Volker Bertelmann won Film Composer of the Year at the 23rd World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony & Concert on Saturday, October 21 at Capitole Gent. He had been nominated in this category before and has now returned as the winner. Nicholas Britell received the Television Composer of the Year Award. It is the second consecutive time he has won this prize, the third time he has won in this category and his sixth WSAward in total. "Your Personal Trash Man Can" from the fifth season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel was awarded Best Original Song and makes history as the first song from a series to receive the prize.
Simon Franglen took home the Discovery of the Year Award, while Amelia Warner was honored with the Public Choice Award. The music director of Film Fest Gent, Maestro Dirk Brossé, who conducted Brussels Philharmonic on this magical evening, composed the Best Original Score for a Belgian Production. Nicola Piovani and Laurence Rosenthal each received a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Film Composer of the Year
Even the festive 50th edition of Film Fest Gent had to come to an end at some point. Traditionally, the close of the festival was celebrated with the World Soundtrack Awards, the prestigious film music awards of Film Fest Gent. Due to a tie, there were six composers in the running—instead of the traditional five—for the coveted Film Composer of the Year Award, but Volker Bertelmann, also known by his stage name Hauschka, beat them all. He had been previously nominated for the World Soundtrack Awards: in 2018 for TV Composer of the Year for Patrick Melrose and Gunpowder, starring Kit Harington, and in 2017 for Film Composer of the Year and Discovery of the Year for his score for Lion, a collaboration with Dustin O'Halloran. The World Soundtrack Academy crowned him Film Composer of the Year for his scores for the Norwegian WWII film War Sailor, the dystopian Memory of Water and Oscar winner All Quiet on the Western Front. For his music for All Quiet on the Western Front, he has already won numerous awards, including an Academy Award and a BAFTA.
Television Composer of the Year
Nicholas Britell has scored a hat-trick with his music for Succession: he won Television Composer of the Year for Season 2 in 2020, for Season 3 in 2022 and this year for Season 4, and also for the first season of Andor. We can only wonder if Andor will make him as unbeatable in this category in the years to come as Succession. Britell has also received World Soundtrack Awards in other categories: he won Best Original Song for "Call Me Cruella" from Disney's Cruella in 2021, Film Composer of the Year in 2019 and Discovery of the Year in 2017.
Best Original Song
Of the five nominated songs in the Best Original Song category, only one was from a series (rather than a film). And it was precisely that song, "Your Personal Trash Man Can", that won. The song appears in the fifth season of The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and was written by Thomas Mizer and Curtis Moore and performed by Phillip Attmore, Jake Corcoran, RJ Higton, Tommy Sutter and the cast. "Your Personal Trash Man Can" is the second song from a series to secure a WSA nomination and the first to win.
Discovery of the Year
Simon Franglen is anything but a newcomer to the music industry. He contributed to award-winning albums by, among others, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and Toni Braxton and collaborated with composers such as Howard Shore for Se7en and James Horner for Titanic. With Avatar: The Way of Water, he takes over from Horner, who tragically died in 2016, as composer for the Avatar franchise. His score for the second Avatar was immediately successful as he was able to take home the Discovery of the Year Award.
Public Choice Award
The Public Choice Award went to Amelia Warner for her score for the costume drama Mr. Malcolm's List, based on the novel of the same name by Suzanne Allain. The score was well received by the audience and garnered the most votes from film fans. It is her first win, but Warner had previously been nominated in 2018 as Discovery of the Year for Mary Shelley and in 2021 for the Public Choice Award for Wild Mountain Thyme.
Sabam Award for Best Original Composition by a Young Composer
Composer Alec Sievern received the Sabam Award for Best Original Composition by a Young Composer. He convinced the jury with the score he wrote for a scene from Abzû, a video game developed by Giant Squid for which Austin Wintory composed the original score. Film Fest Gent's Music Director Dirk Brossé won Best Original Score for a Belgian Production for his music for the breathtakingly shot documentary series and film Onze natuur. Maestro Brossé was personally present to receive the award since he conducted Brussels Philharmonic during the World Soundtrack Award Ceremony & Concert.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The oeuvres of composers Nicola Piovani, Laurence Rosenthal and Eiko Ishibashi were central during the concert. The audience was delighted to hear Brussels Philharmonic perform a selection of Piovani's work for Fellini's film Intervista (1987) and of course for La vita è bella (1997), and of Rosenthal's work for, among others, Arthur Penn's The Miracle Worker (1962) and the popular series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1995). During the ceremony, both Piovani and Rosenthal received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Composer Eiko Ishibashi, who won Discovery of the Year in 2022, wrote a suite especially for this evening inspired by her music for Drive My Car and Evil Does Not Exist, which was performed by Brussels Philharmonic.
WSA Game Music Award
On Thursday 19 October, the first World Soundtrack Award of 2023 was presented during the PRESS PLAY: Music in Games concert of Film Fest Gent. Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist River Boy (the solo artist of Narayana Johnson) won the first WSA Game Music Award with his score for Cult of the Lamb. The concert was entirely dedicated to video game music, a historic first for the festival in its 50th edition.
WSA Industry Award
This year the WSA Industry Award was presented during the WSA Dinner on Friday 20 October to film music producer Robert Townson. Robert has been an advocate for film composers throughout his life through his more than 1400 album releases for Varèse Sarabande, including 80 albums with the legendary Jerry Goldsmith, and an ongoing series of international concert productions. Now as president of Robert Townson Productions, Robert continues to celebrate film music through his lectures, writings, concerts and recordings. He has made a significant contribution to public awareness and appreciation of great film and television music. For these important contributions, the World Soundtrack Academy has awarded him this prize.
