of music and for different film genres.
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
Prokhor Protasov (Russia) Russia-born Protasov served as conductor-in-residence of the Vyatka Symphony Orchestra (2015‑18), after studying choral conducting and composition at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He was also awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study orchestral conducting at New York’s Bard College Conservatory of Music, and studied under renowned composer Christos Hatzis at the University of Toronto.
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SPOTLIGHT ELENI KARAINDROU
Greece is the word Prolific Greek composer and WSA lifetime achievement award recipient Eleni Karaindrou tells Wendy Mitchell why she loves putting her own spin on traditional music reek composer Eleni Karaindrou fell in love with music and movies at a young age. She grew up in the mountain village of Teichio, where she listened to old ladies singing folk songs, or Byzantine hymns at church. When she was seven, her family moved to Athens, which proved to be just as stimulating. “There was an open cinema next to our house, and from our windows I was watching every night,” Karaindrou, now aged 79, recalls. “I saw Anna Karenina so many times! The music touched me. After they showed the film, I would go to my school’s piano and improvise, to try to find the feelings I had from the cinema.” It was many years later when she made it her profession to compose for the cinema and theatre. Karaindrou — who will receive the WSA lifetime achievement award and have her work celebrated, along with other Greek composers, in a special concert — had studied in Athens (attending the conservatory of music aged just 10) and Paris (where she moved for seven years during Greece’s military junta that started in 1967). She originally thought she would become a classical pianist, but that love for the movies drew her back in. “Things happen because they have to happen,” she says. While also studying archaeology and history, she was drawn into ethno musicology — the study of music in its cultural and social con-
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‘Nobody taught me how to compose for film or for the theatre. But I found a way’ Eleni Karaindrou, composer
texts — which was “a new science then. I discovered many new worlds of music, from all around the world. I think ethnomusicology opened a new horizon for me.” When she returned to Greece after the dictatorship ended in 1974, she created the laboratory for traditional instruments at the Ora Cultural Centre in Athens, as well as working on ethnomusicology projects at Hellenic Radio. At the same time, she was being asked by friends including Hristoforos Hristofis to help them compose for films. “I am an autodidact as a composer. I am a pianist; I know orchestration and how to direct an orchestra. But nobody taught me how to compose for film or for the theatre. But I found a way.” Creative trailblazer
That is particularly impressive as Karaindrou — who has been called “Greece’s most eloquent living composer” by Time magazine — was one of very few women working in the field during the 1970s and ’80s. “When I was first in a studio with an orchestra, I discovered that I needed to be well-prepared and
disciplined,” she recalls. “And then I would be respected. I didn’t really have difficulties, but I do think I made more effort to be prepared than if I were a man.” Karaindrou has worked with great directors over the course of her career, across both cinema and theatre, and says it is always “very important to me to be sure I’m speaking the same language with the person, to have the same affinity intellectually. I was never a person who has done music for cinema just to get money, never! “The way to work is to know the person well,” she continues, “to discuss with him or her, to try to understand the inner feelings and the inner position and the central idea. Why does he or she want to do this film?”
