BRING THE NOISE: THE WILD ROBOT OSCAR® NOMINATED COMPOSER, KRIS BOWERS
Feb 11, 2025
7:30 PM
Join us as we “Bring The Noise” with an evening of conversation and performance celebrating the Academy Award® winning composer, pianist, and filmmaker Kris Bowers, covering his musical contributions to the film industry, from big studio to independent to television series to his many collaborations with acclaimed director, Ava DuVernay. Moderated by Justin Hurwitz.
Kris Bowers is an Academy Award® winning filmmaker, Emmy and Grammy nominated composer and pianist. He won his first Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Film for his most recent film, The Repair Shop. The Searchlight Pictures and L.A. Times Studio-backed film, which he directed alongside Ben Proudfoot, premiered at Telluride in 2023 and spotlights some of the individuals working at a repair shop in Los Angeles, the last American city to provide freely repaired instruments to its public-school students. Upcoming, he is scoring The Wild Robot, for DreamWorks Animation and writer/director Chris Sanders, starring Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Stephanie Shu, Bill Nighy, and Catherine O’Hara.
In addition to being an accomplished filmmaker, Bowers is known for his thought-provoking playing style, creating genre-defying film compositions that pay homage to his classical and jazz roots. He has composed music for film, television, documentaries, and video games. He has collaborated with musicians and artists across genres, including Kobe Bryant, Mahershala Ali, Justin Simien, Ava DuVernay and Shonda Rhimes. His work can also be heard in recent films like the box office hit Paramount biopic, Bob Marley: One Love, DuVernay’s Origin, Warner Bros.’ The Color Purple, and acclaimed television series such as Bridgerton, Secret Invasion, Mrs. America, and When They See Us. Bowers also won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for his work in The Snowy Day.
Bowers also stars in, produced, and scored the documentary Anthem with director Pete Nicks, which follows Bowers and Grammy-winning music producer DJ Dahi as they take a musical journey traveling across America in a bold experiment to reimagine America’s National Anthem. The documentary premiered in June 2023 at the Tribeca Film Festival and debuted on Hulu on June 28, 2023. In 2020, Bowers also co-directed his first documentary short film, A Concerto is a Conversation, with Proudfoot. The film, a New York Times Op-Doc – executive produced by DuVernay, premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and earned an Academy Award® nomination for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 93rd Academy Awards®.
He has also created original music for the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater (alongside choreographer Kyle Abraham), worked with the American Youth Symphony to create a Violin Concerto, which premiered at Los Angeles’ Disney Hall (2020), and was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic to create a new horn concerto (2021). The multi-hyphenate has also collaborated with brands such as Bang & Olufsen, Chevy, and Krug Champagne.
Bowers has multiple projects in development through Et Al Studios Productions, a production company he founded with his wife, Briana Henry.
Special thanks to Universal Pictures for making this event possible.
Tickets
Tickets will go on sale exclusively to Film Independent Members / Wallis Subscribers on Thursday, January 30th at noon PST.
Tickets will go on sale to the general public on Monday, February 3rd at noon PST.
$25.50 for Wallis Subscribers and Film Independent Members
$35.50 for General Public
$25.50 for Wallis Subscribers and Film Independent Members
$35.50 for General Public
About The Wild Robot
DreamWorks Animation's The Wild Robot is now nominated for three Academy Awards® including Best Animated Feature, Best Original Score (Composer, Kris Bowers) and Best Sound. It is the first animated feature in 11 years from 4-time Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Chris Sanders, whose storied career spans more than 35 years of iconic animated films including credits as Story Artist for Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King, Writer of Mulan and Writer/Director of Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods.
The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.
The Wild Robot stars Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o (Us, The Black Panther franchise) as robot Roz; Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as fox Fink; Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek, Best in Show) as opossum Pinktail; Oscar® nominee Bill Nighy (Living, Love Actually) as goose Longneck; Kit Connor (Heartstopper, Rocketman) as gosling Brightbill and Oscar® nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Fall Guy) as Vontra, a robot that will intersect with Roz’s life on the island. The film also features the voice talents of Emmy winning pop-culture icon Mark Hamill (Star Wars franchise, The Boy and the Heron), Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows, The SpongeBob Movie franchise) and Golden Globe winner and Emmy nominee Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible films, Pulp Fiction).
The Wild Robot is produced by Jeff Hermann, p.g.a.
ABOUT JUSTIN HURWITZ
Justin Hurwitz graduated from Harvard University in 2008, where he studied music composition and orchestration. He has composed the music for all of Damien Chazelle’s films including WHIPLASH, LA LA LAND, and FIRST MAN, and BABYLON, earning two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Critics’ Choice Awards, two GRAMMYs, and a BAFTA. Justin lives in Los Angeles.
