Chris Montan, Alexandre Desplat to Be Honored at BMI Film & TV Awards

Broadcast Music, Inc.® (BMI®), the global leader in music rights management, will present the BMI Icon Award for outstanding career achievement to prolific composer Alexandre Desplat at the organization's 2015 Film & Television Awards. Chris Montan will receive the Classic Contribution Award for his distinguished three decade career at Disney, including his current role as President of Walt Disney Music - a position he's maintained for twenty years - and executive music producing all of the studio's animated features. The annual ceremony will be held Wednesday, May 13, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. The private event will also honor the composers of the past year's top-grossing films, top-rated primetime network television series and highest-ranking cable network programs.

BMI bestows the BMI Icon Award to composers who have made significant contributions in the realm of film and television music. As the 2015 honoree, Alexandre Desplat joins a prestigious list of honorees that includes David Arnold, Rachel Portman, Alan Silvestri, David Newman, Thomas Newman, Rolfe Kent, Mychael Danna, George S. Clinton, Harry Gregson-Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Michael Kamen, Mark Mothersbaugh, Danny Elfman, Alan Menken, Mike Post, Lalo Schifrin, Cliff Martinez, John Barry and John Williams.

"We are thrilled to be honoring renowned cinephile and Academy Award-winning composer Alexandre Desplat this year," said Doreen Ringer-Ross, BMI Vice President, Film/TV Relations. "It has been a joy working with him as his career exploded over the past decade, making him one of the most sought after and admired film composers in the world."

BMI President & CEO Mike O'Neill and BMI Vice President, Film/TV Relations Doreen Ringer-Ross will host the ceremony.

Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat is one of the most coveted film composers in the world today. Desplat is noted for his collaborations with some of the world's top filmmakers: Wes Anderson, George Clooney, Stephen Daldry, David Fincher, Stephen Frears, Tom Hooper, Ang Lee, Terrence Malick, Roman Polanski and Angelina Jolie. The Golden Globe and Oscar winner has scored a range of incredible films, eight of which have been Oscar-nominated: "The Queen," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Fantastic Mr. Fox," "The King's Speech," "Argo," "Philomena," "The Imitation Game" and "The Grand Budapest Hotel," which won the 2014 Oscar for Best Score. Desplat's most recent work includes Angelina Jolie's "Unbroken," Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel" and Morten Tyldum's "The Imitation Game." Coming up next for Desplat is the period drama "Suffragette" starring Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep and "The Light Between Oceans" starring Michael Fassbender.

BMI's Classic Contribution Award will be presented to Chris Montan for his distinguished three decade career at Disney, including his current role as President of Walt Disney Music - a position he's maintained for twenty years - and executive music producing all of the studio's animated features. Among his accomplishments, Variety named him "musical supervisor of the decade" in 1997 for his work on such soundtracks as "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Pretty Woman," "Sister Act," "Aladdin," "The Lion King," "Pocahontas," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and "Hercules." He has been nominated for multiple GRAMMY® Awards and won Best Original Cast Recording for "Aida," and Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media for "Frozen." Under his guidance, the Walt Disney Studios has garnered an unprecedented 42 Musical Academy Award® nominations, and 16 Academy Awards in the "Best Song," "Best Score," and "Best Musical" categories.

For more information on BMI's film and television composers and events, please visit www.bmi.com/filmtv.

ABOUT BMI:
Celebrating 75 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, Broadcast Music, Inc.® (BMI®) is a global leader in music rights management, serving as an advocate for the value of music. BMI represents the public performance rights in more than 8.5 million musical works created and owned by more than 650,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers. The Company negotiates music license agreements and distributes the fees it generates as royalties to its affiliated writers and publishers when their songs are performed in public. In 1939, BMI created a groundbreaking open-door policy becoming the only performing rights organization to welcome and represent the creators of blues, jazz, country, and American roots music. Today, the musical compositions in BMI's repertoire, from chart-toppers to perennial favorites, span all genres of music and are consistently among the most-performed hits of the year. For additional information and the latest BMI news, visit www.bmi.com, follow us on Twitter @BMI or stay connected through Broadcast Music, Inc.'s Facebook page.

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