Lifetime Achievement Award

STC21 Lifetime Achievement Award for Gustavo Santaolalla

STC21 Lifetime Achievement Award for Gustavo Santaolalla

The Lifetime Achievement Award of the twenty-first edition of STC goes to the two-time Academy award winner Gustavo Santaolalla. The composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist will attend SoundTrack_Cologne 21 from the 3rd to the 5th of July.

On Wednesday, 3rd of July, Santaolalla will present his German Netflix-series Liebes Kind (Dear Child). He will share the stage with Isabel Kleefeld (director / creative producer and showrunner), Renata Salazar Ivancan (editor), Tom Spieß (producer), Christoph Becker (music supervisor) and Juan Luqui (co-composer). On Thursday, 4th of July he will talk with Oscar nominated composer Gary Yershon about his career in music. On Friday, 5th of July he will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award of SoundTrack_Cologne, while some of his scores will be played by the 40-piece Neues Rheinisches Kammerorchester.

Working almost 60 years in the music industry, 25 of them dedicated most intensely to composing scores for film, TV and video games, Gustavo Santaolalla has become one of the most highly acclaimed and prolific contemporary South American composers and musicians in the world. For his film work, he received Academy Awards for Best Original Score for Brokeback Mountain (2006) and Babel (2007), as well as a Golden Globe for Best Original Song (A Love That Will Never Grow Old) co-written with Bernie Taupin for Brokeback Mountain.

Santaolalla has written music for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Biutiful; Walter Salles’ Motorcycle Diaries and On the Road; Jorge R. Gutiérrez’ The Book of Life; Joseph Vilsmaier's Nanga Parbat (his first assignment for a German production), among many others.

His work for TV series includes compositions for Jane the Virgin, Hell on Wheels, Narcos: México, The House, The Last of Us, Max and the German thriller Liebes Kind (Dear Child).

Since his foray into the world of video games in 2013 with The Last of Us, Santaolalla has also remained active in the medium. The Last of Us for Sony PlayStation, won more than 200 awards, including BAFTA's Game of the Year, becoming one of the most successful video games in history.

Throughout his career, Santaollala has produced, with his own record label Surco, more than 100 albums for renowned Latin American artists, including Café Tacvba, Julieta Venegas, Molotov, Los Prisioneros, Juana Molina, Bajofondo, Los Tigres del Norte and Juanes establishing him as one of the fundamental pillars of the history of the movement known as Rock en Español.

In 2020, he produced Break It All, Netflix’s mini-series about the history of rock in Latin America. Santaolalla has also won 2 Grammys and 19 Latin Grammys.

In addition to the re-release of his acclaimed Ronroco album in a 25th anniversary vinyl edition at the beginning of this year, Santaolalla will perform an album's European tour this fall.


Wednesday 03.07.
16:00 - 17:00
Gustavo Santaolalla, Juan Luqui, Isabel Kleefeld, Renata Salazar Ivancan, Tom Spieß, Christoph Becker
Liebes Kind (Dear Child)
Case study moderated by Hansjörg Kohli

Thursday 04.07.
19:00 - 20:00
Gustavo Santaolalla
In conversation with Gary Yershon

Friday 05.07.
19:00 - 20:30
Award Ceremony
The orchestra Neues Rheinisches Kammerorchester will play film scores by Gustavo Santaolalla