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For “Captain America: Brave New World,” director Julius Onah wanted his entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be rooted in the world of a political thriller.

Films like “The Day of the Jackal,” “Le Samouraï” and even “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” were among some of his inspirations. Composer Laura Karpman, who is no stranger to the MCU, having scored “The Marvels” and “What If?,” drew from experience. “There was a cue from ‘Ms. Marvel’ which goes over the train sequence, it starts and continues, and I thought ‘I want to do that, ‘I want to write a piece of music that starts the steamrolling and keeps it going,’” she says.

Karpman called on New Orleans drummers. “I put them in a room with no music, just rhythm, and one of the rhythms wound up being the conspiracy music. That whole thing is this combination of this New...

Laura Karpman brought choral sounds into Season 2 of “What If…?” while Natalie Holt re-established the “Loki” theme for the series’ second season. The Newton Brothers entered the Marvel universe by scoring “X-Men ’97,” and Kris Bowers dives into “Secret Invasion.” These are among the composers of Marvel

TV shows vying for Emmy consideration.

Despite telling different stories, each composer worked to bring a score that felt big, epic and exciting — exactly what fans and audiences expect from a Marvel TV show.

Holt knew Season 2 of “Loki” would be darker and that the titular character (Tom Hiddleston) ascending to the throne and becoming a brand-new god. “I knew where it was heading at the end of Episode 6, so I had this idea of an old Norse choir calling him to his faith,” she says. Holt ended up doing a recording session with chanting that was raw and guttural and expanded into...

Leaping over walls, taking a punch, landing a kick, feeling the heat of an explosion, and sometimes holding dangerously sharp objects, these are the routine dangers stuntwomen face at the office. On September 22, 2020, Shout! Studios will unleash the highly anticipated documentary feature Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story on digital platforms everywhere for watch-at-home.

Directed by April Wright (Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace) and narrated by Michelle Rodriguez, Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story is the inspiring untold story about the unsung professionals, their struggles on screen to perform at the highest level, and their fight off-screen to be treated fairly and equally. The movie takes us behind-the-scenes and introduces us to the female stunt performers who drive the action and thrills of Hollywood's biggest blockbuster movies from the silent age of cinema to present day.

Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story, based on the best-selling book by Mollie Gregory,...

Over a single opening weekend, composer Pinar Toprak smashed all previous box-office records for women composers in film. She scored “Captain Marvel,” which made $153 million domestically.

Until now, the top-grossing films by women composers were Rachel Portman’s “The Vow,” which made $125 million domestic in 2012, and Deborah Lurie’s “Dear John,” $80 million back in 2010 — and those sums were for the theatrical lifetime of the films, not just a weekend.

The lack of work for female composers has been a frequent topic of conversation in film-music circles since the 2014 formation of the Alliance for Women Film Composers, which now boasts more than 400 members.

According to the latest “Celluloid Ceiling” statistics from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, just 6 percent of the 250 top-grossing films of 2018 had scores by women — but that number was double the 3 percent found in the list of 2017 films.

Last year’s 15-film Oscar...

Without an animated feature release this year (“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” and “Abominable” bow in 2019 through Universal Pictures), DreamWorks will rely on its new shorts program for Oscar contention. Launched by studio president Chris deFaria, the program represents its own brand of inclusion and diversity.

The first two releases are the exquisite and refreshingly dark “Bird Karma,” and the charming and funny “Bilby.” Both offer very different survival stories and distinctive 2D and CG looks.

With “Bird Karma,” director William Salazar (“Kung Fu Panda”) got to finish a short he started more than 20 years ago about a long-legged bird that takes a liking to a multi-colored fish. But instead of becoming friends, the bird eats the fish, which results in some really bad karma. Enhancing the Indian theme is a score by Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum as part of an inclusion program, “Universal Film Music Composer Initiative: DreamWorks Animation.

A showcase for four women fighting back against online physical and emotional harassment, Netizens is a film of undeniable power. Directed by Bully writer and co-producer Cynthia Lowen, the documentary explores everything from trolls launching grotesque personal attacks to the costs of revenge porn on its victims. Centering on a media critic, a lawyer, and two victims striking back against the patriarchy, the film takes aim at judgmental institutions and the simple-minded men with too much time on their hands and too much access to information.

The film first introduces us to up-and-coming New York attorney Carrie Goldberg, who takes the film crew to the scene of a recent case: a video has gone viral of a 13-year-old girl being raped by her classmate. The solution of the victim’s school focuses on the video–confiscating students’ phones, erasing videos–but they’re ignoring the needs of the victim in the process.

