The 6th annual Composer/Director Roundtable, entitled "Music & Film: The Creative Process," will be held on Wednesday, January 25 from 11am to 1pm at the Sundance House at the Kimball Art Center (638 Park Avenue). The panel is open to festival badge and ticket holders. Tickets are available at sundance.org and at Festival ticket offices.

This year's roundtable will be moderated by BMI's Vice President of Film/TV Relations, Doreen Ringer Ross, and will feature composers Aaron Zigman (Alpha Dog), David Kitay (The Darwin Awards), Stewart Copeland (composer/screenwriter/director Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, Rumblefish), Peter Golub (composer/director Wordplay, Sundance Composers Lab), Mychael Danna (Little Miss Sunshine, Capote), Craig Richey (Friends With Money), David Julyan (The Descent), Anthony Marinelli (Dreamland) and Terence Blanchard (Mo' Better Blues, The 25th Hour, Sundance Composers Lab Advisor), and directors Nick Cassavetes (Alpha Dog), Finn Taylor (director/screenwriter The Darwin Awards), Patrick Creadon (Wordplay), Neil Marshall (director/screenwriter The Descent), Jason Matzner (Dreamland) and Haskell Wexler (director/cinematographer Who Needs Sleep?).

The panel will focus on the role music (both score and source) plays in film, the composer/director relationship, the growing role of documentaries and the art of scoring for that medium, as well as budgets and creative expansion of the form.

The 4th annual BMI Songwriters Snowball will take place later that evening from 6pm to 8:30pm. This acoustic, singer/songwriter showcase, also being held at the Sundance House, is an official 2006 Sundance Film Festival event and is open to festival badge holders, press passes and invited guests only; tickets will not be sold.

Michael Penn	Van Hunt

As part of BMI's goal to focus attention on the role of music in film, this year's Songwriters Snowball will feature four unique artists whose voices and vision complement that of the filmmakers showcased at the Festival. Performers include Southern California singer/songwriter Cary Brothers (Garden State soundtrack) at 6pm, Bedroom Classics/Nettwerk Music Group recording artist Josh Rouse at 6:30pm, Grammy nominee and Capitol Records artist Van Hunt at 7pm, and Mimeograph recording artist Michael Penn at 7:30pm.

Josh Rouse	Cary Brothers

As a 15-year supporter of the Festival's film music program, BMI also plays an active role in the Sundance Composers Lab held each summer at the Sundance Institute.

The Sundance Film Festival is the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent film. Held each January in and around Park City, Utah, the Festival is a core program of Sundance Institute, a nonprofit cultural organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981. Presenting 120 dramatic and documentary feature-length films in seven distinct categories, and 80 short films each year, the Sundance Film Festival has introduced American audiences to some of the most innovative films of the past two decades, including American Splendor, Clerks, Hustle and Flow, Maria Full of Grace, Napoleon Dynamite, sex, lies and videotape, Smoke Signals and Super Size Me. Beyond the streets of Park City, sundance.org shares the Festival experience with a global audience through the streaming of short films, filmmaker interviews, current news and box office information.]]> 2006-01-05T17:00:01-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233960 Artists, Beal, Jeff, Calhoun, Will, Clinton, George S., De Gli Antoni, Mark, Golub, Peter, Julyan, David, Kent, Rolfe, Larson, Nathan, Lynne, Shelby, Moorer, Allison, Smith, B.C., Awards, Musical Styles, Dance, Film-TV Sundance Film Festival for more than 15 years, once again made music in film the hot topic at this year's event. Held in Park City, UT from January 15-25, BMI hosted a number of special events throughout the week including the BMI Songwriters Snowball and the BMI Roundtable entitled "Music & Film, The Creative Process."

Shown at the second annual BMI Songwriters Snowball held during the 2004 Sundance Film Festival are (back row): musician Joan Wasser, BMI's Linda Livingston, Doreen Ringer Ross, Alison Smith, Myles Lewis and Barbara Cane. Front row: BMI's Tracie Verlinde, composer/artist Nathan Larson, artists Nina Persson, Allison Moorer and Shelby Lynne, and composer/artist Will Calhoun.

Since songs are the key element for an outstanding and unforgettable soundtrack, the Songwriters Snowball featured acoustic, intimate performances by some of the most stirring singer/songwriters in contemporary music including Grammy winner Shelby Lynne, Academy Award nominee Allison Moorer, composer Nathan Larson with Nina Persson of the Cardigans, and dj/musician/composer Will Calhoun of Living Colour.

