Composer Pinar Toprak has been presented with the International Film Music Critics Association Award for Best Comedy Score in 2010, for her score for The Lightkeepers, by IFMCA members Jon Broxton and Oscar Flores.
Toprak beat out established composers such as Scott Glasgow (Lo), James Newton Howard (Nanny McPhee Returns), Philippe Rombi (Potiche) and Christopher Lennertz (Vampires Suck) to win the award, and in doing so became the first female composer ever to win an IFMCA Award.
The Lightkeepers, directed by Daniel Adams, is a gentle period romantic comedy set in Cape Cod in 1912. Richard Dreyfuss stars as Seth, a surly lighthouse keeper who, along with his youthful assistant John (Tom Wisdom), keeps himself to himself and away from the influence of women. However, their self-imposed isolation becomes difficult to maintain when both men fall under the spell of two very different women – the lovely Ruth (Mamie Gummer, Meryl Streep’s daughter) and her house keeper Mrs Bascomb (Blythe Danner) – who move into the vacation home near the lighthouse, and whose feminine wiles and charms threaten to melt the hardest of male hearts.
Pinar Toprak was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and began her studies at the Istanbul State Conservatory, before moving to the United States to study at the Berklee College of Music. She worked under composer Hans Zimmer at Media Ventures on scores such as The Last Samurai, King Arthur and the original Pirates of the Caribbean, before branching out on her own. In addition to The Lightkeepers, her credits include the X-Box 360 video game Ninety-Nine Nights, the action sequel Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil, the romantic thriller Say It In Russian, the animated fantasy Light of Olympia, and numerous “creature features” for the Sci-Fi Channel.
The score for The Lightkeepers was released on CD and as a high quality digital download by MovieScore Media. Further details can be found here.
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Photos by Oscar Flores