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BMI at Sundance 2016

BMI’s longstanding partnership with the Sundance Film Festival continues! From our renowned Composer/Director Roundtable, to our one-of-a-kind Snowball stage, BMI is once again proud to bring you inside news about what’s happening at this incredible gathering of music and film makers. So, stay tuned to this page and enjoy the show!

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Happenings

BMI and Sundance Highlight the Importance of Music in Film at Composer/Director Roundtable

Pictured (L-R) at BMI’s 18th annual Sundance Film Festival composer/director roundtable on Monday, January 25 are (front row): composer Atli Orvarsson, composer Walter Werzowa, and director Jeff Feuerzeig. (middle row) director Roger Ross-Williams, composer Miriam Cutler, composer T. Griffin, director Steven Caple, Jr., composer Jongnic Bontemps, composer Kris Bowers, director Heidi Ewing, BMI Vice President, Film/TV Relations, Doreen Ringer-Ross, composer/director Gingger Shankar, composer Mark Suozzo, director Whit Stillman, and composer Peter Golub. (back row) director Chad Hartigan, composer Keegan DeWitt, composer Fil Eisler, composer Blake Neely, composer George S. Clinton and director Grimur Hakonarson.
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BMI’s Snowball Showcase Lights Up Sundance Film Festival 2016

Pictured: Family of the Year at BMI Snowball
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BMI Snowball

Wednesday, Jan 27. Details...


BMI Celebrates Music at 2016 Sundance Film Festival With Annual Dinner at Zoom


Pictured (L-R) at BMI’s annual Sundance dinner at Zoom on Tuesday, January 26 are: musician Mark Barden; director Kim A. Snyder; BMI Vice President, Film/TV Relations, Doreen Ringer-Ross; and composers George S. Clinton and Peter Rotter.
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Profiles

Roundtable Composers & Directors

Peter Golub, Director of the Sundance Film Music Program

Peter Golub has been director of the Sundance Film Music Program since 2000, where he runs the yearly Composers Lab, an intensive workshop for aspiring film composers. He also serves on the Board of the American Music Center. Along with composing numerous concert works and ballets, his film scores include Frozen River, The Great Debaters, Wordplay and The Laramie Project, while recent scores for Broadway include The Heiress, The Country House, and Time Stands Still. Golub was awarded the Classic Contribution Award by BMI and a 2008 Vision Award. He is also the recipient of a Charles Ives Scholarship (given by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters) as well as grants from the National Endowment of the Arts (Opera/Musical Theater Program), Meet-the-Composer, and New York Foundation for the Arts.

Blake Neely, Sundance Composers Lab Advisor

Blake Neely is an award-winning composer, whose work spans both film and television. He has received three Emmy Award nominations for his scores to ABC’s Pan Am, the acclaimed HBO mini-series The Pacific, and for his main title theme from the series Everwood. His film, The Case Against 8, premiered at the Sundance Festival in 2014, and won the Directing Award for U.S. Documentary. In television, he is currently scoring CBS’s Supergirl, NBC’s Blindspot and the CW’s Arrow, The Flash, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. He is also working on a documentary about tennis star, Serena Williams.

Neely has worked as a co-composer, conductor, and orchestrator with such masters as Michael Kamen, Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, and Vangelis. He has also been a featured lecturer and adviser at the Sundance Institute Composers Lab, USC, Columbia College, UCLA, Hollywood Music Workshop Vienna, and the Conservatory of Music Puerto Rico.

