Miscellaneous Baldenweg siblings nominated for international film music award

This has never happened before: with their double nomination at the World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent, Belgium, the Swiss-Australian sibling trio Diego, Nora and Lionel Baldenweg are making history for Switzerland.

What does Ireland in the 70s sound like? Or when a man gets into a violent confrontation with IRA terrorists? For the feature film "In the Land of Saints and Sinners" (2023), a mixture of western and thriller starring Liam Neeson and directed by Robert Lorenz, Clint Eastwood's long-time producer, the Baldenwegs have found convincing musical answers.

For such achievements, they are the first Swiss ever to be nominated twice for the World Soundtrack Awards (WSA) - in the categories "Discovery of the Year" and "Public Choice". They are competing against such well-known names as Hans Zimmer ("Dune 2"), Anthony Willis ("Saltburn") and Jerskin Fendrix ("Poor Things").

In an earlier interview with the Keystone-SDA news agency, Diego Baldenweg said: "We create worlds and moods, we develop a vision, we tell a story". The fact that they have now been nominated twice shows how well they have obviously succeeded in this. Earlier this year, the siblings were already nominated for this film score at the Movie Music UK Awards in the top category "Score of the Year".

Film and advertising world

They are also attracting attention in the advertising world: Switzerland Tourism's new campaign starring Mads Mikkelsen and Roger Federer, accompanied by Baldenweg's song "Falling for Autumn", is setting click records. The clip was launched in September and has since been viewed over 34 million times.

"Our difference makes our work better," says Lionel Baldenweg, explaining their success. However, the three are less interested in the fact that they are siblings than the media. "What matters is what we deliver," said Nora Baldenweg.

Diego, Nora and Lionel Baldenweg have been composing music for feature films such as "Mein Name ist Eugen" (2005) by Michael Steiner, "180°" (2010) by Cihan Inan and "Zwingli" (2019) by Stefan Haupt since 2004, as well as short films, series and advertising commissions. They have worked with renowned musicians, orchestras and conductors, such as bandleader Pepe Lienhard, star violinist Daniel Hope and conductor Paavo Järvi. The Baldenwegs have already been recognized for their diverse work at the Locarno Film Festival (2010) and received the Swiss Film Award (2018). They were nominated once at the World Soundtrack Awards 2019 for "Zwingli".

These awards are often referred to as the "little brother of the Oscars". They are among the most prestigious film music awards in the world - also prestigious because the World Soundtrack Academy, consisting of leading female composers, critics, film music agents, publicists and studio executives, judge the works.

The World Soundtrack Awards will be presented on October 16 in Ghent, Belgium.

*This article by Raphael Amstutz, Keystone-SDA, was realized with the help of the Gottlieb and Hans Vogt Foundation.

SDA