World Soundtrack Awards

by Arndt Holzmeier

The first World Soundtrack Awards ceremony was held on October, 18 in Ghent, Belgium, followed by a concert with Gabriel Yared conducting the National Orchestra of Belgium.

This 11 day festival is a little known jewel amongst European film festivals. For several years now film music is the prevailing theme and an astonishing number of composers have graced the event with their presence in the past, participating either in concerts, panel discussions or other functions. Elmer Bernstein, Michael Kamen, Edward Shearmur, Loek Dikker, Dirk Brosse, Stephen Warbeck, Elliot Goldenthal, Jean-Claude Petit, Elia Cmiral, Hans Zimmer and Patrick Doyle are just some of the names who appeared in Ghent over the last three years. Each year's festival highlight is the film music concert which is, true to the spirit of the festival, always surprisingly different. Last year's concert presented the (so far) one and only opportunity to see the "Media Ventures Band" (Zimmer, Powell, Greggson-Williams, Greenaway, Fowler, Lisa Gerrard, Lebo M, etc.) live on stage, playing together with a Symphony Orchestra and a large choir (on CD: Hans Zimmer - The Wings of a Film, Decca).

This year saw the inauguration the World Soundtrack Awards, another step to solidify the festival's outstanding commitment to the art of film music.

When the first Academy Awards had been presented in 1929 nobody dared to envision that this low-key affair would soon grow into a monster, the mother of all awards ceremonies, a celebration of perfection and self importance. Film music lovers for years have been mostly bothered or bewildered by who is favoured by the voting Academy members in the respective music categories. So the music Oscars are traditionally not held in very high esteem by those who care most for it. Still the Oscar is regarded as the most important award for film music.

The World Soundtrack Academy created the World Soundtrack Awards to honour the best film music achievements of the year -- to be voted for by industry members, thus avoiding the usual award traps "everybody votes" (nice film, let's vote for the music), "lifetime achievement" (okay, that composer's been around for ages, let's give him an award) and "most records sold" (Big ships anyone?). While the name "World Soundtrack Academy" sounds a trifle pompous the Academy actually consists of voting members like Tan Dun, Elliot Goldenthal, Jean-Claude Petit, Lalo Schifrin, Rachel Portman, Trevor Jones, etc. to make sure that only peers of composers are allowed to vote. The awards themselves a little uneasily recognizing released and unreleased scores (these are the "soundtrack" awards after all), plus a "public choice Award" as a reality check between fan-base and industry. Any surprises then? Nope. The envelope please (* marks the winner)...

John Williams - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

'Where The Dream Takes You' from ATLANTIS - written by Diane Warren and James Newton Howard
'Cuante cose chiare' from AZZURRO - written by Louis Crelier and Lucia Albertoni
'Soy un angelito' from FELICIDADES - written by Daniel Tarrab and Andreas Goldstein
'For Always' from ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE - written by John Williams and Cynthia Weil
'Come What May' from MOULIN ROUGE - written by David Baerwald *

Don Davis - ANTITRUST
Graeme Revell - BLOW
Patrick Doyle - BRIDGET JONES' DIARY *
Craig Armstrong - MOULIN ROUGE
Frederic Devreese - PAULINE & PAULETTE

Craig Armstrong - MOULIN ROUGE

Elmer Bernstein

Marius De Vries, Anton Monsted - MOULIN ROUGE

Carter Burwell
Rachel Portman
Yann Tiersen
John Williams *
Hans Zimmer

John Williams - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Carter Burwell - BEFORE NIGHT FALLS
Yann Tiersen - LE FABULEUX DESTIN D'AMELIE POULAIN *
Hans Zimmer - HANNIBAL
Craig Armstrong - MOULIN ROUGE

The Ceremony was everything an Oscar ceremony is not (reminding us that perfection is not a bad thing in priciple. Neither is a grain of self-importance). Taking place as a kind of warm-up to the yearly film music concert in the sold-out historical Bijloke concert hall the ceremony came across as an awkward and sometimes even apologetic affair, marred by technical problems and lack of passion for its very subject. Two nameless presenters rushed through a 30-minute program and kept straight faces when videos wouldn't play or microphones remained dead. Of the winners (yes, "and the winner is..." was the phrase of choice), Patrick Doyle, Marius De Vries and Anton Monsted were actually present. Elmer Bernstein (also slated to conduct) who received a lifetime achievement award to coincide with his 50th anniversary as film music composer, was unable to attend due to the events in the U.S. The always charming Patrick Doyle apologizing for his attire caused by somebody losing his luggage, a disarmingly nervous but happy Marius De Vries, starting an epic Oscar-style thank you speech, cut off for a minute by a complete blackout -- there is nothing like an award ceremony to show that those revered stars are human beings after all.

