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Finalist at 13th International Filmmusic Competition
I was one of the three finalists of the International Filmmusic Competition 2025. The jury of the 13th edition of this worldwide acclaimed competition was led by the Oscar-winning composer Hildur Guðnadóttir. 170 participants from all over the world met the challenge to write an orchestral score for the short animation film “Wild Love”. The scores of the three finalists were performed by the world-renowned Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich conducted by Frank Strobel on 2 October 2025 in a film music concert at Zurich Film Festival.
https://filmmusikwettbewerb.ch/en/
“JUPITER” celebrates its Germany Premiere at the 58th Filmdays Hof and receives renowned prizes
The 58th International Film Days Hof (Germany) have just come to an end and it was a fantastic experience to celebrate the premiere of the full feature film “JUPITER” together with our team. It was especially exciting for us, since the film received multiple awards. Right at the evening of the premiere it received the Award for New German Cinema which is valued at 10 000 €. The jury explains their decision as follows:
“JUPITER captivates with great consequence in form and expression. JUPITER surprises with unconventional directing and editing choices, that skillfully and casually make use of challenging devices like flashbacks.[…]”.
The premiere at the big central cinema was well received with a lot of applause and interested questions for the team at the Q&A. But there was even more reason to celebrate, because the film was even awarded with the Critics Prize for Best Directing (Benjamin Pfohl) and with the Picture-Art Award for Best Production Design (Fryderyk Swierczynski). The Jury put it as follows:
“German Director Benjamin Pfohl made its short feature into a full feature film. Empty promises of a higher existence are critisized without being overly moralising, but rather with empathy for the protagonists. This theme is not far-fetched in post-corona-times and stays grounded and relatable through the coming-of-age-story. Although, this atmospheric sci-fi-cult-apocalypse takes the audience to cosmic worlds, visually as well as musically.[…]”.
Our team was really happy and thankful for all the appreciation we got for our work. The film will appear at other festivals, e.g. in Wiesbaden and Braunschweig (both Germany) before it has its cinema release in January 2025.
Exhibition opening at the Arthall Lausitz with piano and live electronics
On the 22nd of June 2024 I had the big pleasure to have a musical live performance for the vernissage of the Berlin-based artist Anett Münnich and the sculptor Rita Grafe at the Arthall Lausitz in Cottbus. I illustrated the combination of human sculptures and the complex nature paintings with a mixture of piano improvisations and electronic echoes from the modular synthesizer. A combination that I already used for another exhibition earlier this year, when the Halle-based artist Anja Nürnberg presented her new Harz-series.
Besides exhibitions the Arthall Lausitz also hosts concerts: “Kultursalon” is a young and expanding chamber concert series, organized by the pianist Aglaja Sprengel and the artist Christine Geiszler. In this year every concert focuses on a different instrument. Concerts already featured harp, trombone and lute. Upcoming concerts will focus on cello, synthesizer and piano, just to name a few. I have the pleasure of being a kind of in-house-composer for the “Kultursalon”. In the introduction of every concert I compose a piece together with the audience consisting of motifs from the following pieces of the concert program. In October of 2023 my newest concert piece, the piano trio “Big Dater Encounters”, was also premiered at the “Kultursalon”.
2nd Place Winner at the Ryan Leach Competition: “Spring Arrival”
I am very happy to report that I could make it to the second place in this year’s “Ryan Leach April 2024 Composing Competition”. Over 300 composers took part in it and twelve finalists were chosen for the finals. The winners were chosen by an expert jury during a live stream on YouTube. It was the task to compose a short piece of up to 90 seconds length that illustrates a given photo of Mont Saint Michel. For the recording of my piece “Spring Arrival” I was lucky to work again with Thea Schwerk, who played the solo violin part in the piece. Here you can hear the final result:
“JUPITER” premiered at the 19th Zurich Film Festival 2023
The feature film “JUPITER” by Benjamin Pfohl had its world premiere on the 1st of October at the Zurich Film Festival 2023. This sci-fi drama was shown in the category Focus Competition. The audience gave it a lot of applause and asked thoughtful questions. I was happy to see two of the four screenings in Zurich and be part of the Q&A along with the actors, producer and the director.