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
Karaindrou had a particularly special working relationship with Theo Angelopoulos, who is the subject of a full retrospective at this year’s Film Fest Ghent. The pair collaborated on eight films including 1995 Cannes grand jury prize winner Ulysses’ Gaze; 1998 Palme d’Or winner Eternity And A Day; and The Beekeeper (1986) starring Marcello Mastroianni. They had a way of working that would surprise most composers. First they would speak for many hours, then she would compose her music before the film started shooting. She would give this music to Angelopoulos and he could be inspired by her work while shooting and editing. Of course, sometimes a few tweaks had to come in post. “It was a fantastic way to work,
ject Voyage Of Time: Life’s Journey. In a different beast of film, George Miller also used several of her pieces in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). Given the nature of her career, Karaindrou says her WSA lifetime achievement award is also in recognition of her many collaborators. During the awards weekend in Ghent, a selection of her work will be performed by the Brussels Philharmonic and conducted by Dirk Brossé, with Karaindrou herself accompanying on piano (October 22, see boxout). “I accept this honour with gratitude and big pleasure, and I would love to share this honour with my directors, especially Theo Angelopoulos, and Manfred Eicher [founder of her longtime label ECM],” she says. “We’ve had a fantastic journey together for more than 30 years.” Inspiring work
perhaps it was not orthodox,” she notes. “It was a way of two creators.” She has worked in a more typical fashion of composing in the edit with other directors, such as Margarethe von Trotta, Jules Dassin and Chris Marker. Currently she is collaborating with US director Terrence Malick on his Biblical story The Way Of The Wind. She will not say too much about the project, out of respect for the famously secretive Malick, but she says she met him in Turkey before he started the shoot, and that he is close to finishing the film. “I think he is happy with me and I am very happy with the collaboration,” she adds. Malick, in fact, was already a fan of her work, taking songs from her solo releases on ECM Records to use in films such as his Imax pro-
Despite her long career and unique sound, Karaindrou still takes inspiration from great soundtrack composers of the past and present. “I love Max Steiner because of Casablanca, I am from that generation,” she says, before also mentioning Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone, Antoine Duhamel, Georges Delerue, Bernard Herrmann and more contemporary names such as Alexandre Desplat and Rachel Portman. “I have many more that I think are great. And I am happy I see we have more women, bravo to us!” Karaindrou loves her work and has no plans to retire, but she now takes on fewer projects. “I am doing only things that I admire, that make me happy. I am not really interested in a ‘career’ anymore,” she says. “But I cannot live without music. I am very happy that music is a s real friend.” ■
SPOTLIGHT GREEK COMPOSERS Brussels Philharmonic will play work by Greek composers including the late Mikis Theodorakis
National celebration Film Fest Ghent, in collaboration with the WSA, will host a concert featuring the work of Eleni Karaindrou and other Greek composers
“
I
have many passions for Greek music,” says Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou, who particularly enjoys using local instruments such as the santouri and kanonaki. “This country has such a
rich musical tradition that’s also varied between parts of the country. I like to blend the colours of the symphony orchestra with some colours of the traditional music, but using it in my way and style.” Film Fest Ghent will celebrate Karaindrou’s work with a live concert (October 22) performed by the Brussels Philharmonic with Karaindrou accompanying on piano. It will also feature the work of other Greek composers
‘Greece has such a rich musical tradition that’s varied between parts of the country’ Eleni Karaindrou
including Evanthia Reboutsika (WSA discovery of the year, 2006), who has scored films including Cagan Irmak’s My Father And My Son and Hasan Kirac’s Two Hearts As One. Reboutsika will be present to play violin at the concert. Alongside their works, the Brussels Philharmonic will play selected compositions from fellow countrymen Mikis Theodorakis (whose credits include Serpico and The Man With The Carnation); Carnation Nikos Kypourgos (Master Of The Shadows, ( Four Corners Of Suburbia); Suburbia Manos Hadjidakis (who won an Oscar for his score for Jules Dassin’s Never On Sunday); Sunday and perhaps Greece’s best-known composer, Oscar winner
(Right) Karaindrou with filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos
Keystone Press/Alamy
Katerina Marianou
Eleni Karaindrou, a star since the 1970s, is the recipient of the WSA lifetime achievement award
Vangelis (Chariots Of Fire, Blade ( Runner, Runner Alexander).
