Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 5
IFMCA Award Winners 2013
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS; COMPOSERS FROM POLAND, SPAIN, DOMINATE
The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of winners for excellence in musical scoring in 2013. This year’s awards have a real international flavor, with the top awards going to composers primarily from Poland and Spain, but also from France, Japan and Argentina.
The award for Score of the Year goes to Polish composer ABEL KORZENIOWSKI for his beautiful score for director Carlo Carlei’s new cinematic version of the classic Shakespeare story of tragically doomed love, ROMEO AND JULIET. IFMCA member Christian Clemmensen called the score an “epic romance”, and felt that the film “inspired greatness out of the right composer”, while IFMCA member Jon Broxton said that Korzeniowski “is a composer who is not afraid to bring out the deeper sentiments in a film through his music, and it’s so refreshing to hear music from a man who so clearly understands what good film music can achieve”. Read more…
SUNFLOWER – Henry Mancini
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Renowned producer Carlo Ponti and acclaimed actor-director Vittorio de Sica hired screenwriter Cesare Zavattini to create, in the finest traditions of Italian cinema, a tragic love story. For this grand effort they recruited the two iconic Italian actors of the day to play the principles; Sophia Loren (Giovanna) and Marcello Mastroianni (Antonio). After many incarnations and disputes between Ponti and De Sica, a final screenplay was finally achieved. It reveals the story of two lovers caught up and swept away by the unforeseeable and irresistible currents of history. Sunflower, known in its original Italian as I Girasoli, is set in a small town in the southern Calabria region of Italy in the waning months of World War II. Read more…
ROBOCOP – Pedro Bromfman
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One thing I really love to see is when a young, new composer gets his first chance at the big time, scoring a major movie with huge box-office potential. Brazilian composer Pedro Bromfman is the composer getting that chance in the early months of 2014, having been hired to score the big-budget reboot of one of the great classic 1980s action movies, Robocop. 38-year old Bromfman is best known internationally for his scores for the popular Brazilian action movies in the Tropa de Elite series, which were directed by his old friend José Padilha; when Padilha was hired to helm the new Robocop, he brought Bromfman with him, and – shockingly – the executives at Sony Pictures gave the green light to allow this absolutely unknown composer to score their $130 million investment. This is the stuff that dreams are made of, where careers are launched and great new talents emerge – except, that in this case, the dream turns into a nightmare once you actually hear the music. Read more…
BAFTA Winners 2013
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have announced the winners of the 67th British Academy Film Awards, honoring the best in film in 2013.
In the Best Original Score category composer Steven Price won the award for his score for the acclaimed sci-fi action movie Gravity. In his acceptance speech, Price said:
“Thank you, thank you so much BAFTA. My daughters once told me if I was incredibly nervous and terrified at any point I should say their names, so I’m going to do that first. Thank you Amy, thank you Eva. I share this with Alfonso [Cuaron], you inspired every second of this, and its been a huge honor to tell this story with you. I want to thank all of the musicians who played on this score and gave the music it’s heartbeat. Everyone at Warner Brothers, everyone at GSA, all the people on this film who’ve been so supportive. Thank you to my mum and dad for having such a great record collection when I was a kid and starting this whole thing off. But most of all thank you Gemma, my wife.”
The other nominees were Henry Jackman for Captain Phillips, Thomas Newman for Saving Mr. Banks, John Williams for The Book Thief, and Hans Zimmer for 12 Years a Slave.
QUA TIM MÁU/VENGEFUL HEART – Christopher Wong, Garrett Crosby
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Vengeful Heart is a Vietnamese supernatural thriller directed by Victor Vu, starring Phuong Nha, Hoang Bach, and Thai Hoa, one of Vietnam’s most popular and successful comedians. It tells the story of Linh, a young woman who, after almost being killed in a car accident, survives after receiving a heart transplant. During her recovery Linh begins to have nightmares and hallucinations about a mysterious house in a forest. Tortured by her dreams, Linh eventually finds the house, which she finds inhabited by a very unusual Addams-esque family; worse still, it starts to become apparent that the recently deceased daughter of the family is Linh’s heart donor, and the family is becoming more and more attached to Linh. The film was massively successful in its home country, taking in more than 90 billion đồng, making it the all-time highest grossing domestic film in Vietnamese box office history. Read more…
THE MONUMENTS MEN – Alexandre Desplat
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
The Monuments Men is a World War II action-drama-comedy, directed by George Clooney, based on the real-life escapades of a group of art history scholars who were assigned to find and protect the priceless artworks of central Europe, and stop it from falling into the hands of the Nazis. With an all-star supporting cast that includes Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Bill Murray, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban and Downton Abbey’s Hugh Bonneville, the film certainly has pedigree, but many people have complained about the unusual tone the film adopts, veering from comedy to serious drama and back again, often within the same scene. The deliberate pacing and intentionally old-fashioned style of the film has also been criticized for being out of touch with modern audiences, but these were some of the reasons I felt the film succeeded: the film is less about moving from one action sequence to another and is more about the camaraderie between the men at the center of the story, and about the importance of the art they are tasked with protecting. Read more…
STAR TREK: NEMESIS – Jerry Goldsmith
MOVIE MUSIC UK CLASSICS
Original Review by Craig Lysy
