Global music rights leader Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) held its annual Film/TV Awards on Wednesday, May 16, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. The ceremony saluted the composers of music featured in the past year's top-grossing films, top-rated primetime network television series, and highest-ranking cable network programs.
Rolfe Kent received BMI's Richard Kirk Award, which is bestowed on composers who have made significant contributions to the realm of film and television music.
Kent also took home two BMI Film/TV crystals for his work on Mr. Popper's Penguins and Dexter. The evening's other honorees included Mark Mothersbaugh (21 Jump Street, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked), John Williams (The Adventures of Tintin, War Horse), Michael Andrews (Bad Teacher, Bridesmaids), Thomas Newman (The Help), Cliff Martinez (Contagion), Mychael Danna (Moneyball), Christopher Lennertz (Horrible Bosses), Aaron Zigman (Madea's Big Happy Family), Mike Post (Rob), Will Jennings (American Idol), Charlie Clouser (American Horror Story), David Buckley (PRS) (The Good Wife) and Brian Tyler (Hawaii Five-0, Terra Nova). BMI also celebrated Ludovic Bource's (SACEM) Academy Award win for The Artist.
As the 2012 recipient of the Richard Kirk Award, Rolfe Kent joins a prestigious list that includes David Arnold, Rachel Portman (PRS), Alan Silvestri, David Newman, Thomas Newman, Christopher Young, George S. Clinton, Harry Gregson-Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Michael Kamen, Mark Mothersbaugh, Danny Elfman, Alan Menken, Mike Post, Lalo Schifrin, John Barry, Charlie Fox and John Williams.
Rolfe Kent has succeeded in creating a body of work that is fiercely original, musically complex and artistically bold, all in the service of the films and television for which it is composed. His diverse list of credits spans intellectual comedy to slapstick, white-knuckle thrillers to drama. Kent has scored almost 50 films, including the Academy Award-nominated Up in the Air, for which he won a Golden Satellite Award; Sideways, which earned Kent a Golden Globe nomination and Critics' Choice Award in 2007; Mr. Popper's Penguins, Young Adult, Charlie St. Cloud, and many more. Most recently Kent scored Michael Hoffman's Gambit, written by the Coen Brothers and slated for release later this year.
In television, Kent also composed the Emmy-nominated main title theme for Showtime's runaway hit Dexter. An in-demand collaborator, he has established strong working relationships with top-tier directors such as Richard Shepherd, Alexander Payne, Mark Waters, Jason Reitman, and Burr Steers. Kent has received an impressive 13 BMI Film & Television Awards since 2002.
The 2012 BMI Film/TV Awards were hosted by BMI President & CEO Del Bryant and BMI Vice President, Film/TV Relations Doreen Ringer Ross. For a complete list of winners as well as information on BMI's film and television composers and events, please visit www.bmi.com/filmtv.