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
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IN FOCUS SCORING FOR DOCUMENTARY
The music of life As the WSA opens up its awards to non-fiction scores, documentary composers Nainita Desai, Miriam Cutler and Nathan Halpern discuss the process and challenges of making documentary music. Nikki Baughan reports usic has been intrinsic to filmmaking ever since the earliest visual pioneers picked up a camera. Before the advent of recorded dialogue, filmmakers relied on music — then, live orchestral scores — to guide their viewers through the action. And, despite the evolution of special effects, the way a film sounds remains essential, with music choices able to set, or alter, the tone of any scene. Many composers have become famous in their own right but the household names — think Hans Zimmer, John Barry, Danny Elfman or Ennio Morricone — work almost exclusively on fiction features, spe-
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‘Directors just need to talk about the emotional purpose of the music, and I can translate that’ Miriam Cutler, composer
cifically the blockbusters that draw the biggest audiences. Yet composers are equally as crucial — and creative — in the world of non-fiction. From this year, scores from feature-length documentaries will be eligible for the WSA film composer of the year, best original song, discovery of the year and the public choice awards. “There has been a certain amount of snobbery, in that documentaries are considered to be the poor cousin of fiction,” observes Nainita Desai, who has worked as both sound designer and composer for features, documentary and television, and is the first documentary
composer to be nominated for WSA film composer of the year for her work on American Murder: The Family Next Door, Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests and The Reason I Jump. “But that attitude is changing, I think, because of the input of streamers like Netflix. There’s more money, there’s a lot of crew crossover between documentary and fiction, there’s more time in the edit. There are docs that are taking on the aesthetic creativity and high production values of feature films.” That, Desai says, has led to a willingness from filmmakers to try something new with scoring. “Music for documentaries has been seen, generally, as wallpaper music,” she says. “But the thought now is, ‘How can we tell this story in a creative way, and engage audiences in fresh, innovative ways?’” Desai points in particular to her “experimental” collaboration with filmmaker Jerry Rothwell on The Reason I Jump, a documentary that uses sound to immerse viewers in the world of its non-verbal autistic protagonists. “I spent 15 months crafting that score,” she explains. “I worked closely with the sound designer [Nick Ryan] and director on establishing the true voice of the film. I brought in cellist Elisabeth Wiklander, who is autistic herself; she brought a very personal perspective to her interpretation of my music.” Authenticity, says
(Right) RBG, scored by Miriam Cutler
Desai, is key when it comes to composing for documentary, where real people and real lives are depicted on screen. “It is important to me to get to the heart of the film, and to tell the story in the most authentic and sensitive way possible.” Heart of the matter
That is a sentiment shared by veteran US composer Miriam Cutler, who has built a career scoring issueled documentaries such as Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib, The Hunting Ground and RBG. After leaving college, Cutler — who describes herself as a feminist and an activist — began working as a researcher for publicinterest lawyers, before leaving to follow her passion for music. “For 10 years I was composing for low-budget films, horror movies and corporate work,” she recalls. But it wasn’t enough. “I woke up one day and said, ‘My life has no meaning.’ I was thinking of quitting. But then I met this guy named Arthur Dong at a screening, and he was working on a documentary called Licensed To Kill. I was floored when he told me what the film was about [an exploration of high-profile anti-gay murders]. I worked on it, and then it went to Sundance [winning two awards]. There I was introduced to the international community of documentary filmmakers, and it was like I had found my home.” Since then, Cutler has sought out documentary projects that speak to her values, drawn to independent productions with relatively small crews, which enable her to make a valuable creative contribu-
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
‘A rigorous, thematic score is the prime way to make the work feel more cinematic’ Nathan Halpern, composer
