The TV shows Succession, Andor and The Underground Railroad. The movies Moonlight, Don’t Look Up and The Big Short. And the list goes on. Few composers, if any, have made a bigger mark on 21st century screen entertainment than Nicholas Britell. In recognition of his prodigious achievements, the 44-year-old Emmy winner and Oscar and Grammy nominee will be honored by the Virginia Film Festival with its Achievement in Film Composition Award on Friday, Oct. 24, immediately following a screening of the latest film that he scored, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, and a live recording of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast with yours truly, at the Paramount Theater.
“We are honored and thrilled to welcome Nicholas Britell to the Virginia Film Festival,” Ilya Tovbis, the fest’s artistic director, said in a statement. “His groundbreaking compositions and scores have deepened and enriched our experience of such seminal works as Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, Adam McKay’s The Big Short, and of course Succession. Britell is one of the most important, innovative, and daring musicians working in cinema today, and his collaboration with Noah Baumbach on Jay Kelly is another stellar example of the moving and affecting sound that we’ve come to love and expect from this treasure of American music.”
The fest, a program of the University of Virginia, also shared with THR the full lineup for its 38th edition, which will take place Oct. 22-26 in Charlottesville. The fest’s opening night film will be Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere; its centerpiece film will be Train Dreams; and its closing night film will be Rental Family. Other high-profile screenings, in addition to Jay Kelly, will include Christy, Frankenstein, La Grazia, Hamnet, Hedda, It Was Just an Accident, Left-Handed Girl, No Other Choice, Nouvelle Vague, A Private Life, The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value.
In addition to Britell, other prominent members of the film community who are set to attend the fest include production designer Cara Brower (Hedda, who will receive the Craft Award for Production Design); actor Miles Caton (Sinners), who will receive the Achievement in Film Music Award; actor/writer/director Jay Duplass (The Baltimorons), who, with his collaborator Michael Strassner, will receive the Achievement in Screenwriting Award; casting director Alexa Fogel; actor Ben Foster (Christy), who will receive the Achievement in Acting Award; writer/director Hikari (Rental Family); TCM host Ben Mankiewicz; and writer/producer/executive James Schamus, who will receive the Impresario Award.