Selma Mutal
Biography
Born in Lima to Dutch parents, Selma Mutal, who resides in Paris, studied composition at the National Conservatory of Amsterdam, Film Scoring at the 'École Normale de Musique' in Paris and piano improvisation with renowned improviser Misha Mengelberg.
Selma Mutal started her career composing for dance, theatre and television and has, since 2003, composed extensively for cinema, with a focus on international coproductions. Her credits include director Claudia Llosa's film The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada), winner of the Golden Bear at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival and Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 2010.
In 2010, Selma Mutal composed the soundtrack for Undertow (Contracorriente) directed by Javier Fuentes-León, awarded among others with the World Cinema Audience Award for Best Film at the 2011 Sundance Festival and Best Original Soundtrack Award at the Annonay International Film Festival. The collaboration with Fuentes-León continued on a second feature film, The Vanished Elephant, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in 2014, leading to their latest joint project Noblesse Oblige, an international coproduction with a theatrical release scheduled for 2020.
For filmmaker Tod Lending (Legacy), Selma Mutal scored several films, among them Burden of Silence (2012), the short film Vezo (2013), which received the Sundance Institute/Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Award, and All the Difference (2015), a feature-length documentary filmed over five and a half years and inspired by Wes Moore’s New York Times bestselling book, 'The Other Wes'.
In 2013, the Aubagne International Film Festival commissioned Selma Mutal to direct the Master Class on Film Composition culminating in a live performance during the festival's closing ceremony and the Festival International des Scénaristes in Valence, France, invited her as member of the Music Jury for their 2018 edition.
Selma Mutal’s recent film scores include the music for Ederly, directed by Polish director Piotr Dumala as well as the soundtrack for Block’hood - a city building video game by architect and game designer José Sanchez, awarded with the ‘Best Game Play Award’ at the 2016 Games for Change Festival in New York. In 2019, Selma Mutal wrote the music for Víctor Garciá León’s feature film The Europeans (screened in the Official Competition at Málaga Film Festival 2020) as well as for the Spanish mini-series Lucky Day / El Dia de Mi Suerte, for which she received the Best Soundtrack Award for at the International Series Festival of Buenos Aires in early 2020.
Besides writing for film, Mutal composes music for contemporary dance. Her latest projects in the field of dance include In.Quieta Rooms (2017) by the Zurich based Nunzio Impellizzeri Dance Company. A continuation of the collaboration, the new creation Corpo Barocco premiered at Tanzhaus Zürich in 2018.
Film
Los Europeos (The Europeans), 2020
Director: Víctor García León
Feature Film
The Best Families, 2020
Director: Javier Fuentes-León
Feature Film
El Día de Mi Suerte, 2019
Directors: Daniel Vega Vidal, Diego Vega Vidal
TV Mini-series (4 episodes)
L’Interrogatoire, 2018
Director: Laurent Richard
TV documentary
Ederly, 2016
Director: Piotr Dumala
Golden Frog Nomination - International Film Festival Camerimage, Poland 2016
Grand Prix Nomination - New Horizons International Film Festival, Poland 2016
All the Difference, 2016
Director: Tod Lending
TV series documentary
Nadia Comaneci: The Gymnast and the Dictator, 2016
Director: Pola Rapaport
TV documentary
Special Jury Prize: BCN Sports Film Festival in Barcelona 2017
The Vanished Elephant, 2014
Director: Javier Fuentes-León
WP: Toronto International Film Festival 2014
Best Soundtrack Nomination: Platino Awards 2015
Vezo, 2014
Director: Tod Lending
Winner Sundance Institute/ Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Award 2014
Short film
Burden of Silence, 2012
Director: Tod Lending
TV series documentary
Undertow (Contracorriente), 2009/10
Director: Javier Fuentes-León
World Cinema Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival 2010
Best Film Award, San Francisco Festival 2010, Miami Festival 2010, Chicago Festival 2010, Madrid Festival 2010, Cartagena Film Festival 2010
Best Original Music - Annonay International Film Festival 2010
The Milk of Sorrow (La teta asustada), 2009
Director: Claudia Llosa
Golden Bear Winner, Berlin International Film Festival 2009
Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Film 2010
Best Feature Film, Bogota Film Festival 2009
Best Feature Film, Gramado Film Festival (Brazil) 2009
Goya Awards Nomination for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film 2010
FIPRESCI Prize, Berlin International Film Festival 2009
Best Film, Montreal Festival of New Cinema 2009
Best Film, Guadalajara International Film Festival 2009
Madeinusa, 2006
Director: Claudia Llosa
Official Selection - Sundance Film Festival 2006
Critics Award, Hamburg Film Festival 2006
Best Feature Film, Mar del Plata Film Festival 2006
FIPRESCI Prize, Rotterdam International Film Festival 2006
Best First Work, Lima Latin American Film Festival 2006
FILMSCORE
LOS EUROPEOS (THE EUROPEANS)
Spain at the end of the 50s. Miguel and Antonio, both single and in their early thirties, go on a trip to Ibiza, lured by the European sexual myth and the illusion of freedom. But on the island, nothing will be as they expected.
The fourth feature film of renowned Spanish director Víctor García León's is an adaptation of Rafael Azcona’s eponymous novel Los Europeos, first published in 1960.
Selected for official competition at the 23rd Festival de Málaga (August 21-30, 2020)
FILMSCORE
EDERLY
In the town of Ederly, calendars have no meaning. Summer and winter can follow one another in barely a day. And this fact comes as no surprise to anyone. When a man appears in town, however, claiming that he is there for work as a restorer of sculptures, this causes a bit of a sensation. The residents see in him a local man who disappeared 20 years earlier. Based on certain identifiable features they see, the residents assign a series of identities to him. He instantly becomes someone's son, brother, fiancé, and lover.
FILMSCORE
THE MILK OF SORROW
Fausta is ill with a disease contracted from her mother’s breast milk known as “the milk of sorrow”. However, this is not a sickness caused by bacteria or infection: it is a condition that only affects those women in Peru who were abused or raped during the years of terrorist struggle. Although this horrific period is now history, Fausta is nonetheless a living reminder of this time. Her sickness is called fear – and it has robbed her of her soul. But then, when her mother suddenly dies, Fausta is forced to face her fears. The overpowering nature of these fears, and the desperate lengths to which Fausta will go to assuage them is revealed by her biggest secret: in order to bar loathsome intruders from entering her body she has inserted a potato into her vagina as a kind of antibacterial ‘defence shield’. However, her mother’s death unleashes unexpected events that change Fausta’s life dramatically, as well as the lives of others involved. Fausta now sets out on a journey – a journey that will lead her out of her fear and into freedom.
Golden Bear Winner, Berlin International Film Festival 2009
Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Film 2010
FILMSCORE
NADIA COMANECI - THE GYMNAST AND THE DICTATOR
Barely fourteen years old, Nadia Comaneci dazzled the world when she became the first athlete in her discipline to achieve a perfect 10 at the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Her amazing feat led the Romanian pixie to rise to the rank of universal idol and become a role model for millions of young girls on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The film is told in first person, based on Nadia’s memoirs, and balances the glory and hardship of an idolized star under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu.
Special Jury Prize: BCN Sports Film Festival in Barcelona 2017
FILMSCORE
THE VANISHED ELEPHANT
Edo Celeste is a renowned crime novelist, who is writing the final book in the series about his alter ego, detective Felipe Aranda. Edo is obsessed with the disappearance of his fiancee Celia, which took place the day of the 2007 earthquake in the southern coast of Peru. Seven years later, an enigmatic woman brings Edo dozens of cryptic photos that may help solve the mystery of Celia's disappearance. Edo senses that he's being tempted into a dangerous game, but believes this is the only way to find his fiancee alive. A labyrinth of clues submerges Edo in a race through the streets of Lima and the deserted beaches of Paracas. His final destination will confront him with the ultimate riddle any writer could face.