tion and, crucially, retain ownership of her music. “Each of the films [I have worked on] have resonated with me,” she says. “With The Hunting Ground [Kirby Dick’s exposé about the culture of rape on US college campuses], for example, I was an activist about the rape issue in college, so it was very close to my heart. And Ruth Bader Ginsburg is my hero and a feminist icon, so that film [RBG] was a no-brainer.” Whatever the subject matter, truth is at the heart of everything. “The stakes are much higher in terms of responsibility,” she says. “Most good documentary filmmakers adhere to journalistic values. There’s a lot of consideration of ethics and that feeds into my responsibility as a composer, as we all know how manipulative music can be. “It’s very important that I’m telling the same story as the director, so the filmmakers and I have deep discussions,” she continues. “Sometimes they don’t feel comfortable with the music process, as they feel they need a vocabulary. But the truth is, they just need to be able to talk about the emotional purpose of the music, and I can translate that.” Cinematic scores
For US composer Nathan Halpern, who has scored features including Swallow and documentaries such
Benjamin Ealovega
Nainita Desai — pictured working on the music for video game Telling Lies — is the first documentary score composer to be nominated for WSA film composer of the year
CASE STUDY FOR SAMA
‘There are docs that are taking on the aesthetic creativity and high production values of feature films’ Nainita Desai, composer
as One Child Nation, music is an essential tool for any filmmaker. “When I’ve scored non-fiction films, I’m generally commissioned by directors who want me to use music to make the work feel more cinematic,” he says. “A rigorous, thematic score is the prime way to achieve this. “An exciting challenge in bringing this approach to a non-fiction film is that they are often unconventional in their editorial structure,” he continues. “You have to find a structure in the score that enhances the dramatic unity. In the case of a multiple-protagonist non‑fiction story like Rich Hill [about three boys living in an impoverished midwestern town] or Minding The Gap [about young men in Ameri-
ca’s rust belt], I’ll create conceptual or emotional themes that are shared among the characters.” Halpern agrees there are different considerations when it comes to composing for non-fiction narratives. “For the more personal, character-based documentaries that I have scored, we have tended to keep the music out of the observational scenes as much as possible,” he explains. “The preference will be for the music to enter into the aftermath of such sequences, and in more subjective montages. In this way, the music can leave space for a feeling of authenticity. “My greatest commitment in both narrative and documentary film is to express the emotional truth of the story,” he continues. “Depending on the cinematic needs of the film, this might be attained through a subtle approach or something more heightened. For HBO’s In The Same Breath, Nanfu Wang’s film about the pandemic, we discussed the idea that the score would be bold and apocalyptic. This aesthetic would be the one most truthful to the core of the story, which is s truly one of horror.” n
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Nainita Desai describes the process of scoring the Bafta-winning documentary For Sama “The original brief from Ed Watts, For Sama’s co‑director [along with Waad Al-Kateab, also the film’s main protagonist] was to write a very Hollywood cinematic score. “I wrote 80 scenes in that vein. After 12 weeks of editing, we realised the film wasn’t quite working. No-one could put their finger on why, until we realised the narrative spine of the film is actually a relationship between a mother and daughter — it’s much more intimate than a war movie. So the music no longer worked; it was too overwhelming and manipulating. “We went back to the drawing board, and I drew on my background as a sound designer. We had this crumbling city of Aleppo, where you can hear bombing all around. I stripped it back to a point where you just hear a drumbeat that’s driving you through the city. Sometimes you don’t know whether you’re listening to music, sound effects or bombing. It’s very subliminal. “I also brought in a violinist, who was a Syrian refugee living in Italy at the time. The sound he created wasn’t a pure western, classical sound; it was a gritty Middle Eastern sound. That mirrored the aching heartbeat of the crumbling city of Aleppo, and became the musical core of the film.” Interview by Nikki Baughan
» Nainita Desai will take part in a Composer Talk, October 22
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
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Courtesy of Benjamin de Roubaix
Francois de Roubaix mixed classical pieces with funk and soul
‘I think Francois would be surprised with what’s going on with his music’ Benjamin de Roubaix, musician
“He was fond of electronic instruments,” says Benjamin. “He went to England to learn with a specialist how to use them. They were very complicated. It was not like a simple keyboard with some knobs. You had to work on the soundwaves, but also be a sound engineer to make the sound come out and record it on a four-track or an eight-track recorder at the same time.”