Shown at the BMI Roundtable held during the 2004 Sundance Film Festival are (back row): composer David Julyan ("Momento"), composer George S. Clinton, BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross, composer Rolfe Kent, Sundance Institute/composer Peter Golub, composer Mark de gli Antoni and composer Richard Marvin. Front row: Director Chris Eyre, composer BC Smith, director Jessica Yu, composer Jeff Beal, director Nicole Kassell and composer Nathan Larson. photos: Randall Michaelson

The role of music in independent film and the relationship between composer and director took center stage at the BMI Roundtable. Entitled "Music & Film, The Creative Process," the panel featured BMI's Vice President of Film/TV Music, Doreen Ringer Ross, as the moderator. The impressive list of participants included composers Rolfe Kent ("About Schmidt," "Legally Blonde"), George S. Clinton ("Austin Powers," "The Santa Clause 2"), Nathan Larson ("Boys Don't Cry," "The Woodsman"), Mark de gli Antoni ("Marie & Bruce"); Peter Golub ("The Laramie Project"), Jeff Beal ("Pollack," "In The Realm of the Unreal"), David Julyan ("Memento," "Insomnia") and B.C. Smith ("Smoke Signals," "Edge of America"), as well as filmmakers Jessica Yu ("Breathing Lessons," "In The Realm of the Unreal"), Chris Eyre ("Smoke Signals," "Edge of America") and Nicole Kassell ("The Woodsman").

Through its ongoing support of the Sundance Composers Lab held at the Sundance Institute during the summer and the many events it hosts at the festival and throughout the year, BMI continues to look for new and innovative ways to help enhance the composer and director relationship. Click here for more information on BMI's activities at Sundance.]]> 2004-02-05T17:00:00-05:00 http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233201 Artists, Julyan, David, Musical Styles, Film-TV BMI recently hosted a screening and dinner in honor of composer David Julyan who scored the music for the film Insomnia. Shown at the dinner are BMI's Ray Yee, agents John Tempereau and Cathy Schleussner, Julyan, BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross and agent Charlie Ryan.

Leading the pack are two veterans, Danny Elfman and John Williams, who, between them, have scored four of what are expected to be the biggest-grossing movies of the season.

Elfman, this year's Richard Kirk Award winner for career achievement in film and TV music, is riding the crest of success with a mammoth opening for Spider-Man, the big-screen adaptation of the Marvel Comics classic. Over the July 4th weekend, fans will be treated to his new music for Men in Black 2, the sequel to the 1997 blockbuster that brought Elfman an Oscar nomination for Best Comedy Score.

Williams, a five-time Oscar winner, returns with music for his two favorite collaborators: Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Lucas's Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones marks his fifth score in the legendary "Star Wars" canon, while Spielberg's Minority Report, a Tom Cruise action vehicle, reaches theaters June 21.

Another action-movie veteran and fellow Oscar winner, Jerry Goldsmith, is represented this summer by the new Jack Ryan thriller The Sum of All Fears, due over the Memorial Day weekend. British composer David Arnold - who will be back with his third James Bond thriller, Die Another Day, at Christmastime - has written the music for the latest Jennifer Lopez film, Enough.

David and Thomas Newman, the film-scoring nephews of longtime 20th Century-Fox music chief Lionel Newman - himself an early champion of BMI - have three more movies out this summer. Tom Newman already has out the dark drama The Salton Sea, and will be reunited with his American Beauty collaborator, director Sam Mendes, on the Tom Hanks drama Road to Perdition, due in July. David Newman, who has often worked in animation, returns to that genre in June with the live-action/animation combo Scooby-Doo.

T-Bone Burnett, fresh from his Grammy victory for the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, is collaborating with David Mansfield (Heaven's Gate) on the highly anticipated Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, based on the popular Rebecca Wells novels, also in June.

On the comedic front, look for the latest Adam Sandler movie, Mr. Deeds, with music by Teddy Castellucci, in June, and a third installment of the Austin Powers series, Goldmember, with the usual clever spy music from George S. Clinton, in July.

Newcomer David Julyan has scored the Al Pacino-Robin Williams thriller Insomnia, due in late May. Edward Shearmur, the British composer whose Charlie's Angels and Wings of the Dove scores have helped to put him on the American movie-music map, has scored the post-apocalyptic dragon thriller Reign of Fire, due in July. August will bring XXX, a new film from the Fast and Furious duo of director Rob Cohen and star Vin Diesel, with music by the always-reliable Randy Edelman.