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
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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