IN FOCUS VIDEODROOM
Prince of darkness
Contemporary twist
With cult classic Daughters Of Darkness playing at Ghent complete with a live reinterpretation of Francois de Roubaix’s memorable score, the composer’s musician son Benjamin de Roubaix reflects on his father’s legacy. Mark Salisbury reports Malavida Films
rancois de Roubaix was a prolific composer for film, television and commercials between 1961 and 1975, before his untimely death at the age of 36 in a diving accident. He also composed music for several erotic features — under the pseudonym Cisco El Rubio — and provided the scores for films including Harry Kümel’s cult classic Daughters Of Darkness (Les Lèvres Rouges), a lesbian vampire horror starring Delphine Seyrig as the notorious medieval noblewoman and serial killer Elizabeth Bathory. De Roubaix was on holiday with his family in Tenerife when he died, and left behind two young children. His son Benjamin de Roubaix followed in his footsteps, and is also a musician and film score composer. To celebrate the film’s 50th anniversary, Film Fest Ghent is screening Daughters Of Darkness on October 20, complete with a live performance of de Roubaix’s score by Condor Gruppe, a rock band from Antwerp, as part of the festival’s Videodroom series of live music and film events. Audiences will be able to fully appreciate de Rubaix’s innovative and decadent score, which is full of melody, menace and eroticism. With Kümel’s only instruction that the composer incorporate a cimbalom — a type of chordophone used mainly in Hungary, Bathory’s country of birth — de Roubaix fused classical pieces with funk and soul, in much the same way Lalo Schifrin was doing in the US, Ennio Morricone in Italy with A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin, and Isaac Hayes with Shaft (like Daughters Of Darkness, the latter two films were released in 1971). “Mixing the classical orchestra and popular music was à la mode at the time,” says Benjamin, who will attend the concert. “This mix of funk, disco, soul and Black music with orchestral is why people like it now. It’s like a mirror to what was going on in the ’70s.” As well as trombones, harps, strings and percussion, the Daughters Of Darkness score features strange electronic sounds courtesy of the early synthesisers de Roubaix played in his home studio.
Francois de Roubaix’s score for Harry Kümel’s Daughters Of Darkness will be played live at Film Fest Ghent
October 2021 | Screen International | screendaily.com
Five decades later, de Roubaix’s Daughters Of Darkness score is regularly sampled by hip-hop producers and rappers, with Lil Wayne using a harp motif from the track ‘Les Dunes d’Ostende’ for his 2011 song ‘President Carter’. “It’s four or five notes, and it’s very dark and kind of frightening,” says Benjamin. “It’s one of two pieces of my father’s that are regularly sampled.” The other is from the score of Last Known Address (Dernier Domicile Connu), a French blockbuster released in 1970 starring Lino Ventura. “Robbie Williams’ producer used part of it for his hit ‘Supreme’.” For years, only two tracks from the Daughters Of Darkness soundtrack — ‘Les Dunes d’Ostende’ and ‘Les Lèvres Rouges’ — were commercially available, on a seven-inch single from Barclay Records. But in 2018, Benjamin oversaw the release of a double-disc set on vinyl and CD after discovering more than 45 minutes of music from the film on magnetic tape in his father’s studio, including several unreleased tracks. “I think Francois would be surprised with what’s going on with his music,” says Benjamin. “He would say in interviews, ‘You can’t be bad as the composer because the director works so long on a movie and if you s are bad it’s a catastrophe.’” ■
This year, Film Fest Ghent has recorded new music for the expanded reissues of three previously released albums, which will be distributed internationally in the ‘Music For Film’ album series
The following albums have been revisited:
M YCH A E L DA N N A : MUSIC FOR FILM S H I G E RU U M E BAYAS H I : MUSIC FOR FILM G A B RI E L YA RE D : MUSIC FOR FILM All music is performed by Brussels Philharmonic And conducted by Film Fest Ghent music director Dirk Brossé.
The albums will be released during Film Fest Ghent (12-23 October 2021) and can be ordered from:
shop.filmfestival.be and music retailers worldwide Other titles available in this series: 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
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Sa 23 Oct 21
Max Richter Eleni Karaindrou
