Guests at Soundtrack 2008.

GABRIEL YARED

A self-taught musician, Gabriel Yared has been providing stirring and lush scores for features since the 1970s, earning accolades and critical praise. Born in Lebanon in 1949, he dropped out of school in 1971 and briefly moved to Brazil where he worked with pop singers Elis Regina and Ivan Lins. He settled in France in 1972 and the following year, began his career in earnest as composer and orchestrator for popular singers like Charles Aznavour and Mireille Mathieu, while simultaneously composing ballet scores, advertising jingles and radio and TV themes.

Yared entered films in 1974 with the score for "Miss O'Gynie et les hommes fleurs" but he really first earned attention with the music for Jean-Luc Godard's 1980 film "Sauve Qui Peut (la Vie)/Every Man for Himself". Since then, he has created rich musical tapestries for over 40 motion pictures ranging from Jean-Jacques Beineix's "Betty Blue" to Robert Altman's "Theo and Vincent".

In 1997, Yared won a Golden Globe Award and earned an Oscar for his elegant score to Anthony Minghella's "The English Patient". He would pick up further Oscar nominations for his scores to the Minghella helmed The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain.

DANNY BOYLE

Considered one of Britain's most cutting edge directors, Danny Boyle started his career in theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company, before making the jump to film via TV.

His first feature film; cult hit Shallow Grave, earned Boyle the BAFTA Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film as well as a host of other accolades including Best Director at the San Sebastian Film Festival, the Empire Award for Best Director and Best British Film, and the London Critic's Circle Film Award for Best British Newcomer.

His second feature, the multi-award winning Trainspotting, became one of the highest grossing British films of all time. Boyle would reunite with Trainspotting star Ewan McGregor on A Life Less Ordinary before going on to direct the adaptation of Alex Garland's novel The Beach, staring Leonardo DiCaprio.After a brief return to television in 2001, Boyle scored a huge success with was the smash hit horror flick 28 Days Later, which earned more than $75 million worldwide, earning three British Independent Film Award nominations, including Best Director, Best Film and Best Achievement in Production.

Boyle's current film, Slumdog Millionaire, has been well received by critics on the 2008 festival circuit, winning the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival and becoming an early tip for an Academy Award in 2009.

DAVID HOLMES

An established name on the Club DJ circuit during the 90's, Belfast born David Holmes broke through to the world of soundtracks when every track from his debut album ‘This Film's Crap, Let's Slash the Seats' got snapped up for movie and TV soundtracks, featuring in ‘The Game and ‘Meet Joe Black' amongst others.

Holmes made his first proper foray in to the world of film scoring in 1998, producing the soundtrack to the unsettling urban thriller ‘Resurrection Man'. Following this, David travelled to New York City to create an audio documentary about urban jungle environments. The resulting album, featuring narratives from NYC citizens over drum and bass, gritty blues and retro Latin jazz, attracted the attention of Danny DeVito who hired him to write the score and assemble the soundtrack to the Steven Soderbergh film ‘Out of Sight'. Holmes' score would earn him a place in Entertainment Weekly's list of the Top 100 Creative People in Entertainment.

Soderbergh would come calling once again in 2001, tapping Holmes up to produce another feature-film soundtrack, ‘Ocean's Eleven'. Holmes would go on to score both ‘Ocean's' sequels and Michael Winterbottom's ‘Code 46'.

In 2008, Holmes was engaged by Turner Prize winning artist Steve McQueen to score his debut feature about IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. The unflinching ‘Hunger' was hailed by the critics and subsequently scooped Camera d'Or at The Cannes Film Festival.

JONATHAN PRYCE

A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, during the 1970's, Holywell born Jonathan Pryce would established himself on the London stage with appearances in The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, and Measure for Measure among other plays. In 1977 he won a Tony Award for his Broadway debut in Comedians, for which he also earned the 1977 Theatre World Award and the 1977 nomination for Drama Desk Outstanding Actor Award. Pryce earned his second Tony Award 15 years later for the role as The Engineer in Miss Saigon.

In 1976 Pryce made his big screen debut in Voyage of the Damned; but it wasn't until 1983 that he made a strong impression with his scary performance as the manipulative Mr. Dark in Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. Pryce later shot to fame as Sam Lowry in Terry Gilliam's Orwellian fantasy Brazil. He also filled such strong and authoritative roles, as Dictator Juan Peron opposite Madonna in Evita, and opposite Pierce Brosnan as Bond villain Elliot Carver, in Tomorrow Never Dies.
                                                                                                                                                                        Always adept at playing characters marked with sophistication and depth, his subtle and nuanced portrayal of author Lytton Strachey in Carrington, scooped Pryce the Best Actor Award at Cannes. A versatile and multifaceted talent, Pryce made numerous works for television ranging from costume dramas to comedy, and from narrations to singing. In January 2006, he replaced John Lithgow as Lawrence Jameson in the acclaimed musical version of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He appeared as the timid Jamaican Governor Wetherby Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and subsequent franchise follow up's Dead Man's Chest, and At World's End.

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