News November 12, 2015

2015 Screen Music Awards winners announced

Former Editor

The top award for Feature Film Score of the Year was picked up by Jed Kurzel at last night’s 13th Screen Music Awards in Melbourne.

Brother to film director Justin Kurzel (Snowtown and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed), Jed was honoured for his string-based score for the Sundance-Film-Festival-winning Slow West.

It’s the second time he has won the coveted trophy; he was awarded Score of the Year at the 2011 Screen Music Awards for Snowtown.

Internationally-acclaimed screen composer David Hirschfelder took home two awards, for Best Music for a Television Series or Serial for Banished, and Best Soundtrack Album for the feature film The Water Diviner.

Q&A: DAVID HIRSCHFELDER, FILM SCORE COMPOSER

Singer-songwriter Archie Roach took home the Best Original Song Composed for the Screen award for his contribution to two-part television series The Secret River, his collaborative track A Secret River was written with Shane Howard. The Secret River also delivered an award to multi-award-winning screen composer Burkhard Dallwitz for Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie.

Composer Damien Lane won his first-ever Screen Music Award for Best Music for a Short Film for 1919, about a soldier with amnesia.

Antony Partos won Best Music for a Documentary for Sherpa, tracking the sherpas’ point of view of a 2014 Mt Everest expedition.

The Best Television Theme award went to Roger Mason for Australian drama The Code.

For the eighth consecutive year, taking his overall tally of APRA Screen Music Awards to ten, composer Neil Sutherland was again named Most Performed Screen Composer – Overseas.

Long time collaborators Adam Gock and Dinesh Wicks were named Most Performed Screen Composers – Australia.

The Awards’ Musical Director, Emmy winner Ashley Irwin, performed excerpts of Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Burke & Wills (1985), Babe (1995) and Wolf Creek (2005) with his orchestra.

Rob Carlton returned as MC last night at the Melbourne Recital Centre. Joining him onstage to present awards were David Field, Sophie Lowe, Sue Maslin, Virginia Gay, Clare Bowditch, Stephen Luby and Lisa Gerrard.

Archie Roach AM, Shane Howard, Go Freek and Dom Dolla performed.