It is a landmark year for World Soundtrack Awardswhich celebrates 25 years in recognizing contributions from global film and television composers. The event created from Belgium’s Film Fest GhentWho smartly realized that it needed to differ from similar film events as early as the 1980s. The festival’s focus on film music eventually sat into the World Soundtrack Awards and its parent organization, World Soundtrack Academy, 2001.
Talk to Amount In front of this year’s special edition, Film Fest Ghent-Program Director Wim de Witte reminds the beginning of the WSA with the first live concert by several Oscar-winning German composer Hans Zimmer. “We had a whole symphonic orchestra and run on stage; it was a fantastic production and took a lot of effort from our team,” he says, adding that the talent managers who participated in the event that was realized then it was a fantastic opportunity to turn Ghent into a meeting place between filmmakers and composers.
Music Director of Film Fest Ghent and the famous composer Dirk Brossé also remember that concert. “There were almost 200 musicians on stage, an African choir, an Western choir, a jazz band, a pop band … It was an incredible night and the beginning of a long series of concerts that have grown and grown over the years.”
When it comes to the importance of hosting the WSA during the festival, De Witte says: “There are many festivals throughout the year, you can go to one every week if you wanted, so it’s not so easy to attract world premieres or big movies. Film music has helped to put us on the international map of film festivals.”
Still on WSA’s influence, Brossé notes how, nowadays, “More and more orchestras around the world are playing film music”, something that was not as common when Ghent first began to do so. “Every group that considers itself serious plays film music today, but what separates our festivals from other festivals and also from other organizers is that we always play the original points. There are different events, but that is always the original material,” he adds.
His zimmer in concert, with permission of Lisa Gerrard
When it comes to original materials, to mark the 25th anniversary, WSA will have a triple album edition including: “Debbie Wiseman: Music for Film and Television”, with brand new studio recordings from the British composer behind “Edie” and “Tom and Viv”; “Craig Armstrong: Music for Film”, an extended re -publishing of the first album launched by the festival as early as 2007; And the “World Soundtrack Awards-25th anniversary celebration”, a limited edition vinyl set that collects two decades of WSA history and has live recordings of memorable live and studio performances at the festival.
The entire WSA team agrees that one of the most important reasons why the event remains relevant and successful is how it works together with its advisory board. “We have about 40 much appreciated professionals who gather to think about events and ideas twice a year,” says music project coordinator Hanne Schelstraete. “They know which topics are important to composers right now and are working with us to understand who to invite and what voices we should highlight.”
“Our advisory board is not only strong but also, vital, internationally,” adds Brossé. “We have people from China, Africa, South America and the world together with important players in the US and Europe. We are constantly in contact with each other and work very well together to design WSA.”
While physical editions and special events mark the WSA that look back at its past, the organization is also firmly forward. When he talks about the future, Brossé says that he is worried about an over -saturation in the industry and is constantly in conversation with the World Soundtrack Academy Advisory Board when it comes to this issue.
“Today the professional film composer is flourishing,” says the Belgian conductor. “When we started, there was a limited number of composers who had a career, but now you have movie schools everywhere. Every conservatory has a movie department now and, with ai, more people have access to tools to create sounder. Training as a Composer because everything came out of your brain. SINCE the advent of synthesizers, Computer Programs and Now AI, Even People with Very Low Music Education Can Access Tools to Translate The Company.
At AI, Brossé made a point to strengthen how WSA has a “very clear message.” “Our goal and our statement is to give people who write for acoustic instruments and symphony orchestra a platform, which does not mean that we exclude other people, but our main goal is to encourage young people to continue writing for a symphonic orchestra.” De Witte Ekar who thought: “WSA will always focus on symphonic music. With AI and other technological development, you can imagine that the difficulties that the composers go through, but we will always defend composers who write original music for which instruments they choose. We will always try to find a way to present it at the festival.”
Schelstrate, who leads the WSA industry programs and conversations at the festival, says that artificial intelligence will still be present in Ghent this year, but warns that “some composers are tired of talking AI because it is a bit depressed.”
“In the 70s and 80s, when the synthesizations came, everyone was scared and thought it was the end of everything,” recalls Brossé. “Then John Williams came back with the orchestra for” Star Wars “and ruled a whole movement. As long as the human race tries to live as human beings, there will always be an interest in art created by people.”
