The Zurich Film Festival is honouring Icelandic cellist, composer and Oscar winner Hildur Guðnadóttir with the Career Achievement Award. The award will be presented to her on 2 October 2025 as part of the International Film Music Competition at the Grosse Tonhalle. She won an Emmy and the title "Television Composer of the Year" at the World Soundtrack Awards for the soundtrack to the HBO series "Chernobyl". For the soundtrack of the film "Joker: Folie à Deux", she was the first solo composer to be honoured with a Golden Globe for Best Original Score and subsequently received an Academy Award and a Grammy. Her work includes numerous film projects such as "A Haunting in Venice" and "Tár".
On this evening, Guðnadóttir will preside over the jury of the International Film Music Competition, where, as every year, three different film scores for a short film will be performed live. In addition, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, conducted by Frank Strobel, will play excerpts from various soundtracks.
In addition to Hildur Guðnadóttir and Frank Strobel, the jury consists of the Swiss-American director Jasmin Gordon and the Swiss composer and musician Balz Bachmann, whose works will also be performed in an orchestral suite.
The International Film Music Competition was launched in 2011 by the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Zurich Film Festival and the Forum Filmmusik and has established itself as a leading international film music event in recent years. Each year, a newly composed jury selects three finalists from hundreds of submissions. The high-calibre jury has already been presided over by big names such as Hans Zimmer, Rachel Portman, Mychael Danna, Don Davis, Herbert Grönemeyer, Volker Bertelmann and Howard Shore.
More information
