The Jury 2021

Sophia Ersson, born in Stockholm in 1980, is a successful singer, songwriter, composer, and producer. Her latest work as a composer is the soundtracks for the movies ”The Average Color of the Universe”, “ORCA” and the Netflix series ”Caliphate”. Amongst her earlier work the movie ”Girls Lost” can be found, which premiered at the international film festival in Toronto in 2015 and featured at the film festivals in Cannes, Rotterdam, and Rome. The music for ”Girls Lost” also won the Grand Scores Award (Now Camille Awards) in Berlin 2017 and was nominated for the Swedish award Guldbaggen and Harpa Awards the same year.

David Arnold is a multi-award-winning composer, best known for his work on 5 of the James Bond films, blockbusters such as Independence Day & Stargate and most recently The Tiger Who Came to Tea, as well as the hugely successful television series Good Omens and the BBC adaptations of Sherlock & Dracula. The recipient of many awards, including a Grammy, an Emmy, an Ivor Novello, a World Soundtrack Award & BMI Film Music Awards, David also won worldwide acclaim as Musical Director for the London Olympics & Paralympics Closing Ceremonies in 2012 and has worked as a songwriter for some of the biggest names in music.

Patrick Doyle is a classically trained composer. He graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music in 1975, where he was made a Fellow in 2001. 

Patrick has been commissioned to score over 50 international feature films, including ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’, ‘Gosford Park’, ‘Sense and Sensibility’, ‘Indochine’, ‘Carlito’s Way’ and ‘A Little Princess’. His work has led to collaborations with some of the most acclaimed directors in film history, such as Regis Wargnier, Brian De Palma, Alfonso Cuaròn, Ang Lee, Chen Kaige, Mike Newell and Robert Altman. 

In October 2007, Patrick Doyle’s ‘Music from the Movies’ sell-out concert on behalf of The Leukaemia Research Fund was staged at The Royal Albert Hall. It was directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh and starred a host of international talent, including Emma Thompson, Sir Derek Jacobi, Dame Judi Dench and Alan Rickman, among many others. In December 2013, the London Symphony Orchestra performed a programme of Patrick’s work in a special celebratory concert at the Barbican for Patrick’s 60th birthday, at which Sir Derek Jacobi, Emma Thompson and soprano Janis Kelly performed. 

Patrick has received two Oscar, two Golden Globe, one BAFTA and two Cesar nominations, as well as winning the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme for ‘Henry V’. He has also been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award from The World Soundtrack Awards and Scottish BAFTA, the Henry Mancini Award from ASCAP and the PRS Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Music. 

Patrick has composed several concert pieces, including ‘Tam O Shanter’, commissioned by the Scottish Schools Orchestra Trust; ‘Corarsik’, composed for Emma Thompson’s birthday; ‘The Face In The Lake’, commissioned by Sony and narrated by Kate Winslet; and ‘The Thistle and the Rose’, commissioned by Prince Charles in honour of the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday. His concert suite Impressions of America received its world premiere in July 2012 with the National Schools Symphony Orchestra, of which Patrick is a patron. 

Recent contemporary film scores by Patrick include ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ for Fox Studios, ‘Thor’ for Marvel and ‘Brave’ for Disney/Pixar. In addition, Patrick composed an original score for the silent movie ‘IT’ starring Clara Bow, commissioned by The Syracuse Film Festival. 

In 2015, Patrick completed work on the music for Walt Disney’s live action version of ‘Cinderella’, directed by Branagh and marking their eleventh film collaboration to date. Patrick also completed recording a solo piano album, made up of a collection of his film scores to date, which was released by Varese Sarabande in July 2015. In 2016 Patrick completed the scores for the remake of Scottish classic ‘Whisky Galore!’ and Amma Asante’s ‘A United Kingdom’. In 2017, Patrick completed the scores for Sony’s ‘The Emoji Movie’, Twentieth Century Fox’s ‘Murder On The Orient Express’ and, in 2018, the animated film, ‘Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero’. 

More recently, Patrick composed the score for Disney’s ‘Artemis Fowl’ and the forthcoming ‘Death On The Nile’ for Disney Fox.

Pascal Gaigne is a versatile and renowned composer born in France and living in Spain, working in the areas of concert music, music for movies and stage.

Born in 1958, he studied music composition at the University of Pau, in France, with Guy Maneveau, and at the National Conservatory of Toulouse, where he was the winner of the first prize in composition and acousmatic music (within the field of electroacoustic music).

Pascal Gaigne has composed music for 120 movies, working with directors like Víctor Erice (el sol del membrillo), Daniel Sánchez Arévalo (Azul oscuro casi negro; Gordos), Icíar Bollaín (flores de otro mundo , Katmandu , The olive tree), Montxo Armendariz (Silencio roto), Salvador García (Mensaka; el otro barrio; las voces de la noche; Castillos de cartón), Ramón Salazar (Piedras; 20 centímetros), Gracia Querejeta (7 mesas de billar francés), Eduardo Chapero-Jackson (A contraluz , verbo), Moriarti «  The Giant » , The Endlses Trench, Flowers etc…

His music for movies won several prizes, including  Spanish Academy Award for ¨Handia » ,  Palma de Oro for “El otro barrio” at the Buenos Aires Film Festival, and the prize to the best soundtrack in Europe for “Azul oscuro casi negro,” from the Federación Europea de Asociaciones de Compositores de Cine.

She studied Music Composition and Music Pedagogy at Madrid ́s Conservatory (Spain) and Berklee College of Music in Boston (USA).

She has worked as a soundtrack composer with directors Ricardo Franco, Manuel Palacios or Rafael Gordon; and scene directors, José Monleón (theater) or Carmen Senra (dance), among others. She has also written the score for popular Spanish TV Series. Her compositions have been played by several orchestras, including the Spanish Radio Television Orchestra or Prague Symphony Orchestra.

She has won prestigious prizes as a composer. She won a best music award from the Spanish Film Academy (Goya) for La Buena Estrella and received a nomination for La Noche del Hermano; and best song award for Arderás conmigo. She has received the Film Critics Prize for best music for the film La Reina Isabel en Persona and La Buena Estrella, as well as the nomination of the Spanish TV Academy for the best TV music for La Rosa de Piedra.

At present she alternates her music composition with teaching. She organises graduate and post graduate courses on Film Scoring at the prestigious college Katarina Gurska Center in Madrid, and Pedagogy at the Autónoma University of Madrid and the UVa University. She specialises in active learning pedagogy and interdisciplinary methods and is in constant contact with different educational institutions related to the same fields.