Jed Kurzel

Jed Kurzel
Kurzel live with The Mess Hall in 2009
Background information
Born	Jed Danyel Kurzel 1976 (age 49–50) Gawler, South Australia, Australia
Genres	Blues rock indie rock garage rock
Occupations	Musician, composer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar

Jed Danyel Kurzel (born 1976) is an Australian singer-songwriter-guitarist and film composer. He is a founding member of The Mess Hall (from 2001), a blues rock duo. His older brother Justin Kurzel is a film director and screenwriter.

Life and career

Main article: The Mess Hall

Kurzel was born in c.1976 and, with his older brother Justin Kurzel (born c.1974), grew up in Gawler, South Australia. ^{[1] [2]} Their father, Zdzislaw Kurzel (1946–2006), was from Poland and had migrated to Australia in 1960, where he became a taxi driver. ^{[3] [4] [5]} In the 1990s, Kurzel moved to Sydney, where Justin was studying at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). ^[2]

In 2001 Kurzel on lead vocals and guitar, Anthony Johnsen on drums and a bass guitarist formed a blues-rock group, the Mess Hall in Sydney – the bass guitarist soon left but was not replaced, they continued as a duo. ^[6] Kurzel recalled "When the clubs asked us where our bass player was, we used to lie and say he was sick." ^[6] Their debut album The Mess Hall was released in June 2003. In early 2004 Johnsen was replaced by Cec Condon on drums and vocals. ^[7] Their third album Devils Elbow (October 2007) won the Australian Music Prize. ^[8]

In 2000 Kurzel composed the film score for the short subject, Sammy Blue, at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, with Kim Farrant directing. ^{[9] [10]} He worked for Farrant again: providing the score for Naked on the Inside (2006), a feature film documentary on body image. ^[10] In 2009 he composed music for Castor & Pollux, a short film, directed by Ben Briand. ^[11]

In 2011 Kurzel provided the music score for the directorial debut feature film by Justin, Snowtown . ^[12] At the APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awards of 2011 Kurzel won Feature Film Score of the Year. ^[13] It was nominated for Australian Film Institute Award for Best Original Music Score. ^[14] The related soundtrack album was nominated for ARIA Award for Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album in that same year. ^{[15] [16]}

Kurzel also wrote the scores for Son of a Gun , Slow West and the documentary All This Mayhem . In 2015, he worked again with his brother on Macbeth , followed by Assassin's Creed in 2016. He replaced Harry Gregson-Williams as the composer of Alien: Covenant . ^[17]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Studio(s)	Notes
2011	Snowtown	Justin Kurzel	Screen Australia Madman Entertainment	First collaboration with Justin Kurzel Soundtrack released by Ivy League Records APRA Music Award for Feature Film Score of the Year [18] Nominated — ARIA Award for Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album [19] Nominated — AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score [20]
2012	Dead Europe	Tony Krawitz	See-Saw Films	Nominated — AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score [21]
2014	Son of a Gun	Julius Avery	Screen Australia A24	First collaboration with Julius Avery Soundtrack released by Milan Records
	The Babadook	Jennifer Kent	Entertainment One Umbrella Entertainment	First collaboration with Jennifer Kent Soundtrack released by Waxwork Records
2015	Slow West	John Maclean	Film4 Productions Lionsgate Films	Soundtrack released by Sony Classical Records
	Macbeth	Justin Kurzel	StudioCanal The Weinstein Company	Second collaboration with Justin Kurzel Soundtrack released by Decca Records
2016	Assassin's Creed		Regency Enterprises Ubisoft Motion Pictures 20th Century Fox	Third collaboration with Justin Kurzel Soundtrack released by Decca Records and Verve Records
	Una	Benedict Andrews	Film4 Productions Thunderbird Releasing
2017	Alien: Covenant	Ridley Scott	Scott Free Productions 20th Century Fox	Replaced Harry Gregson-Williams Themes by Jerry Goldsmith Soundtrack released by Milan Records
	Jupiter's Moon	Kornél Mundruczó	ZDF/Arte Match Factory Productions Pyramide Films	Soundtrack released by Milan Records
2018	The Nightingale	Jennifer Kent	Bron Studios IFC Films Transmission Films	Second collaboration with Jennifer Kent
	Overlord	Julius Avery	Bad Robot Paramount Pictures	Second collaboration with Julius Avery Soundtrack released by Paramount Music
2019	The Mustang	Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre	Légende Films Focus Features	Soundtrack released by Back Lot Music
	Seberg	Benedict Andrews	Phreaker Films Amazon Studios
	True History of the Kelly Gang	Justin Kurzel	Daybreak Pictures Porchlight Films Memento Films	Fourth collaboration with Justin Kurzel
2021	A Writer's Odyssey	Lu Yang	CMC Productions
	Nitram	Justin Kurzel	Good Thing Productions	Fifth collaboration with Justin Kurzel
	Encounter	Michael Pearce	Amazon Studios Film4 Productions
2023	The Pope's Exorcist	Julius Avery	Screen Gems	Third Collaboration with Julius Avery
2024	Monkey Man	Dev Patel	Universal Pictures	Replaced Volker Bertelmann
	The Order	Justin Kurzel	Amazon Studios	Sixth collaboration with Justin Kurzel
2025	Echo Valley	Michael Pearce	Apple Studios	Second collaboration with Michael Pearce
	Tornado	John Maclean	Lionsgate

