Film and television composers received a dedicated moment in the spotlight at the 26th World Soundtrack Awards ceremony and concert in Ghent on October 10, 2026. The event, associated with Film Fest Gent, celebrated music written for screen and featured the Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Dirk Brossé. Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir was welcomed as guest of honour, reflecting the growing public interest in the people who shape a film’s emotional soundscape.
Music that tells a story without words
A film score can guide attention, create tension, suggest a character’s inner life, or give a scene a sense of scale. Sometimes the audience notices the music immediately; at other times, it works quietly in the background. A few notes can make a familiar image feel threatening, romantic, triumphant, or heartbreaking. That influence is one reason screen composition deserves recognition alongside acting, directing, cinematography, and editing.
Composers face a distinctive creative challenge. They must respond to a story that already has images, dialogue, performances, and a planned rhythm. The music needs to support those elements without overwhelming them. A dramatic scene may require a full orchestral arrangement, while a quiet moment may be stronger with a single instrument or a carefully controlled absence of sound.
From orchestra to experimentation
Screen music has expanded far beyond traditional orchestral writing. Composers use synthesizers, found sounds, processed voices, unusual instruments, and electronic textures to build distinctive sonic worlds. These choices can reflect a film’s setting or atmosphere, but they can also challenge expectations about what a score should sound like.
Hildur Guðnadóttir’s work is often discussed in connection with her ability to combine instrumental performance, texture, and atmosphere. Her career across film, television, and games illustrates how contemporary composers move between different formats. Each medium has its own demands: a film score must fit a fixed edit, a television score may develop over episodes, and game music may need to respond to a player’s changing actions.
Why awards and concerts matter
Screen composers can be less visible than actors and directors, even when their music becomes part of a film’s identity. Awards events and live concerts help audiences connect the sound they remember with the people who created it. Hearing a score performed in a concert hall can also reveal its structure more clearly than hearing it beneath dialogue and sound effects.
A live performance allows listeners to notice the work of different sections, the way themes return, and how musical layers build tension. It may also change the audience’s understanding of a film they have already seen. A melody that seemed simple on screen can reveal intricate orchestration when heard on its own.
Music across film, television, and games
The boundaries between screen formats have become less rigid. Composers may work on a feature film one year, a limited television series the next, and a video game after that. Audiences, meanwhile, listen to soundtracks outside their original context, using them for study, exercise, travel, or relaxation. Music created for a specific story can develop a life of its own.
Games present particularly interesting challenges because the experience is interactive. A composer may need to create music that changes according to location, action, or player decisions. Rather than following a single sequence from beginning to end, the score can be built from layers that combine in different ways. This requires close collaboration between composers, sound designers, and developers.
How listeners can hear a score more closely
Anyone can learn to notice screen music without knowing formal music theory. Watch a scene once with attention to the dialogue, then consider what the music contributes. Does it tell you how to feel, contradict what a character says, or create suspense by withholding a clear melody? Notice whether a theme returns when a character appears, and whether silence makes a moment more powerful.
Listening to a soundtrack separately can reveal patterns that are easy to miss during a film. Repeated themes may change as the story progresses. A sound associated with danger might later become comforting, or a simple motif may grow more complex as a character changes.
Recognising the craft behind the screen
The World Soundtrack Awards underline that entertainment is built by many kinds of creative labour. Composers work with directors, editors, performers, orchestras, engineers, and sound teams to create a unified experience. Their work may be subtle, but it can shape how audiences remember a scene long after the credits end.
By bringing screen music into a concert setting, the awards help listeners hear these compositions as works of craft and imagination in their own right. For audiences who usually focus on the image, it is an invitation to pay closer attention to the sounds that help make stories memorable.
Background: Official 26th World Soundtrack Awards event information for October 10, 2026.
