Iceland’s Bjarnason was among five Nordic composers vying for the Harpa Award handed out last Sunday in Berlin. He dedicated his award to his late colleague Jóhann Jóhannsson.

Other nominees were Kristian Selin Eidnes Andersen (Denmark) for the score of Sámi Blood by Amanda Kernell, Miska and Juri Seppä (Finland) for the filmTatu & Patu by Rike Jokela, Henrik Skram (Norway) for the TV series Snowfall by Synne Teksum, and Björn Olsson (Sweden) for the film The Giant by Johannes Nyholm.

The jury of the Harpa Nordic Film Composers Award said about Bjarnason’s score for Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson’s Under the Tree: “This superb score is a physical assault on the cinematic viewer which is wonderfully uncomfortable to experience. It provides this dark and twisted film with a unique layer of narrative that powerfully captures the broken souls of its characters. The musical brush strokes are highly original, totally unexpected, and functions exceptionally well as a film score.”

"All of the nominees this year were outstanding, and it was difficult to single out one from the others; however, the jury agreed this artistry was so unique and visceral that it was our unanimous choice for the 2018 HARPA Nordic Film Composers Award."

Bjarnason was not present at the awards ceremony but in a video transmission, he thanked Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson for ‘making a great film and for being open to experimenting with the soundtrack’. He added: "I’d like to dedicate the film to Jóhannsson [the celebrated composer of The Theory of Everything], a great friend and artist who left us recently, much too early."

Bjarnason has won an Edda in 2012 for the music of Baltasar Kormákur’s drama The Deep (an award shared with Ben Frost) and most recently, he wrote his first opera, Brothers based on Susanne Bier’s film, for the Danish National Opera in Aarhus. The opera will be performed in June 2018 at Reykjavik Harpa Concert Hall, in collaboration with The Danish National Opera, Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and Reykjavík Art Festival.

The Harpa Nordic Film Composers Awards ceremony closed a full programme of music events held at Berlin’s Nordische Botschaften,Tiergartenas on Februarfy 18, as part of the Harpa Nordic Film Music Days, backed by Nordisk Film & TV Fond, Nordisk Kulturfond and the Nordic embassies in Berlin.