George S. Clinton, Sundance Composers Lab Advisor

George S. Clinton is an award-winning film composer who has scored more than 100 films, including the Austin Powers’ movies, Mortal Kombat 1 and 2, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, The Santa Clause 2 and 3, Wild Things, John Water’s A Dirty Shame, and Cheech and Chong’s Still Smokin’ and The Corsican Brothers. He began his career as a songwriter, arranger, and session musician in Nashville. After moving to LA, Clinton became a staff writer for Warner Bros. Music with songs recorded by artists including Michael Jackson, Joe Cocker and Styx. Clinton has received GRAMMY and Emmy nominations, The SCL’s Ambassador Award, nine BMI Film Music Awards, and is the recipient of BMI’s highest honor — The Icon Award for outstanding career achievement. He has mentored young composers at the Sundance Institute’s Composers Labs for more than a decade and was most recently Chair of Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music. He currently resides in LA where he continues to do what he loves the most, scoring films.

Miriam Cutler, Sundance Composers Lab Advisor

Emmy-nominated composer Miriam Cutler is passionate about scoring documentaries, including Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated films The Hunting Ground, Ethel, Lost In La Mancha, Thin, Poster Girl, Kings Point, Ghosts Of Abu Ghraib, American Promise, Vito, Scouts Honor, and License To Kill. She has also co-produced and scored One Lucky Elephant. As for her work in the studio, Cutler has co-produced two GRAMMY-nominated live jazz albums on PolyGram/Verve for Joe Williams, as well as albums for Nina Simone, Shirley Horn, and Marlena Shaw, in addition to albums of her own music. Beyond these musical projects, Cutler has served as Lab Advisor for the Sundance Institute Documentary Composers Lab, as well as on documentary juries including Sundance, Independent Spirit and IDA Awards. An AMPAS Documentary Branch member, Cutler is also a longtime board member of the Society of Composers and Lyricists, and a film expert for the USC/US State Department’s American Film Showcase.

Kris Bowers, Composer

Pianist and film composer Kris Bowers has recorded and/or performed with artists such as Q-Tip, Aretha Franklin, Marcus Miller, Jay-Z, and Kanye West. He has also scored a diverse range of films including, Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, Seeds of Time, Play it Forward, Kobe Bryant’s Muse, I Am Giant: Victor Cruz, Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, as well as an upcoming feature film from director Rob Meyer and executive producer Cary Fukunaga. Most recently, Bowers was one of six composers to participate in the Sundance Film Composers Lab at Skywalker Sound. As a performing artist, Bowers won the coveted Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition in 2011. In 2013, he became a Steinway Artist, and in 2014, with his debut album (Heroes + Misfits), he was named one of twelve “Artists to Watch” by iTunes.

Heidi Ewing, Director

Heidi Ewing is the co-director of Oscar nominated Jesus Camp (Magnolia/A&E Indie), a visceral look at America's Evangelical community. Originally from Detroit, Ewing is also the co-director of Detropia, (a 2012 Sundance and Emmy winner), a searing exploration of the rise and fall of her home town. Other works include The Boys of Baraka (PBS, ThinkFilm, Emmy nominee) and 12th & Delaware (HBO, Peabody winner). She is currently at work on The Arrivals, about two successful Mexican immigrants searching for a path to legalization. She and Rachel Grady are also in production on a new documentary film for Netflix Originals focusing on New York’s Hasidic community. Ewing is the co-owner of New York’s Loki Films.

Life, Animated Saturday, January 23

T. Griffin, Composer

T. Griffin is a composer, songwriter and producer based in Brooklyn, New York. He has composed scores for more than 30 feature length films, as well as dozens of live and multimedia projects. In addition to his work as a solo artist, he has also worked as a player and/or producer with luminaries of the independent music world including Patti Smith, Vic Chesnutt, Mary Margaret O'Hara and members of The Ex, Dirty Three, Fugazi and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. A fellow at the Sundance Composers' Lab in 2008, Griffin has twice been nominated for Cinema Eye Honors for Original Music Score.

Roger Ross Williams, Director

Winner of the 2010 Academy Award for his documentary short subject called Music by Prudence, Roger Ross Williams’ last feature, God Loves Uganda, premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, won more than a dozen awards, and was short-listed for a 2014 Academy Award. His current film, Life Animated, will premiere in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Williams currently serves on the alumni board of the Sundance Institute and divides his time between New York and Amsterdam.

