Archive
IFMCA Award Nominations 2009
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES ITS 2009 NOMINEES FOR SCORING EXCELLENCE; MICHAEL GIACCHINO RECEIVES A RECORD NINE NOMINATIONS
The International Film Music Critics Association announces its list of excellence in musical scoring for 2009 with composer Michael Giacchino receiving nine individual nominations, the most for any composer in a given year since the Association began issuing awards in 2004. Along with multiple mentions for his score to the Disney Pixar movie UP and JJ Abrams’ reinvented STAR TREK, Giacchino receives nominations for his scores to the TV series LOST as well as the documentary EARTH DAYS. Giacchino is also nominated for Composer of the Year along with Alexandre Desplat, James Horner, Christopher Young and Brian Tyler.
Both UP and STAR TREK are nominated for Score of the Year, along with James Horner’s score to the worldwide blockbuster AVATAR and Christopher Young’s score to Sam Raimi’s DRAG ME TO HELL. These film scores are tied with the most nominations this year at four noms each. Alexandre Desplat’s score to THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON rounds out the category. Read more…
BAFTA Nominations 2009
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 63rd British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2009.
In the Best Original Music category, which is named in memory of the film director Anthony Asquith, the nominees are:
- T-BONE BURNETT and STEPHEN BRUTON for Crazy Heart
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for Fantastic Mr. Fox
- MICHAEL GIACCHINO for Up
- JAMES HORNER for Avatar
- CHAZ JANKEL for Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
These are the first nominations Bruton, Giacchino, and Jankel. It is the third nomination for Desplat, the fourth nomination for Burnett, and the fourth nomination for Horner. Burnett previously won for Cold Mountain in 2003.
The winners of the 63rd BAFTA Awards will be announced on February 21, 2010.
Golden Globe Nominations 2009
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 67th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2009.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- CARTER BURWELL and KAREN ORZOLEK (KAREN O) for Where the Wild Things Are
- MICHAEL GIACCHINO for Up
- MARVIN HAMLISCH for The Informant!
- JAMES HORNER for Avatar
- ABEL KORZENIOWSKI for A Single Man
These are the first nominations for Burwell, Giacchino, Korzeniowski, and Orzolek. It is the third nomination for Hamlisch, and the sixth nomination for Horner. Horner previously won for Titanic in 1997.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- RYAN BINGHAM and T-BONE BURNETT for “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart
- PAUL HEWSON (BONO), DAVID EVANS (THE EDGE), ADAM CLAYTON, and LARRY MULLEN JR. for “Winter” from Brothers
- JAMES HORNER and THADDIS ‘KUK’ HARRELL for “I See You” from Avatar
- PAUL MCCARTNEY for “(I Want to) Come Home” from Everybody’s Fine
- MAURY YESTON for “Cinema Italiano” from Nine
The winners of the 67th Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 17, 2010.
Vic Mizzy, 1916-2009
Composer and songwriter Vic Mizzy died at his home in Bel-Air, California, on October 17, 2009, at the age of 93, from heart failure.
A prolific writer for popular music, film and television, Mizzy created two of the most instantly recognizable television themes of the 1960s, The Addams Family and Green Acres. His film career was dominated by comedy and light fantasy, including a celebrated series of scores for Don Knotts, but his wonderfully eccentric musical personality could also be heard in horror films such as The Night Walker and The Spirit Is Willing.
Victor Mizzy was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 9, 1916, the son of immigrant parents. He began playing accordion and piano as a child and, while attending New York University, formed a songwriting partnership with Irving Taylor. The pair wrote sketches and songs for variety shows and appeared on radio programs including Major Bowes’ Original Amateur Hour. Mizzy subsequently became a successful Tin Pan Alley songwriter, producing hits such as “Three Little Sisters,” “There’s a Faraway Look in Your Eye” and “Take It Easy.”
During World War II Mizzy served for four years in the United States Navy while continuing to write songs. He later collaborated with lyricist Mann Curtis on hits including “My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time,” “Pretty Kitty Blue Eyes,” “The Whole World Is Singing My Song” and “The Jones Boy.” His songs were recorded by performers including Doris Day, Perry Como, Dean Martin and Billie Holiday, establishing him as a successful popular songwriter long before Hollywood became his principal occupation. Read more…
Maurice Jarre, 1924-2009
Composer Maurice Jarre died on March 29, 2009, at his home in Malibu, California, after a battle with cancer. He was 84.
