Two of European cinema’s most established director-composer partnerships will take the stage at the World Soundtrack Awards’ Film Music Days to break down how their collaborations work, organizers announced.
Director Lukas Dhont and composer Valentin Hadjadj will discuss the score for “Coward,” while director Edward Berger and composer Volker Bertelmann will talk about the music for “The Riders,” starring Brad Pitt. Both talks are part of the WSA’s Film Music Days program, which runs alongside the awards ceremony.
Dhont and Hadjadj met as students, a relationship that has grown into a working partnership built on what Variety described as a shared creative language. The pair have collaborated across Dhont’s feature films, with Hadjadj’s scores becoming a signature element of the Belgian director’s emotionally precise storytelling.
Berger and Bertelmann bring a different pedigree to the stage. The two worked together on “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which won the Academy Award for best original score in 2023. Their reunion on “The Riders,” a project starring Pitt, makes the panel one of the more closely watched events on the WSA schedule.
Partnership is the guiding theme of this year’s Film Music Days. Organizers say live performances will give cult films bold new scores, and industry mixers will push emerging composers and filmmakers to find their own creative matches.
The WSA talks serve a practical purpose beyond promotion. They offer a rare public look at how directors and composers actually work together, from early conversations through final mix. For young composers in the audience, that process is often invisible.
The World Soundtrack Awards, held annually in Ghent, Belgium, remain one of the few major international events dedicated specifically to film music. The Film Music Days programming has expanded in recent years to include workshops, networking sessions and live re-scoring performances.
Neither Dhont nor Berger has announced release dates for the two films discussed. The talks are expected to draw attention to both projects ahead of their eventual premieres.
Full panel schedules and ticketing details are available through the World Soundtrack Awards website.
