From Tamar-kali to Ronit Kirchman: 5 Female Composers You Should Know
More and more, female composers are giving some of film, television and multi-media’s most memorable and impactful scores. Here are five that we think you should know about.
Ariel Marx is an award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist whose scores have premiered alongside films at Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW – winning awards at several for her musical contributions. She recently scored Jennifer Fox’s, The Tale (Laura Dern, Elizabeth Debicki, Jason Ritter, Ellen Burstyn, Common and John Heard), and Shawn Snyder film, To Dust, which will premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, April 22nd.
Brooklyn-born musician Tamar-kali made a big impact in 2017 with the score to Dee Rees’ Oscar-nominated and critically acclaimed film, Mudbound. Her score led her to be selected by The Hollywood Reporter to appear in the highly coveted Composer Roundtable, making history as the first person of color to appear in the article. To further solidify the score’s success and importance, Indiewire listed the composition as one of the Top 25 Film Scores of the 21st Century. Tamar-kali recently composed the score for Joshua Marston’s Sundance film, Come Sunday (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jason Segal, Lakeith Stanfield), set to premiere April 13th on Netflix.
Amelia Warner began creating music after pursuing an acting career in her native England. While working on set, she would write melodies and songs between takes, bringing her passion for music into focus. Her first major score was for the award-winning British short, Mam. Soon after, Amelia released her Fyfe Dangerfield produced EP, Arms under Universal Music. The 5-track album landed her in the number 1 spot on iTunes classical music charts. Her second EP, Visitors earned a repeat at number 1 on the iTunes classical charts. In 2016, Amelia scored her first feature length film, Mum’s List, followed by an ethereal original score to the upcoming film Mary Shelley (Elle Fanning, Maisie Williams, Douglas Booth).
Composer and songwriter Ronit Kirchman, wrote the score for the riveting Golden Globe nominated series, The Sinner (USA) and is the first-ever composer recipient of the Sundance Institute Time Warner Foundation Fellowship in Film Music and has been awarded the Sundance Composers Lab and Documentary Composers Lab Fellowships. Ronit’s widely varied film scores include, Zen and the Art of Dying, Finding Neighbors, The Skin I’m In, The Golden Age of Fish, Say You Love Me, and Brooklyn.
Sofia Hultquist (aka Drum & Lace) writes and creates music for film, fashion and media. Sofia’s fashion score brands include (but are not limited to): NARS, Diane Von Furstenberg, Levi’s, The Palatines, and Laura Sigel. Her composition work ranges from writing music and soundscapes for fashion presentations to commercials and composing for feature-length films such as co-scoring the fashion documentary, The First Monday in May (directed by Andrew Rossi) which opened at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016. She also performs live as Drum & Lace and has played at various art galleries and venues in Los Angeles. Sofia most recently scored fashion designer, Andre Leon Talley biopic, The Gospel According to Andre, which premieres in theaters May 25th.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) - November 21, 2024
- 2025 Oscars: Eligibility Lists for Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards - November 21, 2024
- Nava Mau, Sean Wang Among 2024 BAFTA Breakthroughs Championing New ‘Must-Watch’ Creatives - November 21, 2024
2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) 
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 72 – ‘Three Colours: Blue’ (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993) 
2025 Oscars: Eligibility Lists for Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards 
Nava Mau, Sean Wang Among 2024 BAFTA Breakthroughs Championing New ‘Must-Watch’ Creatives