Maurice Alexis Jarre was born in Lyon, France, in September 1924, and originally studied engineering at the Sorbonne before turning to music at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied composition, percussion, and conducting. His early career included work in French theatre, notably as musical director for Jean-Louis Barrault’s Théâtre National Populaire.
Jarre’s began scoring films in France in the 1950s, notably for acclaimed director Georges Franju, and came to international prominence in 1962 for his epic, percussive, sweeping masterpiece score for director David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia. The film’s stirring main theme, performed by a full orchestra and augmented with Middle Eastern instruments, became one of the most recognizable in cinema and won Jarre his first Oscar. He capitalized on the success again in 1965 with another David Lean film, Doctor Zhivago, where his romantic and melancholic “Lara’s Theme” became a popular standard. Read more…
Academy Award Winners 2008
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the winners of the 81st Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2008.
In the Best Original Score category, Indian composer A. R. Rahman won the Academy Award for his score for Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. In his acceptance speech Rahman said:
Before coming, I was excited and terrified. The last time I felt like that was during my marriage. There’s a dialogue from a Hindi film, called “Mere paas ma hai,” which means, “I have nothing but I have a mother.” So mother’s here, her blessings are there with me. I am grateful for her to have come all the way. And I want to thank the Academy for being so kind, all the jury members. I want to thank Sam Schwartz, I/D PR, all the crew of “Slumdog,” Mr. Gulzar, Raqueeb Alam, Blaaze, my musicians in Chennai and Mumbai. And I want to tell something in Tamil, which says, which I normally say after every award, which is: Ella puhazhum iraivanukke. “God is great.” Thank you.
The other nominees for Best Original Score were Alexandre Desplat for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, James Newton Howard for Defiance, Danny Elfman for Milk, and Thomas Newman for WALL-E.
In the Best Original Song category, A. R. Rahman and Gulzar won the Academy Award for “Jai Ho,” also from Slumdog Millionaire.
The other nominees for Best Original Song were Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman for “Down to Earth” from WALL-E; and A. R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam for “O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire.
Academy Award Nominations 2008
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 81st Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2008.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- DANNY ELFMAN for Milk
- JAMES NEWTON HOWARD for Defiance
- THOMAS NEWMAN for Wall*E
- A. R. RAHMAN for Slumdog Millionaire
This is the first Oscar nomination for Rahman. It is the 2nd nomination for Desplat, the 4th nomination for Elfman, the 6th nomination for Howard, and the 10th nomination for Newman. None of the nominees have ever won an Academy Award before
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- THOMAS NEWMAN and PETER GABRIEL for “Down to Earth” from Wall*E
- A. R. RAHMAN and SAMPOORAN SINGH KALRA (GULZAR) for “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire
- A. R. RAHMAN and MATHANGI ARULPRAGASAM (M.I.A.) for “O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire
The winners of the 81st Academy Awards will be announced on February 22, 2009.
Angela Morley, 1924-2009
Composer, arranger, orchestrator and conductor Angela Morley died in Scottsdale, Arizona, on January 14, 2009, at the age of 84. She had suffered a heart attack while undergoing surgery following a broken hip.
One of Britain’s most accomplished arrangers, Morley’s remarkable career encompassed big bands, radio, records, film and American television. She received two Academy Award nominations, won three Emmy Awards, and contributed behind the scenes to some of the most famous film scores of the late twentieth century.
Morley was born Walter Morley Stott in Leeds, Yorkshire, on March 10, 1924, and developed an early fascination with big-band music. Largely self-taught at first, she became a professional saxophonist at 15 and by 17 was playing lead alto with Oscar Rabin’s orchestra. She joined Geraldo’s celebrated band in 1944, increasingly concentrating on arranging, and later studied composition with Mátyás Seiber and conducting with Walter Goehr. By the early 1950s she had abandoned performing to concentrate entirely on writing.
