World Soundtrack Awards announces first wave of nominees

This first wave of the 2019 World Soundtrack Award Nominees includes multiple Academy Award® and Golden Globe® nominees, the best of contemporary film and television music as well as hiphop's biggest rock star Post Malone and other pop artists. 

The nominees for Best Film Composer are AcademyAward® nominees Nicholas Britell, John Powell and Alan Silvestri and Golden Globe® nominees Daniel Pemberton and Benjamin Wallfisch. The Television Composer of the Year nominees include upcoming and popular composers Kris Bowers, Ramin Djawadi, Murray Gold, Hildur Guðnadóttir and Jeff Russo.

Film Fest Gent’s programme director Wim De Witte about the nominees: "We are pleased to see such a variety of young talents across all three categories, including multiple composers who have previously won or been nominated for the World Soundtrack Discovery Award. That makes the World Soundtrack Awards the ideal moment to put this new generation of composers into the spotlight."

During the award ceremony on Friday 18 October, a selection of Marco Beltrami's work ('Scream', 'A Quiet Place') will be performed by Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by Film Fest Gent’s music director Dirk Brossé. The same week, the festival will also be releasing a unique compilation album with Beltrami's best film scores. Following its yearly tradition, the WSAwards invites last year's Discovery winner Tamar-kali ('Mudbound') to the stage where she will also present new music to the WSA audience. In addition to the international guests, this year’s edition pays homage to an icon of Belgian film music, Frédéric Devreese, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday. The composer’s extensive repertoire, with scores for André Delvaux and Hugo Claus, will be celebrated.

THE NOMINEES ARE: 

Best Film Composer of the Year
Nicholas Britell ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’; ‘Vice’
Daniel Pemberton ‘Yesterday’; ‘Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’; ‘Scarborough’; 
John Powell ‘How to train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’
Alan Silvestri ‘Avengers: Endgame’; ‘Welcome to Marwen’; The Predator' (co-composed by Henry Jackman); ‘Teen Titans Go! To The Movies’;
Benjamin Wallfisch ‘Hellboy’; ‘Shazam!’; 'Serenity'; 'King of Thieves'; 'The Vanishing'; 'The Darkest Minds'

Best Television Composer of the Year
Kris Bowers “When They See Us” (Season 1), “For the People” (Season 2), “Black Monday” (Season 1), “Warriors of Liberty City” (Season 1)
Ramin Djawadi “Game of Thrones” (Season 8), “Jack Ryan” (Season 1)
Murray Gold “Years and Years” (Season 1), “Gentleman Jack” (Season 1)
Hildur Guðnadóttir “Chernobyl”, "Ófærð" (“Trapped” - Season 2)
Jeff Russo “Legion” (Season 3), “The InBetween” (Season 1), “The Act” (Season 1), “The Umbrella Academy” (Season 1), “Star Trek: Discovery” (Season 2), “Counterpart” (Season 2), “Channel Zero” (Season 4), “Snowfall” (Season 2)

Best Original Song written directly for a Film

Requiem for a Private War from 'A Private War'
Written & performed by Annie Lennox

Shallow from 'A Star is Born'
Written by Lady Gaga, Andrew Wyatt, Anthony Rossomando, Mark Ronson
Performed by Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper

‘Sunflower’ from “Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse”
Written by Swae Lee (as Khalif Brown), Louis Bell, Post Malone (as Austin Post), Billy Walsh (as William Walsh), Carter Lang, Carl Rosen
Performed by Post Malone, Swae Lee

The Place Where Lost Things Go from: 'Mary Poppins Returns'
Written by Marc Shaiman
Performed by Emily Blunt

When a Cowboy Trades his Spurs for Wings from 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs'
Written by David Rawlings, Gillian Welch
Performed by Willie Watson, Tim Blake Nelson

The World Soundtrack Academy aims at supporting film and television music, sound design, composers and its worldwide promotion. In 19 years time, the membership of the WSAcademy has grown into a group of 385 international film music professionals deciding on the nominees through several rounds of voting. The Academy will announce the nominees for Discovery of the Year, Best Original Score for a Belgian Production and the Sabam Award for Best Young International Composer mid-September. The audience can also nominate their favorite score by voting for the Public Choice Award on the WSAwards website until September 4th 2019.

Following its yearly tradition, there will be a WSA industry programme, featuring a Film Music Seminar with Marco Beltrami and a Composer Talk with Hildur Guðnadóttir on 17 october.

19th World Soundtrack Awards 
17 Oct – Hollywood Nightmares: Scary Symphonic Scores - tickets
18 Oct – World Soundtrack Awards & Concert - tickets

Follow the World Soundtrack Awards playlist on Spotify!
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