Rachel Portman receives Lifetime Achievement Award at SoundTrack_Cologne 18

‘She is a true heroine of her profession’ is how Bayerischer Rundfunk describes the successful British composer who was the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Film Score. Now Rachel Portman will also be honoured as the first female composer with the Lifetime Achievement Award at SoundTrack_Cologne 18. The award ceremony will take place on Saturday, Nov 20, 2021 at the IHK Köln. Portman will also speak about her body of work on a panel on Saturday afternoon.

Rachel Portman began composing at the age of 14 and read music at the University of Oxford. She gained experience writing music for drama in BBC and Channel 4 films, including ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’, Mike Leigh's ‘Four Days In July’ and Jim Henson's ‘Storyteller’ series.

Since then, Portman has written over 100 scores for film, television and theatre, including ‘Oliver Twist’ by Roman Polanski, ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ by Jonathan Demme, ‘One Day’ by Lone Scherfig, ‘The Lake House’ by Alejandro Agresti, ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Mark Romanek, ‘The Legend of Bagger Vance’ by Robert Redford or ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ by Mike Newell. Most recently Portman wrote the score for the documentary ‘Julia’ which chronicles the life of TV chef and author Julia Child and was released in 2021.

‘The fact that I am a women never stopped me‘ Rachel Portman told the SWR. In 1997, she became the first female composer to win an Academy Award, which she received for the score of Jane Austin’s classic ‘Emma’. She was also the first female composer to win a Primetime Emmy Award, which she received for ‘Bessie’ by Dee Rees. She has received two further Academy Nominations for ‘The Cider House Rules’ and ‘Chocolat’ by Lasse Hallström, which also earned her a Golden Globe Nomination as well as Bafta nominations for ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’ and ‘The Woman in Black’.

As the winner of the SoundTrack_Cologne Lifetime Achievement Award, Rachel Portman joins the ranks of many renowned prize winners such as Craig Armstrong, Bruce Broughton, Cliff Martinez, Michael Nyman, Irmin Schmidt, Peter Thomas, Klaus Doldinger or Don Davis.

Please note: Admittance to the congress will only be granted to fully vaccinated or recovered people. Additionally, you have to show proof of a negative Corona Test (not older than 24h). The test has to be in a form of a certificate from an official authorised test center. Antigen-self-tests will not be accepted.

A negative test result alone, without proof of a full vaccination or recovery, will not grant you entrance to the Congress.