Under her former professional name, Wally Stott, Morley became enormously familiar to British radio audiences. She was musical director for Philips Records, arranged for singers including Rosemary Clooney and Mel Tormé, and provided music for The Goon Show. Most famously, she wrote the theme and incidental music for Hancock’s Half Hour, including its memorably lugubrious opening tuba motif. She also produced a series of light-orchestral compositions and arrangements that established her as one of Britain’s leading practitioners in the field. Read more…
Golden Globe Nominations 2008
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominations for the 66th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2008.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- CLINT EASTWOOD for Changeling
- JAMES NEWTON HOWARD for Defiance
- A. R. RAHMAN for Slumdog Millionaire
- HANS ZIMMER for Frost/Nixon
This is the first nomination Rahman, the second nomination for Howard, the third nomination for Eastwoood, the fourth nomination for Desplat, and the eighth nomination for Zimmer. Eastwood has also been nominated three times previously as a director, winning for Bird in 1988 and Unforgiven in 1992. Desplat previously won for The Painted Veil in 2006. Zimmer previously won for The Lion King in 1994 and Gladiator in 2000.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- JAMIE CULLUM, CLINT EASTWOOD, KYLE EASTWOOD, and MICHAEL STEVENS for “Gran Torino” from Gran Torino
- MILEY CYRUS and JEFFREY STEELE for “I Thought I Lost You” from Bolt
- PETER GABRIEL and THOMAS NEWMAN for” Down to Earth” from Wall*E
- BEYONCÉ KNOWLES, HENRY KRIEGER, SCOTT CUTLER, and ANNE PREVEN for “Once in a Lifetime” from Cadillac Records
- BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN for “The Wrestler” from The Wrestler
The winners of the 66th Golden Globe Awards will be announced on January 11, 2009.
Isaac Hayes, 1942-2008
Composer, singer, songwriter, arranger and actor Isaac Hayes died in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 10, 2008, at the age of 65.
One of the defining figures of 1970s soul music, Hayes also made an indelible contribution to cinema through his groundbreaking score for Shaft, whose combination of funk, jazz, orchestral writing and rhythm-and-blues profoundly influenced the sound of American film music. He became the first African-American to win an Academy Award in a music category when “Theme from Shaft” won Best Original Song in 1972.
Isaac Lee Hayes Jr. was born in Covington, Tennessee, on August 20, 1942, and grew up in the Memphis area. A multi-instrumentalist who played piano, organ and saxophone, he joined Stax Records during the early 1960s, initially as a session musician. With lyricist David Porter he became one of the label’s most successful songwriting teams, creating songs including “Hold On, I’m Comin’,” “When Something Is Wrong with My Baby” and “Soul Man” for Sam & Dave. By the end of the decade Hayes had emerged as a recording star in his own right, with the landmark 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul establishing his distinctive mixture of extended song structures, deep vocals, psychedelic soul and elaborate orchestral arrangements.
His entry into film music came with Gordon Parks’s Shaft (1971), starring Richard Roundtree as private detective John Shaft. Hayes approached the project with the same musical freedom that characterized his solo albums, combining wah-wah guitar, driving hi-hat rhythms, brass, strings, jazz improvisation and lengthy instrumental grooves. Rather than merely providing conventional dramatic underscore, he created a complete musical environment for the film, giving its urban New York setting a confidence and contemporary energy rarely heard in mainstream Hollywood scoring at the time. Read more…
Alexander Courage, 1919-2008
Composer, arranger and orchestrator Alexander “Sandy” Courage died in Pacific Palisades, California, on May 15, 2008, at the age of 88, following several years of declining health.
During a career spanning more than half a century he worked on hundreds of film and television productions, but remains immortal for one of the most recognizable pieces of music in television history: the soaring theme for the original Star Trek.
Courage was born in Philadelphia on December 10, 1919, and grew up in New Jersey. He studied composition at the Eastman School of Music, graduating in 1941, before serving during World War II as a bandleader in the United States Army Air Forces. After settling in Los Angeles he began arranging and composing for CBS radio and in 1948 joined MGM as an orchestrator.
At MGM, Courage became one of the craftsmen responsible for the celebrated sound of the studio’s golden-age musicals. His credits included Show Boat (1951), The Band Wagon (1953), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), Kismet (1955) and Gigi (1958), while he also worked on Guys and Dolls and Funny Face. His sophisticated command of the orchestra later made him a valued collaborator of composers including John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith.
Courage also composed original film scores, most notably for Arthur Penn’s western The Left Handed Gun (1958), starring Paul Newman, and André de Toth’s stark Day of the Outlaw (1959). Although original film composition never became the principal focus of his career, these scores demonstrated a muscular dramatic style quite distinct from the elaborate musical arrangements for which he was already renowned. Read more…
Leonard Rosenman, 1924-2008
Composer Leonard Rosenman died on March 4, 2008, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. He had been suffering with dementia for many years, and died of a heart attack. He was 83.
