The awards ceremony for the 10th Harpa Awards will be held February 24, 2020 during the Nordic Film Music Days in Berlin.

This year’s five nominees are Denmark’s Kåre Bjerkø for the TV series The Truth Will Out (Det som göms i snö), Finland’s Panu Aaltio for the documentary Nature Symphony (Luontosinfonia), Iceland’s Gyða Valtýsdóttir for the film Mihkel, Norway’s Gaute Storaas for the Swedish series A Wedding, Funeral and a Christening (Bröllup, Begravning och Dop), and Sweden’s Anders Niska & Klas Wahl for the documentary Balloons over Babylon.

  • Kåre Bjerkø is one of Denmark’s most prominent film and media composers. In 2009 he received a Bodil Special award for the music of Søren Kragh-Jacobsen’s What No One Knows, Henrik Ruben Genz’s Terribly Happy and Annette K. Olesen’s Little Soldier. He also won a Valladolid Best Music award in 2008 for Terribly Happy and was Robert nominated in 2018 for Genz’s latest film Word of God.
  • Panu Aaltio is one of Finland’s most prolific film composers. He won two International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) Awards for the documentary hits Tale of Forest (2012) and Tale of a Lake (2016). For the latter film, he also picked up a local Jussi award. Nature Symphony was his third film produced by MRP Matila Röhr Productions. Aaltio has also composed the score for TV series, video games, and a full-length ballet for the Finnish National Opera
  • Gyða Valtýsdóttir has been an active musician since her early teens as founding member of the experimental pop-group múm. Classically trained, she has made music for films, installations and dance. She won this year’s prestigious Nordic Council Music Prize.
  • Gaute Storaas is a jazz musician and composer. For the last 20 years, he has written orchestral music for film and television. He won two Kosmorama-Kanon awards for the animated film Elias and the Treasure of the Sea (2010) and The Last King (2016), as well as a Crystal Pine award from the International Sound and Music Film Festival for the Academy award-nominated film A Man Called Ove.

  • Anders Niska & Klas Wahl have collaborated on numerous films and TV series including Daniel Alfredson’s Dear Agnes, the Viaplay series Rig 45 and Swedish Dicks. Niska started as a saxophone and bassoon player. He has also composed and arranged works for all leading Swedish Orchestras. Wahl is a composer and producer. He co-wrote and produced Victoria Beckham’s Let your head go (#1 single UK chart) and worked with Stonebridge on Put em high (#7 in the UK.)  

The winner of HARPA Nordic Film Composers Award 2020 will be selected by an international jury consisting of Davíð Þór Jónsson, (film composer, Iceland), Christine Aufderhaar (film composer, Switzerland), Annette Gentz (Annette Gentz Music & Film Arts, Germany), Florian Vollmers (Nordic Film Days Lübeck, Germany), and George Christopoulos (Music agent, Greece).

Last year’s Harpa winner was Davíð Þór Jónsson for A Woman at War.

The Nordic Film Music Days held in conjunction with the Berlinale, is supported by Nordic Film & TV Fond.

For further information see the Nordic Film Music Days website: CLICK HERE.