"Waarom Bleef Je Niet Voor Mij" wins Student Oscar

The film Waarom bleef je niet voor mij? won the Golden Medal at the Student Academy Awards. In this documentary, filmmaker Milou Gevers talks to four young children who have lost one of their parents to suicide. The film has been out for a year now and according to grief experts it has broken taboos. The music was composed by Nikolaï Clavier.

The documentary, which was her final exam for the Dutch Film Academy, was awarded at various international film festivals, but an Oscar is something else, says Gevers. "It is a film with children. Film festivals don't mean much to them, but Oscars do. So this is also very special for the children."

Among the previous awards that this film has won are: The Golden Lion (Cinekid) 2021, CILEC Best Documentary 2021, VPRO Documentary Award 2020, AHK Eindwerkprijs and Audience Prize 2020 and 7 more.

The music can be heard on Spotify under the following link:

https://open.spotify.com/album/05X8DT5qFWkKlQUzPMmO5V?si=DjzSQIbvSBCXUGo4gKhE8A

Blauwe Maandag wins Soundtrack Award

The film score of Blauwe Maandag, recorded with the Arthema String Quartet, has won me the New Talent Award from Buma Music in Motion 2021.

Congratulations to the whole crew and the amazing sound department led by Zita Leemans and Zeno Hehenkamp!

Nominated: Buma Music in Motion - New Talent Award 2021

I just got nominated to one of the most prestigious film music awards in the Netherlands! The New Talent Award of Buma Music in Motion!

For the soundtrack of "Blauwe Maandag", directed by Gregory Samson. Blauwe Maandag is a film by Gregory Samson, about a man who loses his son in a car accident and blames himself for the incident. It is a dark drama about loss, guilt and the burden of shame.

Because it is about an inescapable destiny, I chose to score the whole film in the key of C-minor, using the dark musical language of Nordic Noir. It revolves around a heavy leitmotif which represents the overpowering weight of the protagonist’s emotions. This leitmotif gets repeated throughout the film, always in the same key, to show that he is trapped in his emotions and cannot get out of that loop.

The instrumentation consists of vintage synths, string orchestra, brass and a solo-strings recorded by the Arthema String Quartet.

Thanks to an insane idea from the director, Gregory, we managed to book the chamber hall of Concertgebouw Amsterdam for our string quartet recordings. Two weeks before recording he had the suggestion that we should email the Concertgebouw, since they were closed due to the lockdown, and ask if we could record there for free. It took them 10 days to reply, and I had given up on the idea that we would ever be able to record there, but one day before our scheduled recording they wrote us back with a green light. That’s when I learnt the meaning of the Dutch expression: “Nee heb je, ja kan je krijgen.”

The sound department, with Zita Leemans and Zeno Hehenkamp, did a formidable job in the mixing stage. I think this is the movie where I’ve submitted the most stems! The opening cue has 23 separate stems and each was placed into the 7.1 space very deliberately. Some synth sounds were rotating around the hall at times, and the solo string players, which were recorded with 12 different microphones, were placed around the virtual room – creating an immersive sound. As a result, the cinema experience is quite exceptional.

The soundtrack can be heard on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2k2XLfX3feNnBe8tOjmUPp?si=NOM3pR3sS7-Zt6hBfUO_fg