Newtown Sunday, January 24

Fil Eisler, Composer

Fil Eisler faithfully composes music that embodies both story and character. Known for his signature themes and inventive dramatic solutions, his work can be heard on the upcoming films How To Be Single (starring Dakota Johnson and Rebel Wilson), CHiPs (starring and directed by Dax Shepard) and scifi/thriller feature The Titan, (starring Sam Worthington and Taylor Schilling.) He also continues to serve as composer on Fox’s hit drama series Empire and Showtime's Emmy-winning Shameless, as well as the critically lauded series UnReal. Eisler returns to the 2016 Sundance Film Festival with the documentary Newtown, for which he composed the main title theme and acted as music director, assembling an all-star line-up of more than a dozen Hollywood composers, who each donated a piece of music for the film.

Kim A. Snyder, Director

Director/producer Kim A. Snyder’s award-winning directorial debut feature documentary about chronic fatigue syndrome, I Remember Me, was theatrically distributed by Zeitgeist Films in 2000. Her most recent film, Welcome To Shelbyville was nationally broadcast on PBS's Independent Lens in 2011. Her impressive resume, which is also comprised of more than a dozen short documentaries, includes her most recent short, Duke Riley Goes to China, which premiered at the Palm Springs Int’l Shortfest in 2015. In 1994, Snyder associate produced the Academy Award-winning short film Trevor, directed by Peggy Rajski.

Author: The JT LeRoy Story Friday, January 22

Walter Werzowa, Composer

Austrian born composer Walter Werzowa has been expanding a vision of creating music that is at once unique, dynamic and memorable. Drawing upon a liberal arts education that includes architecture and music, he has built a vast array of compositions for film and television, while becoming a maverick of Audio Branding. Since beginning his career, Werzowa has worked with Fortune 500 companies and top Hollywood film studios and producers, as well as international conglomerates. Current projects include extensive research and development on the use of music therapy in the healing process at USC Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. In addition, Werzowa has grown his one-man shop into Musikvergnuegen, a state-of-the-art boutique sound house located in the heart of LA. With assistance from an in-house team of composers, sound designers and network of freelancers, Musikvergnuegen has been providing original music and sound design for film, television, and commercials for more than a decade.

Jeff Feuerzeig, Director

Jeff Feuerzeig is an award-winning director whose feature film The Devil and Daniel Johnston won top documentary directing honors at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. The film is a portrait of a schizophrenic musician who overcomes his private demons to develop an avid international following. In addition to this compelling work, Feuerzeig also directed The Real Rocky, a one-hour special for ESPN Films’ acclaimed 30 for 30 Series, which views the story of professional boxer Chuck Wepner through the documentary lens.

Morris from America Friday, January 22

Keegan DeWitt, Composer

Over the past 4 years, Keegan DeWitt has brought eight films to the Sundance Film Festival. His recent collaborations have gone on to garner an Academy Award, a Sundance Audience Award, three NY Times Critic’s Picks and an Independent Spirit Award. From the disintegrated orchestral operas of This Is Martin Bonner to the NY-drenched live jazz arrangements of Listen Up Philip and the urgent and touching Life According To Sam to the 80’s buddy comedy of Land Ho, DeWitt has built a name as a chameleon-like voice for the definitive characters and directors of the films he tackles. Raised in Portland, Oregon, DeWitt attended SUNY Purchase for film direction, before transferring to the Atlantic Theater Company Acting Conservatory where he completed the two year professional program. He has premiered at SXSW and LA Film Fest, as well as many other international film festivals, collaborating with close friends Aaron Katz, Chad Hartigan and Alex Ross Perry. In parallel to his work as a composer, DeWitt is the lead singer and songwriter of the band Wild Cub.

