About The Speaker

Karim Sebastian Elias
Speaker
K.S. Elias has composed the music for over 100 films and 400 series both nationally and internationally. His music has been positively reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, The Huffington Post, Der Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Tagesspiegel, among others. After completing his studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts, he has composed film music for numerous high-profile projects, including the Oscar-nominated Sundance winner OF FATHERS AND SONS and FARUK, which won the FIPRESCI International Film Critics' Award at the 2024 Berlinale. For KU'DAMM 63, he was nominated for the German Television Award for his film music, while its orchestral soundtrack reached number 2 in the film music charts. In 2024, he composed the music for Irene von Alberti's current adaptation of Robert Merle's novel dystopia DIE GESCHÜTZTEN MÄNNER, which was recorded with the Staatskapelle Halle and premiered at the Munich Film Festival. He composed the music for the award-winning feature film RHYTHM IS IT!, which won the German and Bavarian Film Awards, among others. He recorded the music with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Elias' work has received numerous awards and nominations, including for his film music for the television films DIE SCHATZINSEL and BELLA BLOCK - WEISSE NÄCHTE, which won the German Television Award in the category BEST MUSIC. His other awards include a Golden CD, two nominations for the GEMA German Music Authors' Award, the award for best music at the Lünen Cinema Festival for GERDAS SCHWEIGEN, the nomination for NICHTS MEHR WIE VORHER for the German Television Award and the Rolf Hans Müller Award from SWR and MFG. He composed music for TATORT, for NAHSCHUSS with Lars Eidinger and for the European University Film Award-winning SAUDI RUNAWAY, a National Geographic & Disney film that premiered at Sundance in 2020. In 2017, he initiated the Masterclass film series in cooperation with ZDFKultur (https://www.zdf.de/kultur/masterclass). Elias has been teaching as a professor at the Film University Babelsberg since 2013 and has been on the board of the German Film Academy and a member of the European Film Academy since 2017. In 2017, he published the article “Filmmusik heute - Aus dem Arbeitsalltag eines zeitgenössischen Filmkomponisten” in the Springer Professional Handbook of Functional Music. In the book “Filmmusik-Bekenntnisse” by Béatrice Ottersbach and Thomas Schadt, he gave insights into his work as a film composer.