Since then the movie has been shown on several other festivals and it already won some prizes, e.g.: 28. Sofia International Film Festival – International Competition (WINNER Youth Jury Award); 20. Fantaspoa Porto Alegre – International Competition (WINNER Best Film); 4. Etreum Horror Film Fest (WINNER Best Sci-Fi Film, Best Male Actor). “JUPITER” will come to cinemas in November 2024.
Album “Awakenings” released!
It took some time, but it’s finally done an now I am really excited to share my first orchestral Album “Awakenings” with everybody! It contains 7 tracks recorded by the marvelous German Film Orchestra Babelsberg and is available on all major music streaming services (Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes Store, Deezer, Tidal and many more). I hope you enjoy the acoustical journey it will take you on. Get it via the following link:
The production of this album was only made possible by the friendly support of Neustart Kultur (scholarship), the GEMA, the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg (especially its director Klaus-Peter Beyer), the conductor Christian Köhler and, last but not least, many friends, family members and colleagues who helped me with critical advice, useful mixing tips and motivation during this long period. Thanks a lot to everyone who made this project possible!!!
“None of Us” nominated for Peer Raben Music Award at Soundtrack Cologne
The short animation film “None of Us” by Deniz Zagli is on the short list of the Peer Raben Music Award 2022. This competition is part of the annual film music festival Soundtrack Cologne and awards the best original score for a short film. The winner will be announced after a public screening on June 11th 2022. I am very happy to be the composer for this intense film, that tells the surreal story of a little boy’s circumcision party. There are 8 nominees on the short list from the US, UK, France etc.
“Karlchen und die Elefanten” (“Carl and the Elephants”) has its premiere at DOK Leipzig
At the 27th of October 2021 the animation film “Karlchen und die Elefanten” (“Carl and the Elephants”) by Friedrich Kießling will have its premiere at DOK Leipzig. He is shown four times at this festival and is running in the category Kids DOK. This poetic film tells a story, based on true events, of a young boy in times of the first world war, who is eager to see the elephants of the circus of Dresden. I recorded the music that I wrote for the film entirely with soloists in my new studio.
“Cracks” (“Brüche”) receives prize as “Best Short Film” at Los Angeles Crime & Horror Festival
It’s official since the 3rd of May 2021: the Mystery-Thriller “Cracks” has won the category “Best Short Film” at the Crime and Horror Festival in LA. I am really happy for Andrea Cazzaniga and the whole team of the film, for which I had the opportunity to write the original music. The plot of the film revolves around two young women on a hiking trip, that experience how the border between reality and dream slowly dissolves. This film was the final project of Andrea and me in the Filmuniversity Babelsberg Konrad Wolf and it was a co-production with the German TV station RBB.
“The Lost Wedding Ring” wins the Grand Jury Prize at the film festival Premiers Plans in Angers (France)
Elisabeth Jakobi’s short animation film tells the story of an Iranian women and her husband, who are on a vacation, staying in a hotel. The staff is busy trying to find her lost wedding ring, while she acts apathetic and her husband is distracted by his hobbies. This intense short animation film just won the Grand Jury Prize at the European film festival in Angers in the category animation. I am really happy for Elisabeth Jakobi (director/animator), with which working on the film music was an inspiring and pleasent process.
Finalist in the European Talent Competition 2020
I am really happy to announce, that I am one of 16 finalists in the film music contest European Talent Competition of Soundtrack Cologne 2020. The assignment was to compose a new soundtrack for the short animation film “Dans les Bois”. Contestants could participate in the categories sound design and score. After looking through all of the over 100 submissions, the nominees for the final round at 17th october 2020 in Cologne have been announced. The finale submissions will be shown in a public screening and the winner will be chosen by an expert jury. The competition is an inherent part of Soundtrack Cologne, which is the biggest German film music congress. Originally, Soundtrack Cologne should have taken place in April, but due to the Corona restrictions it was postponed to october 2020.
Master’s degree in film music at the Filmuniversity Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
On 26th March 2020, I passed the final exam of my master’s programme with a grade point average of 1,0. The final presentation was concerned with the topic of my master’s thesis: Western Bunraku – Alexandre Desplats musical approach to Japanese aesthetics in the film ‘Isle of Dogs’. A comparing study of authenticity, clichés and innovation in intercultural music concepts in American-Japanese puppet-stop-motion films. Due to the corona restrictions only two of the three examinants were allowed to be present at my exam presentation. The third professor was connected via skype.