Chad Hartigan, Director

Chad Hartigan was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, and attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking. His first feature as writer/director, Luke and Brie Are On A First Date, premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival in 2008, and was remade for Latin American audiences in 2013 as Luna En Leo. His second feature, This Is Martin Bonner, premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best of NEXT. The film then went on to also win the John Cassavetes Award at the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Morris From America is Hartigan’s third feature.

Nari Sunday, January 24

Gingger Shankar, Composer & Director

Gingger Shankar is a singer, composer and the only woman in the world to play the double violin, an instrument that covers the entire orchestral range. In addition to being a guest performer on Katy Perry's last album, Prism, Shankar has also toured with the Smashing Pumpkins, and composed music for films including Passion of the Christ and Sundance Award Winner Circumstance. She is at Sundance this year with a new multimedia project, Nari, which is about the women in the Shankar family.

The Land Tuesday, January 26

Jongnic Bontemps, Composer

Jongnic Bontemps, aka “JB,” is a classically trained composer with roots in the church and jazz worlds as a pianist. Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, he studied music at Yale, Berklee and the University of Southern California and has composed music for more than 50 projects spanning film, television and video games. Working alongside some of Hollywood’s biggest film composers including Alan Silvestri, Alexandre Desplat, Bruce Broughton, Christophe Beck, Marco Beltrami and Theodore Shapiro, JB has real-life experience in scoring for studio features as well as independent films.

Steven Caple Jr., Director

Cleveland, Ohio-native Steven Caple Jr. is an award-winning storyteller and filmmaker. In 2013, HBO bought and aired his USC short film, A Different Tree, which won the Jury Prize for the Director’s Guild of America, as well as the Short Film Competition at the American Black Film Festival, and the Audience Choice award at NBC’s Shortcuts and the One Lens Film Festival. Since then, HBO selected Caple to direct a one-act stage comedy in New York during their inaugural HBO Character and Scene Studio. Earning his B.A in Marketing and Film Studies, Caple attended Baldwin-Wallace College and immediately after decided to enhance his craft by enrolling into the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts in 2011.

Love and Friendship Saturday, January 23

Mark Suozzo, Composer

Mark Suozzo composes music for feature films and documentaries, working alongside many noted independent filmmakers. His long collaboration with Whit Stillman began with Metropolitan and continues through this year’s Sundance debut of Love and Friendship. He’s also scored Shari Springer-Berman and Bob Pulcini’s American Splendor (Sundance Grand Jury Prize), as well as Mary Harron’s The Notorious Bettie Page. His documentaries include Sundance films Thank You and Goodnight, Sound and Fury, Why Can’t We Be a Family Again, and Well-Founded Fear. Suozzo is an Associate Professor of Film Scoring at NYU/Steinhardt.

Whit Stillman, Director

Whit Stillman was born in Washington, D.C., attended Harvard and worked in book and magazine publishing, as well as the Spanish film industry, prior to making his first film, Metropolitan (Sundance 1990). His new film Love & Friendship, debuts at this year's festival. His other films as writer-director include Barcelona, The Last Days of Disco, and Damsels in Distress, as well as the pilot for The Cosmopolitans. His first novel, The Last Days of Disco, won the 2014 Prix Fitzgerald.

Rams Friday, January 22

Atli Örvarsson, Composer

Growing up in the small town of Akureyri, Iceland, as the son of two musicians, Atli Örvarsson studied music and became a member of one of the country’s most popular bands: Sálin hans Jóns míns. Leaving behind the concert stage, he left Iceland for Berklee College of Music where he fell in love with the alchemy of writing music for films. Continuing in a Master’s program at UNC School of the Arts, Örvarsson earned BMI’s Pete Carpenter fellowship, and met and worked with famed television composer Mike Post. After completing his studies, Örvarsson moved to LA where he scored his first feature film, Stuart Little 3. His breakout year came three years later with the release of Vantage Point and Babylon A.D., earning him both a Discovery of the Year nomination from the World Soundtrack Awards and a Breakthrough Composer of the Year nomination from the IFMCA. From 2010-2011, Örvarsson picked up the Law & Order mantle from his mentor, Post, composing the music for the short-lived series Law & Order: L.A. His relationship with Dick Wolf Productions continues with three current NBC series: Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D. and Chicago Med. In addition to these projects, he continues to compose for films including The Eagle, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones, Colette and, from Iceland to Hollywood and back to where it all started, with Rams - winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Grímur Hákonarson, Director

