Alexandre Desplat, courtesy of Brigitte Lacombe
“Alexandre is in my opinion one of the best, if not the best composer alive. He is a guy who knows exactly why he is doing something and exactly how to achieve an emotion and exactly how to make the music eloquent.” —
Guillermo del Toro
The cinematic scores of multi-award-winning Composer Alexandre Desplat are all deeply connected to the core of the story. From the balalaika in Wes Anderson’s THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL to the bandoneon in Guillermo del Toro’s THE SHAPE OF WATER – both Oscar wins for the maestro – his music has always served as a delicate storytelling device that never overpowered the visuals.
Born in Paris to a Greek mother and a French father, Alexandre Desplat began playing instruments at an early age; developing an appreciation for film music via listening to the movie soundtrack albums his parents would bring back from the U.S. He studied at the Royal College of Music, at the Conservatoire de Paris, and also took a summer course under avant-garde Composer and Music Theorist, Iannis Xenakis.
Continuously working on films as a Composer since the mid-eighties, Directors such as Guillermo del Toro, Wes Anderson, Jonathan Glazer, Kathryn Bigelow, Matteo Garrone, Costa-Gavras, Terrence Malick, Ang Lee, Michel Hazanavicius, Jacques Audiard, Greta Gerwig and numerous others have relied on the brilliance of Alexandre Desplat’s evocative and stunning scores to bring another dimension to their pictures.
During the 2025 Cannes Film Festival Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers of Music discussion Alexandre Desplat stated, “It’s the beauty of the film I’m invited to be part of, that allows me to slide into it, the way an actor would. The composer is just a guest in this theatre. I use the tools I’ve stockpiled: musical tools, of course, but emotional tools too – fed by what I’ve read, museums I’ve visited…then share all that with the film…”
Join us on May 31, Closing Night of the 20th edition of Los Angeles Greek Film Festival; when we are honored to present our 2026 Tribute and Honorary Orpheus Award to an artist whose genre-bending work has inspired and influenced generations of storytellers, Composer Alexandre Desplat.
Malcolm Washington, credit Erik Carter
“Music was always a really big thing in this movie and Alexandre Desplat tapped into the mythological stories of our ancestors, and he made it feel so big with the classical string swellings; he was so engaged in the material and passionate about our stories and so I am forever indebted to Desplat. He’s my guy.” —
Filmmaker Malcolm Washington on the music in his critically-acclaimed directorial debut, “The Piano Lesson”
From Samuel L Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher and Michael Potts sitting around a kitchen table pounding out an iconic song of defiance, to Erykah Badu’s tour-de-force jazz performances as a 1930s nightclub singer, to Danielle Deadwyler’s electric portrayal as the fierce keeper of the family heirloom, legendary playwright August Wilson’s timeless classic of his 1987 Pulitzer prize-winning play, THE PIANO LESSON, gets a powerful adaptation by Malcolm Washington; setting the highest mark for what movies can, and should, aspire to.
Born in Los Angeles to an exceptionally-talented creative family who have shared their wide-ranging talents with us in series such as I’M A VIRGO and a plethora of films too numerous to list including TENET, FENCES, THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH and one of the greatest biographies in the history of cinema, MALCOLM X, Washington entered the film world through his parents, Pauletta and Denzel Washington, eventually settling on a path in front of the camera.
Following his degree in Film Studies at U Penn and his MFA as a Directing Fellow at the prestigious American Film Institute, Washington made a remarkable short film, BENNY GOT SHOT, for which he received numerous accolades. He followed that up by instilling his own rhythmic world onto the Wilson masterwork.
In a recent Criterion Closet pick session, Washington illustrated his great reverence for master filmmakers and films — Krzysztof Kieslowski’s DEKALOG: FIVE, Andrei Tarkovsky’s THE MIRROR, and The Dardennes’ THE KID WITH A BIKE. Further, he stated that “if you see UMBELLAS OF CHERBOURG and DO THE RIGHT THING you see artists in dialogue”.
Veteran Producer Todd Black had this to say about Washington, “He’s always had a love for film. Seeing him grow into the visionary filmmaker he is today is amazing. He’s worked hard, studied filmmaking at the highest level, and now he’s creating incredible work.”
LAGFF is honored to announce that Malcolm Washington will present the Honorary Orpheus Award to multi-award-winning Composer, Alexandre Desplat, on May 31, Closing Night of the 20th edition of Los Angeles Greek Film Festival.
With support from Villa Albertine.