George Kallis, a Cypriot composer, won the ‘Best Score for a Feature Film’ award at the 13th edition of the Jerry Goldsmith Awards.

The award ceremony was held in  Jaen, Spain.

Los-Angeles-based Kallis won the award for his score for the movie Last Knight (Poslyetniy bogatyr, also known as The Last Warrior).

In November 2017, Last Knight became the highest-grossing local-language release of all time in Russia by topping out at $29.5 million. In Russia, the film holds the 12th place among biggest box-office hits.

After the receiving the award, Kallis said: “It was my honor to write the score for this film, a Disney production by director Dmitriy Dyachenko. This film is not only entertaining and adventurous but, above all, it is a film that captured audiences’ and, as a result, generated a substantial amount of income for its creators.”

Kallis stated that the film’s score was mainly influenced by traditional Russian musical themes. It was recorded in Moscow with the participation of a 70-member orchestra and choir.

This was the second major award in Kallis’ career as, after the ‘Breakthrough Composer of the Year’ award voted by The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) that he won in February 2018.

Jerry Goldsmith Awards aim to recognize the work of musicians in the audiovisual sector (film, television, advertising or other areas), especially of those who, despite having a career, have not obtained a well deserved recognition. And always with particular attention to young composers, novice or that are beginning to have experience.

Born in Cyprus, Kallis studied film composition at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, with a masters degree in composition from the Royal College of music in London; he began his career as a songwriter, penning the Cypriot entry for the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest – “Thanai Erotas” by Marlain – before making his film music debut in 2006, with the WWII drama Joy Division. His subsequent scores included the sci-fi sequel Highlander: The Source in 2007, the British crime thriller Screwed in 2011, the Russian biopic Gagarin: First in Space in 2013, and the Nigerian drama 93 Days in 2016.

The 43 year old Cypriot composer got a well-deserved not by the influential website Movie Music UK, which hands out annual awards. Proclaiming him to be the ‘Breakthrough Composer of the Year’, the website states that “although he’s been writing music for films since around 2007, 2017 was truly the breakout year for 43-year-old Cyprus-born composer George Kallis. He impressed with three truly magnificent scores – the epic Russian fantasy epic The Last Warrior, the historical drama The Black Prince, and the children’s adventure Albion: The Last Stallion. Although none of the films themselves were especially popular or noteworthy, Kallis showed with his music that he is a composer of significant skill and class, and that he has enormous future ahead of him if he can get the breaks on the right projects.”

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