Television

Year	Title	Studio	Director	Notes
2010-2011	Spirited	Northside Productions / Southern Star Entertainment	-	Australian TV series (18 episodes)
2025	The Narrow Road to the Deep North	Amazon MGM Studios	Justin Kurzel	Miniseries

Documentaries

Year	Title	Director	Studio(s)	Notes
2007	Naked on the Inside	Kim Farrant	Magic Real Picture Company
2014	All This Mayhem	Eddie Martin	Hopscotch Films	AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score in a Documentary [22]

Shorts

Year	Title	Director	Studio(s)
2000	Sammy Blue	Kim Farrant	AFTRS
2007	The Rose of Ba Ziz	Aden Young
2009	Castor & Pollux	Ben Briand	Benah
2014	Dook Stole Christmas	Jennifer Kent	Smoking Gun Productions

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony held by the Australian Recording Industry Association. They commenced in 1987.

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result	Ref.
2011	Snowtown	Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album	Nominated	[23]

External links

• Jed Kurzel at IMDb
• Jed Kurzel discography at Discogs

References

1. Quinn, Karl (1 October 2015). "Jed Kurzel on why Macbeth echoes Snowtown and how the score was almost electronic". The Sydney Morning Herald . Fairfax Media . Retrieved 25 March 2016.
2. Ross, Annabel (29 November 2014). "Two of us: Justin and Jed Kurzel". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
3. Gibbs, Ed (21 May 2015). "Cannes 2015: After Snowtown and Macbeth, Kurzel brothers to make sports comedy". The Age . Fairfax Media. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
4. "Item details for: A12009, 1011-1015". National Archives of Australia . Retrieved 25 March 2016.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
5. Winterford, Brett (1 May 2008). "The Mess Hall – Gig Reviews". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
6. "It takes two … to play the blues". The Age. Fairfax Media. 15 June 2003. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
7. Jed Kurzel Archived 26 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine , thebabadook.com, access date 2 November 2015
8. Winners Archived 17 July 2016 at the Wayback Machine , thecoopersamp.com.au, access date 2 November 2015
9. "Sammy Blue". Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). National Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 1 February 2006. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
10. "Naked on the Inside" (PDF). Compétition Longs Métrages Documentaires (in French). International Festival of Films de Femmes de Créteil. 2008. p. 41. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
11. "TIFF52 – Screenings" (in Greek). Thessaloniki International Film Festival. 8 November 2011. Archived from the original on 4 April 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
12. Interview with Jed Kurzel, filmmusicmag.com, access date 2 November 2015
13. "Feature Film Score of the Year". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2011. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
14. "Jed Kurzel's Snowtown Score Nominated for AACTA Award". Ivy League. 1 December 2001. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
15. "The Countdown Begins....Nominations Announced". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). 11 October 2011. Archived from the original on 16 October 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
16. "2011 ARIA Awards Winners By Year". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
17. "Jed Kurzel to Score Ridley Scott's 'Alien: Covenant'". 25 December 2016.
18. "2011 Screen Music Awards - Winners and Nominees". APRA. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
19. "2011 ARIA Nominations Announced". Take 40. Take 40 Australia (MCM Entertainment). 12 October 2011. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
20. "1st AACTA Awards - Past Winners and Nominees". AACTA. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
21. "3rd AACTA Awards - Past Winners and Nominees". AACTA. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
22. "4th AACTA Awards - Past Winners and Nominees". AACTA. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
23. ARIA Award previous winners. "History Best Original Soundtrack, Cast or Show Album". Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). Retrieved 16 July 2022.