No surprising award choices for this weak year of film and music; Yann Tiersen's AMÖLIE being the exception since this film has not started in the U.S. yet. Interesting side note: industry and public unanimously chose John Williams/A.I. You can watch a recording of the ceremony here.

So the first installment of the WSA leaves a lot of room for improvement for the next years. Yet it's a good thing to get going with a decent start and gain confidence along the way. The growing importance of the Flanders Film Festival guarantees a certain public exposure and the impressive list of voting members backs up the validity of the event. Let's hope that this will become a yearly award that public and industry alike will regard as important. And who knows, maybe someday we will see a perfect ceremony, too.

The endless discussion on film music in concert form shall remain untouched here. Only this: whoever has had the revelation to witness an otherwise excellent orchestra like the LSO, conducted by a renowned composer blunder massively on a piece of film music (due to lack of rehearsal time or motivation) will be grateful to find him or herself entertained by an orchestra and a conductor who know exactly what they are doing. The National Orchestra of Belgium is such an orchestra. A well geared ensemble with European sensibility and a feeling for the intricacies of film music.

Part 1 -- Elmer Bernstein

To Kill a Mockingbird
Hollywood and the Stars
Kings of the Sun
The Great Escape
Age of Innocence
Magnificent Seven

Part 2 -- Gabriel Yared

Betty Blue, 37.2 le matin
La Lune dans le caniveau (The Moon in the Gutter)
L'Amant (The Lover)
Clavigo (Ballet)
The English Patient
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Camille Claudel
Wings of Courage

When Elmer Bernstein had to cancel his participation, Dirk Brosse stepped in to conduct his part of the concert. Brosse, himself an accomplished film music composer (DAENS, LICHT) and conductor is Music Director of the Flanders International Film Festival and recently conducted the LSO for the recording of Elliot Goldenthal's FINAL FANTASY. Brosse, who conducted many concerts for the festival over the past years, presented a programme of Bernstein crowd pleasers, clearly enjoying himself and the orchestra's fine performance. Notable were the arrangements of THE GREAT ESCAPE and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, both shortened from their familiar versions. SEVEN rearranged in an unfortunate way, missing the first distinctive bars and sacrificing orchestration for playability (i.e. breathtaking speed). THE AGE OF INNOCENCE was performed with the icy precision of the original recording that perfectly matches the restrained emotions of the actions on screen. I would like to hear a performance once in a while that tries to breath some viennese life into the waltzes.

Gabriel Yared took over for the second part which he conducted in part from his piano, playing in almost all of the selections. He started with an introverted solo piano piece from BETTY BLUE, an unusual opener, and went on to present a comprehensive overview of his film music, spanning almost 20 years. Be it the use of the bandoneon, the part frantic, part romantic writing of LUNE, the danse macabre of his ballet music for CLAVIGO, the simple yet beautiful orchestrations of THE ENGLISH PATIENT or the elaborate string elegies for CAMILLE CLAUDEL, Yared's style is a very distinctive one, never relying on effects yet always being effective. The concert featured a world premiere of his beautifully restrained aria POSSESSO, rearranged from his original theme from L'AMANT, sung with great sentiment by Gaelle Mechaly. Director Jean-Jacques Annaud presented Yared with a festival award and praised his "big heart" that can always be found in his music.

Close to 1,000 spectators thanked orchestra, soloists and conductors with a warm applause which ended this years Flanders International Film Festival after the introduction of a promising new set of awards and another succesful concert. An event to look forward to in 2002.

Arndt Holzmeier can be reached at magic.aho@bigfoot.com