In what is the only Australian event to recognize the unsung heroes of music composition for the large and small screen, APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) and the AGSC (Australian Guild of Screen Composers) are proud to announce the nominees for the 2008 SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS, which will be held in Sydney on Monday November 3rd.
The nominations for 2008 feature an eclectic group of musicians who run the gamut of experience – from well-established screen composers which include David Hirschfelder, Burkhard Dallwitz, Clive Harrison, Art Phillips, Roger Mason, Guy Gross, Christopher Elves and Cezary Skubiszewski to up and coming artists Chris Lilley, Bryony Marks, Caitlin Yeo and Greg Walker.
Again there has been representation from contemporary musicians making their foray into screen composition. Nick Cave and Warren Ellis (Dirty Three) have been nominated twice for their composition work on The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Their brooding soundscape is nominated in the categories of Best Feature
Film Score and Best Soundtrack Album.
Machine Translations Greg Walker is also nominated in the category of Best Soundtrack Album for his work on the Australian series East of Everything. And ARIA Award winner Josh Pyke has teamed up with multiple APRA – AGSC winner Michael Yezerski resulting in a nomination for When We Get There from The Black Balloon in the category of Best
Original Song Composed for the Screen.
The acclaimed feature film Black Balloon has also garnered two further nominations for Michael Yezerski – in the category of Best Soundtrack Album for the title track The Black Balloon and for The Greatest Act in History in the category of Best Original Song Composed for the Screen.
Winner of the Best Feature Film Score in 2006 for Wolf Creek (scary film about outback psychopath!), Francois Tetaz has been nominated twice for his work on the feature film Rogue (scary film about a man eating crocodile!) – he is nominated in the categories of Best Feature Film Score and Best Soundtrack Album.
2008 APRA AGSC Screen Music Awards musical director Cezary Skubiszewski has been nominated twice – the first nomination for Best Music for a Documentary for Night and the second in the category of Best Original Song Composed for the Screen for Free Falling 2 – Night (with co-composers Andy Baldwin, Clairanne Brown, Jules Pascoe and
Jan Skubiszewski).
He received his first ever AGSC Award in 1992 for Strictly Ballroom in the Best Soundtrack category. Now world-renowned David Hirschfelder returns with a nomination in the Best Feature Film Score category for his work on Children of the Silk Road.
Other nominees are Mark Rivett, Haydn Walker, Elliott Wheeler, Robert Burke, Benjamin Grayson, Caitlin Yeo, Brett Aplin, Geoffrey Russell, Rachel Gaudry, Paul Gillett, Jonathan Nix, Miles Nicholas, Michael Den Elzen, Scott Saunders, Richard Pleasance, Neil Sutherland, Jay Stewart, Les Gock, Dinesh Wickremeratne, David Chapman, Yuri Worontschak, Ash Gibson Greig, Jason Catherine, Alastair Ford and Chris Pettifer.
The prestigious International Achievement Award which is determined by the APRA Board, will be presented at the gala event at Sydney Recital Hall on Monday Nov 3rd. Previous winners include Peter Best, Bruce Rowland, Lisa Gerrard, Bruce Smeaton, David Hirschfelder and last year’s recipients Murray Cook, Jeff Fatt, Anthony Field, John Field
and Greg Page (collectively known as the Wiggles).
A live orchestra, conducted by celebrated musical director Cezary Skubiszewski will perform a selection of nominated compositions at the event. The inimitable H.G. Nelson will host the 2008 APRA – AGSC Screen Music Awards.
APRA and the AGSC would like to congratulate all of the nominees for the 2008 Screen Music Awards.