Composers of ‘The Chronology of Water,’ ‘Sirat’ Among World Soundtrack Awards’ Discovery Nominees

The World Soundtrack Awards has a strong track record of spotting emerging composers through its Discovery of the Year prize. Look at the names who have won it before: Gustavo Santaolalla took the honor for 21 Grams before going on to Oscar glory with Brokeback Mountain; Michael Giacchino was recognized for The Incredibles ahead of his Star Trek and Batman work; and Nicholas Britell won for Moonlight before Succession turned him into a household name. In more recent years, Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist) and Jerskin Fendrix (Poor Things) have claimed the award, and both appear headed for careers of similar magnitude. This year, five composers are in contention.

Mari Fukuhara is nominated for Little Amélie or the Character of Rain. She began piano lessons at age three and later studied classical music at Toho Gakuen School of Music, a highly regarded Japanese conservatory, while also performing in jazz and pop groups. Before film entered the picture, she had already established herself as a solo artist. "Looking back, I don't think I followed a straight path toward becoming a composer," she reflects. "Rather, all these different musical experiences naturally led me toward film." In 2020, French producers reached out about licensing one of her existing recordings. Within months, though, she had instead agreed to write an original score for the project that became Little Amélie. Being involved from such an early stage, she says, allowed the relationship between film and music to grow organically. Her central aim was to capture a child's way of seeing and imagining the world, and what reality feels like at such a young age. Fukuhara now hopes to perform live again while taking on work "driven more by images, atmosphere and feeling than by a clear narrative."

Paris Hurley received her nomination for The Chronology of Water. A classically trained violinist from childhood, she first gained attention with her autobiographical live show Object as Subject before transitioning into film. "I'd been told over and over that my music is very cinematic," she says. "It has a forward momentum and a deep emotional core that takes the listener somewhere." After collaborating with Clint Mansell on Love Lies Bleeding, Hurley went after Kristen Stewart's The Chronology of Water independently, propelled by her response to the source memoir. "I read it in a weekend, and my whole body shot through with fire," she remembers. "I immediately knew I was supposed to score the film." That instinct stems from a lifelong belief that music is a physical experience. "Sound is immersive," she says. "I'm always looking to hold people in the sound, whether it's hitting you in the face, inside your ear or all around you."

Hannah Peel, nominated for Midwinter Break, spent her early career as a session musician playing violin, trombone and piano while pursuing film and TV opportunities. When the Royal College of Music deemed her not classical enough for its film music master's program, she forged her own path instead, releasing albums centered on a hand-punched paper-strip music box. That distinctive instrument drew the attention of music advisors on projects including Anna Karenina and Dancing With the Stars. Her score for the 2019 documentary Game of Thrones: The Last Watch earned an Emmy nomination and proper representation, and she has remained in demand ever since, honing a style that occupies the space between acoustic and electronic textures. "It's much more common now for people to create their own sounds, and that blur between sound design and music is where I like to sit," she says. She is currently scoring Netflix's Assassin's Creed series.

Kangding Ray, born David Letellier and nominated for Sirāt, studied architecture before making a name for himself in Berlin's experimental music scene. He released music on Raster-Noton, the German label whose roster has featured Ryoji Ikeda, Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Over time, his ambient and experimental work gravitated toward dance music and, almost naturally, toward film. His first score, for 2022's Kiss My Wounds, caught the attention of German awards voters. Director Oliver Laxe then contacted him about Sirāt, and the collaboration began unusually early: Ray started writing two years before shooting, with Laxe making five-day visits to his Berlin studio. By the time filming got underway, roughly 80% of the score had been composed from the script alone. The final result runs about 62 minutes, concentrated in key scenes. "It's either fully present or not there at all," he says.

Sam Slater, nominated for 2000 Meters to Andriivka, came to film scoring by chance. A self-described "studio nerd" living in Berlin, he started out as a sound designer and creative engineer for Jóhann Jóhannsson, Dustin O'Halloran and Hildur Guðnadóttir, whom he later married. "That catalyzed a love of not only film work but also the experimental underbelly of it, which has always been where my curiosity lies," he says. His work now spans formats, from the Emmy-winning documentary 2000 Meters to Andriivka, directed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mstyslav Chernov, to the PlayStation 5 game Saros, which NME described as "the stuff of nightmares." That range suits him well. "Once you move into non-diegetic sound, an abstract expression of a story or emotion, you've entered a wonderful world," he says. "Our generation wants to expand the palette as much as possible."