New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Award-winning film and television score composer, Germaine Franco will receive the prestigious ASCAP Shirley Walker Award at the 33rd annual ASCAP Screen
Music Awards in Los Angeles on May 23.
Franco is the first Latina composer invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, music branch. She is the composer of the Starz network new television series Vida from Creator/Exec Producer
Tanya Saracho which premiered May 6th. Her upcoming film Tag, for New Line Cinema and Warner Bros., directed by Jeff Tomsic, hits theaters June 15th. In addition, Germaine's action-packed score for Kung Fu
Panda - The Emperor's Quest, an immersive attraction, launches this summer at Universal Studios Hollywood.
Franco co-wrote and produced five original songs for Disney/Pixar's Oscar winning Coco, including "Un Poco Loco" and "Proud Corazón", with co-writer Adrian Molina. Coco is directed by Lee Unkrich and co-directed by Adrian Molina. Franco received an
Annie Award for her work on Coco. She is the first Latina to win the Outstanding
Music in a Feature Film at the
Annie Awards - the Animation Industry's highest honor.
The Shirley Walker Award honors those whose achievements have contributed to the diversity of film and television music. An ASCAP member, Shirley Walker was one of the first prominent female composers working in film and television and is remembered as a pioneer for women in the film industry. Franco recently worked with Shirley Walker's son, Ian Walker, double bassist, on the score to Tag.
"Germaine Franco's kaleidoscopic work is impossible to summarize, spanning numerous visual media, musical genres and cultures", said ASCAP President Paul Williams. "Her work on Disney Pixar's Coco, which incorporated traditional Mexican musical elements and included composing, songwriting, producing, arranging and orchestrating, is only the most recent highlight of her achievements in the film world."
The invitation-only dinner and awards ceremony will honor the composers and songwriters of the top box office film music, top rated series and the most performed television music of 2017.
About Germaine Franco:
Franco is the first Latina composer invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, music branch. Franco is a versatile composer who creates music and songs that reflect her extensive training as an orchestral musician, an electronic music programmer, a multi-instrumentalist, and a lover of world music. Her upcoming project, Tag, directed by Jeff Tomsic for New Line Cinema and Warner Bros., is a hybrid score of electronica and action music. Franco collaborated with the filmmakers Lee Unkrich Adrian Molina, and Darla K. Anderson for four years as an additional composer, co-songwriter of "Un Poco Loco" and "Proud Corazón", song producer, arranger and orchestrator. Germaine's hip-hop and electronica score to DOPE, directed by Rick Famuyiwa (Open Road Films) premiered at Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals. Franco's organic score for
Tanya Saracho on Starz' Vida includes indigenous Mexican chant, electronica, and latin music. Her immersive reality (4D) and theme park attractions include DreamWorks Animation's, Motiongate and the upcoming DreamWorks Animation and Universal Creative's Kung Fu
Panda - The Emperor's Quest at Universal Studios Hollywood, directed by Steve Hickner and Gary Trousdale. Franco is a Sundance
Music Sound Design Fellow, an Advisory Board Member of Women in Media, and a Board Member of the Alliance for Women Film Composers. Franco worked alongside John Powell on over 30 feature films including How to
Train Your Dragon (1 & 2), Rio (1 & 2), The Lorax, Happy Feet (1 & 2), Kung Fu
Panda (1,2 & 3), and The Bourne Supremacy.
