Practical Info

Venue: Casino Luxembourg
Promoter: Rocklab

Doors: 18:30

About

Music is a powerful storytelling tool that amplifies emotions, builds tension, and drives the narrative in film. In this session, we’ll explore the multifaceted role of music in cinema and dive into the creative processes behind it. Our panelists will discuss how composers and filmmakers work together to create unforgettable cinematic experiences, while also sharing insights into their individual career journeys.

Speakers:

Sophie Balbeur (composer-songwriter):
Sophie Balbeur was born and raised in Luxembourg. From a very young age, she developed an unconditional love for music and films, but her ‘academic’ attempt quickly ended in a definitive ‘no’: at 7 years old, her solfège teacher advised her to quit because the child was too ‘distracted.’

In her mind, music would therefore be without rules, without scores or dictates. Her tools would be the heart and the ear. Her compositions were unanimously created instinctively:
‘Audiotaught’! This is how she defines herself.

As an ‘adult,’ she went to Brussels to study art.
She is the founder of two ‘indie’ music groups: Legopaty and joli cœur, which led her to meet many artists and perform on European stages during the early 2000s.

Little by little, she began composing music for films, documentaries, and TV series (notably Pandore by directors Vania Leturcq and Savina Dellicour).
For her, film composers are the unsung heroes: images in cinema are the light, but music… it’s the vibrations, what can’t be seen but is felt.

Kyan Bayani (music composer & sound artist):
Kyan Bayani is a composer and sound artist currently living and working in Berlin and Luxembourg. He has composed music for a variety of projects including films, documentaries, dance choreographies, theatre plays and TV series. As a sound artist he created multichannel sound installations and sound objects. He graduated from the University of the Arts Berlin where he studied with artists such as Sam Auinger, Robert Henke and Hans Peter Kuhn.

Having worked on projects in cities around Europe, Japan and South Korea, the primary focus of his work is the relationship between sound and the different architectural or emotional spaces it can occupy. His compositions are comprised of everyday sounds, field recordings and traditional instruments combined to inhabit the same auditory spaces.

André Dziezuk (music composer):
André Dziezuk is a Franco-Luxembourgish classically trained musician who studied in the conservatory and the university of musicology in Metz. Driven by an insatiable curiosity, André Dziezuk explored a wide variety of different styles (classical music, jazz, electro, rock) before launching into film music in 1999 with A LOVE AFFAIR (F. Fonteyne).

Since then he has composed the original scores for over 30 feature films, including ILLÉGAL, EGON SCHIELE, COLONIA, TEL AVIV on FIRE and LOST BULLET.

His compositions combine elements of orchestral, acoustic, electronic, and synthesised genres, developing distinctive and immersive musical scores.

His score for TEL AVIV on FIRE was awarded “Best Music” at the Cinemed Festival in 2018. He received the Luxembourgish Filmpraïs for “Best Music” in 2021 (TEL AVIV ON FIRE) and 2023 (ICARE).

André currently teaches computer music at the music school of Dudelange.

Daniel Offermann (music composer, producer & multi-instrumentalist in Girls in Hawaii):
Belgian composer Daniel Offermann crafts bold sonic signatures for ambitious storytelling, seamlessly blending pop aesthetics, traditional arrangements, and contemporary sound design.

For the international Netflix series THE COYOTES, a Belgian-Luxembourgish co-production directed by Gary Seghers and Jacques Molitor, Daniel gained recognition for his unconventional score, which enriched the series’ atmosphere by drawing inspiration from dusty vinyl records and vintage analog synth sounds.

For Jacques Molitor’s feature film WOLFKIN (aka KOMMUNIOUN) Daniel’s atmospheric and orchestral score featured the brilliant cellist Claire Goldfarb. This second collaboration with the Luxembourgish director, earned praise at international festivals and was awarded Best Movie at the 2024 Luxembourg Film Festival.

Daniel scored the 3-part documentary series ARCHIBELGES, a joint production of major Belgian TV networks Canvas and RTBF. This third collaboration with the Belgian director and shortlisted Oscar candidate Olivier Magis featured a quirky score that incorporated typical Belgian surrealist humor. Daniel’s music was also featured in the Farrelly Brothers comedy HALL PASS (starring Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, and Christina Applegate).

Among his latest accomplished works are MEURTRE A TOURNAI the first Belgian Edition of the hugely successful French TV feature series, the dramatic crime series ARCANE by Michèle Jacob and the Belgian kids’ series BAN.

Outside of his film endeavors, Daniel has toured internationally and earned multiple awards as a music producer, co-composer and multi-instrumentalist for the iconic indie pop band GIRLS IN HAWAII. He has also produced music for numerous theatre shows and immersive expositions at various European museums.

Based in the German-speaking Community of Belgium, Daniel resides with his family amidst the picturesque countryside between Brussels, Cologne, Maastricht, and Luxembourg.

Daniel studied Applied Communications and Sociocultural Activities. He speaks German, French, English, and Dutch, and holds a Master’s degree in Applied Communication Studies and Sociocultural Activities. He’s also an environmental activist, a lousy but enthusiastic pétanque player, and hosts a radio show called „The holy Bim Bäm“.

Member of the World Soundtrack Academy and the Belgian Screen Composers Guild, he is considered eligible in both Luxemburg and Belgium for production tax credit purposes. (Tax Shelter, WBI, FilmFundLux)

Panel Moderator:

Jeff Schinker (writer, playwright and journalist):

Jeff Schinker (1985) is a writer, playwright and journalist from Luxembourg. He was the 2023 laureate of the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin residency for his upcoming novel, Asphyxie. His most recent books Sabotage and Ma vie sous les tentes, currently being adapted for stage at Théâtre du Centaure, were shortlisted for the prix Servais and the European Prize for Literature. His plays, often multilingual, have a stronger emphasis on political topics than his prose works. He is currently working on a trilogy that highlights groups frequently rejected by Luxembourg society. The first play, PatrIdiot, explored structural racism while the second, Ham, Fritten an Zalot, about persistent depression and suicide in a country that is materially wealthy, is still a work in progress. In parallel, he is also toiling away at his first full-length feature film, Loftbuerg, written jointly with director Anne Simon and produced by AMOUR FOU. He has led the cultural resort of Tageblatt before becoming cultural coordinator at radio 100,7, where he specializes as a literary, theatre, and film critic.

In collaboration with: