Film Music Award for Niki Reiser

Composing a story like Johanna Spyri's "Heidi" is a difficult undertaking. It is a story that is known far beyond the country's borders. A story that has been made into a movie several times. It tells of great emotions, of worlds that collide. And it takes place in the middle of the Swiss mountain idyll, which has made it a tourist attraction that should not be underestimated. The clichés are ready and waiting, you just have to grab them.

Film music composer Niki Reiser did not. Having already scored Markus Imboden's cinematic interpretation of Heidi in 2001, Reiser's aim for the 2015 remake was to "avoid Swiss melodies in order to follow the inner emotionality of the main character and to contrast the great Swiss images with personal longing and joy as an independent form of expression, rather in the sense of a universal narrative and musical language".

The expert jury was unanimous: Niki Reiser has achieved this brilliantly. According to the jury, his apt melodic inventions, his string movements, his sensitivity and his empathy for the cinematic events had made a significant contribution to making "Heidi" a film that touched the eye, ear and heart. It clearly recognized Reiser's original music as "the work of a great master of film music, of whom Switzerland can only be proud".

These clear words are no coincidence. For "Heidi", the Basel composer received the Fondation Suisa's film music prize for the third time after 2001 ("Kalt ist der Abendhauch"; director: Rainer Kaufmann) and 2011 ("Das Blaue vom Himmel"; director: Hans Steinbichler) - a strong sign of Reiser's continuous work.

Niki Reiser was born in Reinach, Aargau, in 1958 and grew up in Basel. He discovered music by playing the flute and began composing for various bands and musical formations as a teenager. After graduating from high school, he attended the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston (USA), where he studied jazz and classical composition with a focus on film scoring. Niki Reiser made a name for himself on the German and international film scene through his many years of collaboration with directors Dani Levy and Caroline Link. He has been awarded the German Film Prize five times for his work. Niki Reiser lives and works in his home town of Basel. The Fondation Suisa Film Music Prize will be awarded to Niki Reiser on August 7, 2016 at the Locarno International Film Festival.