Scholarship Holder at MediaSoundHamburg 2019
I had a really great time in Hamburg at the MediaSound 2019. The MSH is an annual summer school for film music, sound design and games music. It offers a variety of masterclasses, forums, panel discussions and concerts with top-class professionals from the media music industry. I was really happy to be one of the apllicants who were chosen for a scholarship this year. So I had the opportunity to get to know really wonderful and talented composers from all over the world. I attended masterclasses for filmmusic (with Christian Eidnes Andersen, who worked togerther on many projects with Lars von Trier) and orchestration (with Bob Zimmermann, who works as an arranger for the Metropole Orkest for several years now) but also interresting lectures with George Christopoulos (Oticns Agency) about career issues for media composers, Micki Meuser about copyright law in Europe and Elias Struck about Pro Tools. For more information: https://mediasoundhamburg.de/en/
3rd Winner in the International Filmmusic Competition “Oticons Faculty” 2019
I am overhappy that I could get the third place in this top-class competition! The 20 finalists had to send their best works and in the end the deliberation was really hard for the jury. The bronze medal for me means that my music will be presented on an album with the winners music of this year. The date of release and everything else will be announced during the next weeks on Oticons’ web page. This years first winner is John Konsolakis from Greece, followed by Amir Hedayah from Egypt. Congratulations! News regarding Oticons Faculty are available here https://faculty.oticons.com/.
Finalist in the International Filmmusic Competition “Oticons Faculty”
Today great news have reached me: I was chosen to be one of the 20 finalists at the “Oticons Faculty” Competition!
This already means that I am one of the best of 180 participants from all over the world. The composer agency “Oticons” works with such renowned composers as Shigeru Umebayashi, Johnny Klimek or Bobby Tahouri and organizes an international competition every year to find young talented filmcomposers. The special feature about this competition is that the participants don’t have to write music for an existing film or scene, but for 3 filmmusicassignments without any visual aid: a “Main Theme”, a piece solely for strings and one piece that is inspired by a scene, which the composers get as a script.
Now the 20 finalists have to convince the top-class jury with their “best” filmmusicpiece. The winners will enjoy masterclasses and promotion at diefferent international filmmusicevents and festivals. So, the next days will be very exciting for me.
Premiere of “Cleo” at the Berlinale
I had the great honour to assist the renowned Composer Johannes Repka (“Timm Thaler”, “Kriegerin”, “Schmitke”) who wrote the music for this lovely film. The director Erik Schmitt made a visually enchanting film which tells the eventful history of Berlin distilled in one young woman. For Johannes I could orchestrate, organise, prepare, conduct, motivate and so on. The multiple genres that the film required, made us record an orchestra, a brass band, a string quartet, several soloists and even a choir. The result is a truly remarkable score and an excellent film.
Winner of the Competition for Filmmusic and Sounddesign at the Central German Short Film Festival “Kurzsüchtig”
I am really proud to announce that I am the winner of the Competition for Filmmusic and Sounddesign at the “Kurzsüchtig” Festival!
I won a Masterclass with the composer Felix Rösch and a ticket for the “German Filmmusic Days” in Halle.
Finalist in the Competition for Filmmusic and Sounddesign at the Central German Short Film Festival “Kurzsüchtig”
Good news: I’ve beend selected for the finale of the Competition for Filmmusic and Sounddesign. The assignment was to make the sounddesign and music for the 4:30 min long animationfilm “Liebe Sonne” by Franka Sachse and Uli Seis. The presentation of the 8 finalists will take place at 14th April in Leipzig.
“Kurzsüchtig” is the only festival in Central Germany especially for short films. In 2018 it celebrates its 15th anniversary. The Competition for Filmmusic and Sounddesign takes place annually since 2011 and is looking for extraordinary sounds for new films. In the competition music and sounddesign are evaluated equally .
Film festival at Les Arcs (France) from 16th to 19th December, 2017
I had the great pleasure of spending four wonderful and exciting days at Les Arcs. This place, which is only 30 km away from Mont Blanc, is not only a Mecca for friends of alpine skiing, but also an annual meeting place for the european film industry. Along with two composers each from Paris and Lyon I was chosen to take part at the Filmschool Village program of the festival.
