Michael Yezerski
Australian composer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Yezerski (born and raised in Sydney) is an Australian composer known for his scores for feature films such as The Waiting City, The Black Balloon (for which he won an APRA Award[1] and a Screen Music Award),[2] Newcastle, and Thursday's Fictions, as well as collaborations with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Gondwana Voices Children's Choir (such as an adaptation of Shaun Tan's book The Red Tree),[3] the National Museum of Canberra, Synergy Percussion and The Physical TV Company.
In an interview with Headliner Magazine, Yezerski discussed composing the score for 2019 horror film, The Vigil: "Why have there been so many horror films that have explored the various denominations of Christianity and demons and devils and everything associated with Christianity, but there has hardly ever been a film that explores the dark side of Jewish mysticism? I'm Jewish myself, so this is exactly the question that I've been asking. What I love about horror films, and dark, edgy films, in general – there's so much creative license to play with musical effects in non traditional ways. It's really fun as a composer."
Filmography as composer
Film
| Title | Year | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Ah Hu's Retreat | 2001 | Documentary short film |
| A Matter of Life | Short film | |
| The Other Son | Short film | |
| No Surrender | 2002 | Short film |
| Broken Beat | 2005 | Short film |
| Burma's Open Road: An Insight Into Myanymar | 2007 | Documentary |
| Skin | Short film | |
| La même nuit | Short film | |
| Cross Life | ||
| Thursday's Fictions | ||
| Reincarnating Thursday's Fictions | 2008 | Documentary |
| Night Train | Short film | |
| Sisters | Documentary short film | |
| The Last Mahout | Documentary | |
| The Black Balloon | ||
| Newcastle | ||
| Storm Surfers, Dangerous Banks | Documentary | |
| Echo | 2009 | Short film |
| The Waiting City | ||
| Seamstress | 2010 | Short film |
| Stay Awake | Short film | |
| Providence Park | Short film | |
| The Lost Thing | Short film | |
| Pop | Short film | |
| Little Hands | 2011 | Short film |
| The Gold Pen | Short film | |
| The Outback | 2012 | |
| Boo! | Short film; theme music composer | |
| Storm Surfers 3D | Documentary | |
| Mental | ||
| Inhuman Resources | ||
| A Man Walks Into a Bar | 2013 | Short film |
| Drift | ||
| The Last Impresario | Documentary | |
| Baby Baby | 2014 | Short film |
| Flyboy | Short film | |
| Transformers: Age of Extinction | additional music | |
| The Little Death | ||
| Only the Dead | 2015 | Documentary |
| Talk to Someone | Short film | |
| The Devil's Candy | ||
| Shiny | 2016 | Short film |
| The Ravens | Short film | |
| We Don't Belong Here | 2017 | |
| The Beehive | Short film | |
| Blindspotting | 2018 | |
| The Vigil | 2019 | |
| Dangerous Animals | 2025 | |
| Ice Road: Vengeance |
Television
| Title | Year | Note(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Undercover Angels: Sex, Spies, and Surveillance | 2005 | Documentary |
| The Sun's Search for the Moon | 2007 | Mini-series |
| Lani's Story | 2010 | Documentary |
| Storm Surfers: New Zealand | Television film | |
| A Place to Call Home | 2013–present | |
| Carlotta | 2014 | Television film |
| Winter | 2015 | |
| House of Hancock | Miniseries | |
| Catching Milat | Miniseries | |
| Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door | Miniseries | |
| Home and Away: An Eye for an Eye | Television film | |
| Wanted | 2016–present | |
| Hyde & Seek | ||
| The Secret Daughter | ||
| Confess | 2017 | 1 episode: "They're All Confessions" |
| Blindspotting | 2021–2023 |
Awards and nominations
APRA Music Awards
The APRA Music Awards are sets of annual awards to celebrate excellence in contemporary music, which honour the skills of member composers, songwriters and publishers who have achieved outstanding success in sales and airplay performance. They are presented by APRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society), which commenced in 1982.[4] The APRA Awards include the Screen Music Awards, which were first presented in 2002 by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC).[5][6] The APRA Awards also include the Art Music Music Awards (formerly Classical Music Awards), which are distributed by APRA AMCOS and the Australian Music Centre (AMC) since 2001.[7]
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | No Surrender (Michael Yezerski) | Best Music for a Short Film | Won | [8] |
| 2006 | Cape of Storms (Yezerski, Richard Tognetti, Afro Moses, Chris Nelius) | Best Music for a Documentary | Nominated | [9] [10] |
| Thursday's Fictions (Yezerski) | Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie | Nominated | ||
| "Aria" (Yezerski) from Thursday's Fiction | Best Original Song Composed for the Screen | Won | ||
| Thursday's Fictions (Yezerski) | Best Soundtrack Album | Nominated | ||
| 2008 | "The Greatest Act in History" (Yezerski) from The Black Balloon | Best Original Song Composed for the Screen | Nominated | [11] [12] |
| "When We Get There" (Josh Pyke, Yezerski) from The Black Balloon | Best Original Song Composed for the Screen | Won | ||
| The Black Balloon (Yezerski) | Best Soundtrack Album | Won | ||
| 2009 | The Red Tree (Yezerski, Tognetti) | Best Composition by an Australian Composer | Nominated | [13] [14] |
| 2010 | The Waiting City (Yezerski) | Best Feature Film Score | Nominated | [15] [16] |
| The Lost Thing (Yezerski) | Best Music for a Short Film | Won | ||
| 2011 | SBS – "Films 2" (Yezerski) | Best Music for an Advertisement | Nominated | [17] [18] [19] |
| The Lost Thing (Yezerski) | Best Soundtrack Album | Nominated | ||
| 2012 | Storms Surfers 3D (Tognetti, Yezerski) | Feature Film Score of the Year | Nominated | [20] [21] |
| 2013 | Storms Surfers 3D (Tognetti, Yezerski) | Best Soundtrack Album | Nominated | [22] [23] |
| 2016 | Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door (Yezerski, Ashley Irwin) | Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie | Nominated | [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] |
| Ravens (Yezerski, Helen Grimley) | Best Music for a Short Film | Nominated | ||
| Wanted "Series 1 Episode 6" (Yezerski) | Best Music for a Television Series or Serial | Nominated | ||
| Only the Dead (Yezerski) | Best Soundtrack Album | Nominated | ||
| 2019 | Dead Lucky (Yezerski) | Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie | Won | [29] [30] [31] |
| Dead Lucky (Yezerski) | Best Television Theme | Nominated | ||
| 2020 | The Vigil (Yezerski) | Feature Film Score of the Year | Nominated | [32] [33] |
| Yezerski | Most Performed Screen Composer – Overseas | Nominated | ||
| 2021 | The Tax Collector (Yezerski) | Feature Film Score of the Year | Nominated | [34] [35] |
| The Vigil (Yezerski) | Best Soundtrack Album | Nominated | ||
| Yezerski | Most Performed Screen Composer – Overseas | Nominated | ||
| 2022 | Blindspotting (Yezerski, Ambrose Akinmusire) | Best Music for a Television Series or Serial | Nominated | [36] [37] |
| 2023 | Ivy + Bean (Yezerski) | Best Music for Children's Programming | Won | [38] [39] |
| Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities: Episode 5: "Pickman's Model" (Yezerski) | Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie | Nominated | ||
| Ivy + Bean (Yezerski) | Best Television Theme | Won |