Music is an integral part of filmmaking, moving the story and touching the audience. Where would iconic movies such as Star Wars, Avatar, The Godfather, or Gone with the Wind be without its music? Would Downton Abbey, Dexter, or House of Cards be the same and have audiences glued to their TVs without music? Would gamers immerse into Final Fantasy or Legend of Zelda if they were silent? Movie music has moved us all to cheer, cry, and fall in love for more than 100 years. Yet the vast majority of composers hired to create this vital part of Hollywood’s cultural landscape have been men. Well, that musical glass ceiling is about to crack!

Grand Performances, the “Best Free Outdoor Summer Concert Series” in Los Angeles and the Alliance for Women Film Composers team up celebrate the music of women composers in film, television, video games and interactive media at...

Eric Lavallee: Name me three of your favorite “2014 discoveries”…

Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum: Plants Can Hear. Atmos. Stumbling Stones in Potsdam.

Lavallee: We read Nikole Beckwith’s Stockholm, Pennsylvania as psychological warfare —— what was the approach in audibly depicting Leia’s longing?

Kroll-Rosenbaum: Stockholm is a nuanced portrait of an incredibly complex situation. The music is full of possibility and openness. It comes in waves and breathes. It was important that the music leave room for interpretation, so that the audience could experience discovery along with Leia. Nikole paints in very clear and purposeful strokes, and the music is designed to be transparent in its motivation.

Kroll-Rosenbaum: There is a range of different kinds of music in the score. There is music that is about the outside, literally and figuratively. I built a harmonic structure out of two chords that sits somewhere between resolution and forward motion. I thought about ancient music,...

One of the better docs of late on HBO had a brilliant soundtrack, and now Lakeshore Records announces they will release the ‘Regarding Susan Sontag’ Original Soundtrack digitally on December 23, 2014, and on CD March 10, 2015.Susan Sontag was one of the most important literary, political and feminist icons of her generation. “Regarding Susan Sontag” the doc is an intimate and nuanced investigation into the life of one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century.The film features original music written by spouses composers Laura Karpman and Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum. “The director, Nancy Kates, loves music and […]...

The Scottish singer is among the directors and composers selected for one of two Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound, set to run from July 8-22.

This will be the second year the Music and Sound Design Labs take place at the Skywalker Ranch in northern California and one of 10 residential Labs hosted by Sundance Institute this summer.

Artists and projects selected for the Lab are:

Filmmakers:

All filmmakers have been supported by the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program. This is the first year that two projects come to the Lab in the post-production phase. The other projects recently participated in the Institute’s June Directors and Screenwriters Lab.

Nikole Beckwith (writer-director) for Stockholm, Pennsylvania (Us). In post;

Chloe Zhao (writer-director) for Songs My Brothers Taught Me (Us). In post;

Gabriela Amaral Almeida (writer-director) for The Father’s Shadow (Brazil);

Jordana Spiro (co-writer and director) and Angelica Nwandu (co-writer) for Night Comes On (Us...

Still from Powerless

D eepti Kakkar and Fahad Mustafa’s documentary “Powerless” has been quietly impressing the festival circuit and winning accolades one after another. Followed by a post-production grant from Sundance and selection for the Sundance Institute Composers + Documentary Lab in 2012, the documentary premiered at the Berlinale Forum and is now set to compete in Tribeca film festival that opens on April 17.

The film traces the city of Kanpur, with 15-hour long power cuts and the tussle for electricity. Kakkar and Mustafa talk about their film here:

How did you come across the subject for this documentary?

Dk: Fahad came up with the story and concept of the film. He was born in Chamanganj, Kanpur, but left the city when he has seven years old.

FM: Old ties kept bringing the family back and with each visit, the tumultuous existence of the people got more precarious. …. One can’t...

Indian entry Powerless by Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar is one among the four projects selected for the 2012 Sundance Institute Composers + Documentary Lab. The Lab focuses on the role of music and sound design in documentary films. The selected film makers are paired with a composer each to compose an original score for a section of the work-in-progress films. Besides, a team of award-winning film makers and composers will be called in to guide the participants.

Powerless is set in Kanpur, India, where people risk their lives to steal electricity in the face of 15 hour power-cuts that have crippled their livelihoods. The film is one among the 58 films selected for the Idfa Forum 2012.

Composer Ed Barguiarena has been teamed up with Mustafa and Kakkar for Powerless. Ed Barguiarena is a veteran composer, producer, arranger and musician. He has contributed his music for feature film, documentaries, theater, modern dance, recordings and live performances.