Leonard Rosenman was born in September 1924, in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrants from Poland. After service in the Pacific with the United States Army Air Forces in World War II he studied piano and composition at Brooklyn College, and later at the University of California, Berkeley. Among his most influential teachers were Arnold Schoenberg and Roger Sessions – figures whose serialist and atonal techniques deeply informed Rosenman’s own compositional voice.
Rosenman’s entranc into the film world came through his friendship with actor James Dean; the two had met at a party for the cast of a Broadway play, and two weeks later Dean appeared at Rosenman’s doorstep wanting to take piano lessons. Dean later personally recommended him to director Elia Kazan for East of Eden in 1955, which proved to be a major breakthrough for the composer. Rosenman followed it later that year with Rebel Without a Cause, further establishing his reputation as a composer capable of capturing psychological intensity through unconventional harmonic language. These early scores were groundbreaking in their integration of dissonance and modernist techniques into mainstream Hollywood cinema. Read more…
Academy Award Winners 2007
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the winners of the 80th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2007.
In the Best Original Score category, Italian composer Dario Marianelli won the Academy Award for his score for Joe Wright’s WWII-era drama Atonement, based on the novel by Ian McEwan. In his acceptance speech Marianelli said:
Well, that was a very long walk, it felt like. I feel like I’m a very lucky man. Thank you very much, Academy. I’m very lucky because I was part of a fantastic group of people that made a fantastic film. I think it’s called “movie” because it’s a very moving film. And I’m really grateful, above all, to Joe Wright, the director, to have included me in this fantastic group of gifted people. I’m very grateful to my good friends for supporting me through lots of things through these years, and my family, who I love very much, my girls. And my father and my mother, thank you for passing on a very deep and strong love of music. Thank you.
The other nominees for Best Original Score were Alberto Iglesias for The Kite Runner, James Newton Howard for Michael Clayton, Michael Giacchino for Ratatouille, and Marco Beltrami for 3:10 to Yuma.
In the Best Original Song category, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová won the Academy Award for “Falling Slowly” from John Carney’s musical drama Once.
The other nominees for Best Original Song were Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz for “Happy Working Song” from Enchanted; Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas for “Raise It Up” from August Rush; Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz for “So Close” from Enchanted; and Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz for “That’s How You Know,” also from Enchanted.
Academy Award Nominations 2007
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 80th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2007.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- MARCO BELTRAMI for 3:10 to Yuma
- MICHAEL GIACCHINO for Ratatouille
- JAMES NEWTON HOWARD for Michael Clayton
- ALBERTO IGLESIAS for The Kite Runner
- DARIO MARIANELLI for Atonement
These are the first Oscar nominations for Beltrami and Giacchino. It is the 5th nomination for Howard, the 2nd nomination for Iglesias, and the 2nd nomination for Marianelli. None of the nominees have ever won an Academy Award before
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- GLEN HANSARD and MARKÉTA IRGLOVÁ for “Falling Slowly” from Once
- JAMAL JOSEPH, CHARLES MACK, and TEVIN THOMAS for “Raise It Up” from August Rush
- ALAN MENKEN and STEPHEN SCHWARTZ for “Happy Working Song” from Enchanted
- ALAN MENKEN and STEPHEN SCHWARTZ for “So Close” from Enchanted
- ALAN MENKEN and STEPHEN SCHWARTZ for “That’s How You Know” from Enchanted
The winners of the 80th Academy Awards will be announced on February 24, 2008.
BAFTA Nominations 2007
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominations for the 61st British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2007.
In the Best Original Music category, which is named in memory of the film director Anthony Asquith, the nominees are:
- JONNY GREENWOOD for There Will Be Blood
- CHRISTOPHER GUNNING for La Môme/La Vie En Rose
- ALBERTO IGLESIAS for The Kite Runner
- DARIO MARIANELLI for Atonement
- MARC STREITENFELD for American Gangster
These are the first nominations Greenwood, Gunning, Marianelli, and Streitenfeld. It is the second nomination for Iglesias.
The winners of the 61st BAFTA Awards will be announced on February 10, 2008.
Shop at the Movie Music UK Store
Member of the
