Oscar-winning composer Gabriel Yared, whose multiple award-winning credits include the soundscapes for The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain and Betty Blue, will be feted by the Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) this fall.
The Lebanese French composer will be presented with the festival’s Golden Eye for Career Achievement Award during the event’s annual Cinema in Concert Gala on October 1. He will also serve as Jury President for the festival’s 14th International Film Music Competition (IFMC).
“Gabriel Yared belongs among the giants of film music. His compositions evoke profound emotions that linger long after the final note. Since the 1980s, Yared has left an indelible mark on cinema through his extraordinary ability to give the great films of his time a distinctive musical identity,” said ZFF Festival Director Reta Guetg.
“His richly atmospheric scores are shaped by influences from the Middle East, his time in Brazil, and European musical traditions. It is precisely this artistic diversity that makes him a role model for generations of composers. It is a great honour for us to present Gabriel Yared with our Career Achievement Award.”
Born in Beirut in 1949, Yared moved to Paris in the early 1970s, where he studied composition with composers including Henri Dutilleux and Maurice Ohana. From 1973 onwards, he established himself as an arranger and musical director within the French music scene, collaborating with artists such as Jacques Dutronc, Johnny Hallyday, Charles Aznavour and Françoise Hardy.
Yared’s career as a film composer began in 1979 with the scores for Everyman For Himself (Sauve Qui Peut (La Vie)) by Jean-Luc Godard and post-nuclear war tale Malevil by Christian de Chalonge.
He broke through internationally in the 1980s with his score for Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue. Over the following decades, Yared became one of the leading voices in international film music, working with directors such as Jean-Jacques Annaud, Robert Altman and, most notably, Anthony Minghella.
His collaboration with Minghella saw him win an Oscar for his score for The English Patient in 1997, with he work still widely regarded as a landmark achievement in modern film scoring.
Alongside cinema, Yared also composed music for ballet productions at the Paris Opera and the Royal Opera Ballet in London.
His more recent years, he has collaborated with Xavier Dolan on It’s Only The End Of The world and The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, as well as with Angelina Jolie and Rupert Gould. In 2020, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the World Soundtrack Awards during Film Fest Gent.
Yared said of this upcoming honor from the Zurich Film Festival: “I am proud and honored to receive the Career Achievement Award from the Zurich Film Festival, as well as to be invited to be the president of the Jury of the International Film Music Competition, which gives young film composers the opportunity to have their work performed and heard.”
Under the International Film Music Competition, emerging composers are invited to create a new orchestral score for the nine-minute short film The Shyness of Trees by Sofiia Chuikovska, Loïck Du Plessis D’Argentré, Lina Han, Simin He, Jiaxin Huang, Maud Le Bras and Bingqing Shu.
The jury chaired by Yared will select three finalist compositions from all submissions. He is joined in the task by jury members, German conductor and musician Frank Strobel and German actress Martina Gedeck.
These works will receive their world premieres at the Cinema in Concert Gala at Tonhalle Zurich, performed by the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under the direction of Frank Strobel on October 1.
Yared and his jury will select the winning composition on the same evening and present the Golden Eye for “Best International Film Music 2026”, endowed with a CHF 10,000 ($12k) cash prize.