The Icelandic director Grímur Hákonarson, born in 1977, graduated from FAMU (Film Academy of Performing Arts) in Prague in 2004. His graduate film, Slavek The Shit, was the first film that garnered him international attention by being selected to the Cinéfondation section of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. The film also won 12 festival prizes, including the Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival. His next short film, Wrestling, which premiered at the 2007 Locarno Film Festival, is one of the most successful short films from Iceland, having won 25 festival prizes around the world.

Catch Them at the Snowball

KT Tunstall

Scottish singer/songwriter KT Tunstall has led a musical career marked by exploration and authenticity. Propelled, in her teens, by loves for David Bowie and Ella Fitzgerald, she taught herself how to play guitar and write songs, eventually honing her chops until landing a record deal and releasing a feisty, original first album, Eye to the Telescope in 2006. In the wake that promising debut, Tunstall, frustrated by conventional pop, started to experiment with her music, while retaining her signature gritty voice and emotionally affecting songwriting. Subsequent albums found her alternately stripping down her production and dabbling with glossy sheen, but her ambitious textures have never diluted her gift for memorable songwriting. Her most recent album, 2013’s Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon found her giving her deeply personal songs a wider palette of instrumentation, fueled by introspection. After four studio albums, a GRAMMY nomination, an award for Best Track from Q Magazine for her single “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree,” an Ivor Novello award for her single “Suddenly I See” and a Brit award for Best British Female Artist, Tunstall continues to follow her distinctive muse, and intends to release a new album this year.

Family of the Year

Weaving together acoustic strums, vocal harmonies and textured melodies, Los Angeles’ Family of the Year made their first major splash in 2012 with “Hero,” a rousing anthem that found its way into Richard Linklater’s acclaimed Boyhood and became an international hit. Buoyed by that success and the wider audience, Family of the Year crafted their sophomore eponymous album, released in 2015, which came rife with classic California pop elements like resonant acoustic melodies, infectious, summery hooks and heartfelt harmonies, proving that “Hero” was no fluke.

Alexander Jean

The merging of the talents of singer/songwriter BC Jean and guitarist/producer/songwriter Mark Ballas, Alexander Jean is a versatile indie pop duo that is following its own restless heart. Steeped in soaring harmonies and distinctive instrumentation, their debut single, “Roses and Violets,” hit #1 on the iTunes singers/songwriter chart after landing in an episode of Dancing With the Stars, and continues to chart in the Top 20 on Billboard’s Bubbling Under Hot 100. Although already seasoned music creators prior to this project (Beyonce recorded one of BC Jean’s songs, which became of the most played songs of 2009, and Ballas is a musical prodigy, having attended the world-renowned Italia Conti Academy of Performing Arts), Alexander Jean brings to fruition the multi-faceted pair’s gifts. Alexander Jean is expected to release an EP later this year.

Drew Holcomb

Since releasing his first album, 2005’s Washed In Blue, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Drew Holcomb has established himself as a formidable indie artist, selling more than 100,000 records, playing more than 1,500 live dates, selling-out headline shows, and touring alongside such varied acts as the Avett Brothers, Ryan Adams, Los Lobos, NEEDTOBREATHE, Susan Tedeschi, North Mississippi Allstars, Marc Broussard, and many others. His songs have been used in countless television shows and commercials, most notably in TNT’s Emmy Award winning 2011 Christmas Day NBA Forever spot, which paired the song “Live Forever” with a mesmerizing montage of past and present NBA video footage.