Accreditations: soundtrackcologne.de/accreditations/

Rachel Portman began composing at the age of 14 and read music at the University of Oxford. She gained experience writing music for drama for BBC and Channel 4 films, including ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’, Mike Leigh’s ‘Four Days In July’ and Jim Henson’s ‘Storyteller’ series.

Since then, Portman has written over 100 scores for film, television and theatre, including ‘Oliver Twist’ by Roman Polanski, ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ by Jonathan Demme, ‘One Day’ by Lone Scherfig, ‘The Lake House’ by Alejandro Agresti, ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Mark Romanek, ‘The Legend of Bagger Vance’ by Robert Redford or ‘Mona Lisa Smile’ by Mike Newell. Most recently Portman wrote the score for the documentary ‘Julia’ which chronicles the life of TV chef and author Julia Child and was released in 2021.

‘The fact that I am a woman never stopped me‘ Rachel Portman told the SWR. In 1997, she became the first female composer to win an Academy Award, which she received for the score of Jane Austen’s classic ‘Emma’. She was also the first female composer to win a Primetime Emmy Award, which she received for ‘Bessie’ by Dee Rees. She has received two further Academy Nominations for ‘The Cider House Rules’ and ‘Chocolat’ by Lasse Hallström, which also earned her a Golden Globe Nomination as well as Bafta nominations for ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’ and ‘The Woman in Black’.

As the winner of the SoundTrack_Cologne Lifetime Achievement Award, Rachel Portman joins the ranks of many renowned prize winners such as Craig Armstrong, Bruce Broughton, Cliff Martinez, Michael Nyman, Irmin Schmidt, Peter Thomas, Klaus Doldinger or Don Davis.

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