Icelandic composer Hildur Gudnadttir will receive the career achievement award at the 21st Zurich Film Festival, Zurich announced Thursday. An Oscar winner for her score to Todd Phillips Joker, making her the first-ever solo female artist to win the Academy Award for best score, Gudnadttir is also known for her music for Todd Fields Tr (2022) and Kenneth Branaghs A Haunting in Venice (2023) and for her Emmy-winning score for HBOs Chernobyl (2019). She will be honored at the festivals Cinema in Concert gala on Oct. 2.

Hildur Gudnadttir is one of the most innovative composers of our time, said festival director Christian Jungen. She knows how to use experimental sounds to shape mainstream pop culture and lend it atmospheric depth. She is an inquisitive musician who develops her scores in dialogue with the filmmakers and their sequences, creating melodies that you might not hum to yourself on the way home, but which resonate deep within us. Her unmistakable style makes her a groundbreaking artist and a role model for many young talents worldwide. Gunadttirs upcoming work includes scores for Nia DaCostas Hedda, a re-imagining of Henrik Ibsens Hedda Gabler, starring Tessa Thompson and Nina Hoss, and the back-to-back productions of 28 Years Later and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Danny Boyle and DaCosta, respectively.

In Zurich, Gudnadttir will take part in a festival masterclass and will serve as jury president for the Zurich festivals 13th international film music competition. The competition, a joint effort of the Zurich Film Festival, Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zrich, and Forum Filmmusik, sees young composers create original scores for the same animated short, Wild Love. Three finalists will have their work performed by the Tonhalle-Orchester Zrich under the baton of Frank Strobel. Strobel, alongside Gudnadttir and Swiss composer Balz Bachmann, will judge the winner, who will receive the CHF 10,000 ($12,700) Golden Eye award.

In addition to her film work, Gudnadttir has composed for theater and dance and released four solo albums. Born in Reykjavk in 1982, she studied at the Reykjavk Music Academy and Berlin University of the Arts. She currently resides in Berlin.