Sadly, the beloved Star Trek franchise took its final voyage with this tenth installment. For the storyline we are presented with yet another morality play, which explores the interplay of upbringing, fate and self-realization in seeking one’s destiny. Following a wedding between Will Riker and Deanna Troi, Picard receives startling orders from Star Fleet Command to proceed to Romulus as the Federation’s peace emissary. Evidently a coup d’état had ushered in a new leadership that wished to reset relations after centuries of unremitting animosity. Upon their arrival Picard discovers that the new leader Shinzon is not a Romulan, but instead a human, a clone of himself. Eventually he realizes a sinister deception as Shinzon’s true motives manifest. Shinzon desires to gain glory first by killing his genetic progenitor, Picard, and then by destroying Earth, a final repudiation of his humanity. Thus from a shared genetic template we see a duality, the polarity of goodness embodied in Picard and the polarity evil with Shinzon. What unfolds is a classic battle between light and darkness, a contest of wills with both Picard and Shinzon using their knowledge of the other and themselves to prevail. In the fateful final encounter, the Enterprise joined by Romulan loyalist ships battle Shinzon’s Scimitar, a cloaked mega vessel with superior shields and weapons of mass destruction. We witness Picard and Shnizon match wits with the most impressive battle scenes of the franchise. The film, while not embraced by critics, performed well and was profitable. The decision to end the franchise was very disappointing. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 4
IFMCA Award Nominations 2013
INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS AWARD NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED; POLISH COMPOSER ABEL KORZENIOWSKI LEADS FIELD
The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of nominees for excellence in musical scoring in 2013. In this 10th Anniversary year of the IFMCA’s creation, the most nominated composer is Abel Korzeniowski, who received six nominations: Score of the Year, Best Drama Score and Film Music Composition of the Year for his work on director Carlo Carlei’s new screen version of the classic Shakespeare romance “Romeo and Juliet”; Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror Score and Film Music Composition of the Year for his work on director Randy Moore’s unusual satirical fantasy-horror set in a nightmarish Disney theme park, “Escape From Tomorrow”; and a personal nomination as Composer of the Year. Kraków, Poland-born Korzeniowski has previously been nominated for three IFMCA Awards, winning the award for Best Drama Score for “A Single Man” in 2009. Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 3
Movie Music UK Awards 2013
Film music went from strength to strength again in 2013. In terms of it’s world wide excellence, the breadth of outstanding music coming from all corners of the globe is astonishing – some of the best scores of year emerged not only from mainstream Hollywood productions, but also from Japan, Poland, the Czech Republic, Mexico and Spain, Germany and even Russia. As such, narrowing down my choices for the best of the year has been a very difficult task – one of the most difficult in recent memory. However, I’ve finally been able to put everything into some sort of logical order – so, for your reading and listening pleasure, I present the 2013 Movie Music UK Awards! Read more…
Under-the-Radar Round Up 2013, Part 2
Academy Award Nominations 2013
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) have announced the nominations for the 86th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film in 2013.
In the Best Original Score category, the nominees are:
- WILLIAM BUTLER and OWEN PALLETT for Her
- ALEXANDRE DESPLAT for Philomena
- THOMAS NEWMAN for Saving Mr. Banks
- STEVEN PRICE for Gravity
- JOHN WILLIAMS for The Book Thief
These are the first Oscar nominations for Butler, Pallett and Price, although Price was nominated for a Golden Globe earlier this year for Gravity, and Butler and Pallett have been nominated for 7 Grammy awards for their work as members of the rock group Arcade Fire. This is the 6th Oscar nomination for Desplat, the 12th Oscar nomination for Newman, and the 49th Oscar nomination for Williams, who previously won in 1971 for Fiddler on the Roof, 1975 for Jaws, 1977 for Star Wars, 1982 for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, and 1993 for Schindler’s List.
In the Best Original Song category, the nominees are:
- KRISTEN ANDERSON-LOPEZ and ROBERT LOPEZ for “Let It Go” from Frozen
- PAUL HEWSON (BONO), DAVID EVANS (THE EDGE), ADAM CLAYTON and LARRY MULLEN Jr. for “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
- KAREN ORZOLEK and SPIKE JONZE for “Moon Song” from Her
- PHARRELL WILLIAMS for “Happy” from Despicable Me 2
A fifth nomination, “Alone Yet Not Alone” from the film Alone Yet Not Alone by Bruce Broughton and Dennis Spiegel, was issued, but later rescinded when it was discovered that Broughton had breached Academy campaign rules
The winners of the 86th Academy Awards will be announced on March 2, 2014.
Golden Globe Winners 2013
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) have announced the winners of the 71st Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and American television of 2013.
In the Best Original Score category composer Alex Ebert, from the band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, won the award for his score for All is Lost. In his acceptance speech, after a brief and humorous aside with award presenter Sean “Puffy” Combs, Ebert said:
“Thank you, and thank you guys here. JC [Chandor], thank you, for having the faith to see into what I had done before and see that you thought that I could do this. You know, even the most deft pen is a clumsy tool, and yet we still try for magic. Thanks for letting me try, all over your movie. Thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press. I cannot believe this, this is crazy. Thanks to Brian Ling, and Linnie, and I’ll wrap it up. That’s it. Thanks, thanks to everybody, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
The other nominees were Alex Heffes for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Steven Price for Gravity, John Williams for The Book Thief, and Hans Zimmer for 12 Years a Slave.
In the Best Original Song category, the winners were Paul Hewson (Bono), David Evans (The Edge), Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr. of the Irish rock band U2, and Brian Burton (Danger Mouse), for the song “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
The other nominees were Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez for “Let It Go” from Frozen; Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion from Coldplay for “Atlas” from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; Ed Rush, George Cromarty, T-Bone Burnett, Justin Timberlake, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “Please Mr. Kennedy” from Inside Llewyn Davis; and Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff for “Sweeter Than Fiction” from One Chance.
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