Composers

NAINITA DESAI

HESHAM NAZIH

THEODORE SHAPIRO

CHRISTOPHER WILLIS

MODERATED BY KAYA SAVAS (Film.Music.Media)

Screening Link available upon Registration

YouTube Live Stream Q&A

Tuesday, August 16, 2:00PM (PT)

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible (Nainita Desai)

14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible explores Nepal’s deep connection to high-altitude mountaineering through the eyes of Nirmal “Nimsdai” Purja, a fearless, fun-loving Nepali climber on a quest he dubs “Project Possible”—to summit all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter mountains in just seven months, breaking the previous record of seven years. With a team of skilled Sherpas, he traverses Mount Everest, K2, and other iconic peaks through extreme weather, life-or-death decisions, and the emotional weight of his mother’s illness back home. 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible is a thrilling, action-packed story about courage, perseverance, and pushing the limits of human endurance.

TV-MA | 101mins

Moon Knight (Hesham Nazih)

When Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee, becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life, he discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the powerful gods of Egypt.

TV-14 | 45mins

Severance (Theodore Shapiro)

From director and executive producer Ben Stiller and creator Dan Erickson comes Severance. Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in “work-life balance” is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work…and of himself.

TV-MA | 55mins

Schmigadoon! (Christopher Willis)

A parody of iconic musicals, Schmigadoon! is a new musical comedy series executive produced by Lorne Michaels and starring Emmy Award nominee Cecily Strong and Emmy Award winner Keegan-Michael Key as a couple on a backpacking trip designed to reinvigorate their relationship when they discover a magical town in which everyone is living in a studio musical from the 1940s. They then discover that they can’t leave until they find “true love.”

TV-14 | 30mins

Nainita Desai is a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit & 2x Emmy-nominated composer who was described by Empire Magazine as one of the Top 5 Composers to Watch for in 2022 and was included in leading UK film critic Mark Kermode’s Top 3 Film Scores of 2021. Most recently, Nainita earned Emmy, HMMA, and ASCAP Composer Choice nominations for her score to 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible. Additionally, throughout her career, she has received an RTS Award and World Soundtrack Award as well as 2x BIFA and Ivor Novello nominations.

Her other scores include Body Parts, which premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, the Oscar-nominated For Sama, Sundance and multi-award-winning feature The Reason I Jump, BBC drama series Unprecedented, BAFTA-nominated Netflix doc American Murder, The Tower, The Story Of Us, as well as Interactive film/video game Telling Lies. Upcoming drama series include Crossfire, Funny Woman, Earthsounds, and Predators as well as video games The Teacher and Immortality.

Hesham Nazih is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated Egyptian composer best known for his unique style that interweaves a mix of melodies from different cultures, creating an authentic genre all his own. He has scored over 40 award-winning films that have dominated the Egyptian box office such as director Marwan Hamed’s musically-intense horror features Blue Elephant and Blue Elephant: Dark Whispers, as well as director Tarek Alarian’s Sons of Rizk 1-2, his breakthrough score for Snakes and Ladders, as well as Marwan Hamed’s Ibrahim Labyad. Nazih marked his first major English language project with his Emmy-nominated score for Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight on Disney+, for which he was also invited to become a member of The Television Academy. He has also composed for critically acclaimed Egyptian television works including The Seven Commandments and Shahid’s first original Egyptian series Every Week Has a Friday, which earned Egypt its first-ever International Emmy nomination.

Among Nazih’s other most notable works, he earned both international attention and acclaim for his original music and songs written for the lavish live production The Pharaohs’ Golden Parade in 2021, and he is the first and only composer to ever receive the honorary Faten Hamama Excellence Award from the 2018 Cairo International Film Festival.

Theodore Shapiro is an American composer. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from Brown University in 1993, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in music composition from the Juilliard School in 1995. He is best known for his film scores, ranging from comedies The Devil Wears Prada, Tropic Thunder, Spy, and Idiocracy, to dramas such as Bombshell, Destroyer, Trumbo, and The Eyes of Tammy Faye. He was nominated for an Emmy for his score to Game Change.

Christopher Willis is a composer and songwriter. He attended Clare College at Cambridge University, earning a Ph.D. in Musicology, and he trained as a concert pianist at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

He is the recipient of multiple honors from the International Film Music Critics Association for his scores to The Death of Stalin and The Personal History of David Copperfield. Both films won Best Original Score for a Comedy Film in their respective years, and Copperfield was named 2020’s Film Score of the Year. His TV work includes HBO’s Veep, Disney Junior’s The Lion Guard, and the much-loved Disney Mickey Mouse shorts. For the latter, he is a five-time Annie Award winner and a two-time Emmy nominee. Christopher composed the soundtrack for the Walt Disney World ride-through attraction Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. The ride centers around “Nothing Can Stop Us Now,” an original song co-written with his wife and songwriting partner, Elyse Willis. Recent projects include The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse on Disney+; Apple TV+’s musical comedy Schmigadoon!; and Netflix’s interactive cartoon Cat Burglar, from the creators of Black Mirror.

*** IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ ***

FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Tuesday, August 16, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

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