Michael Yezerski

Yezerski at the 2024 WonderCon

Michael Yezerski 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

References

1. "The Black Balloon and Underbelly claim music honours". The Age . Melbourne. 4 November 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
2. Mengel, Noel (5 November 2008). "Stevie Wonder, Tim Finn bring tears of joy". Courier Mail . Retrieved 28 December 2009.
3. Wilson, Ashleigh (4 July 2008). "Music completes the picture". The Australian . Retrieved 28 December 2009.
4. "History". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS). Archived from the original on 20 September 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
5. "Categories". APRA AMCOS. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
6. "Screen Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
7. "Classical Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 28 April 2010.
8. "2002 Winners - Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 8 March 2011. Retrieved 27 April 2011.
9. "2006 Winners - Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
10. "2006 Nominations - Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2010.
11. "2008 Winners - Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 8 March 2011. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
12. "2008 Nominations - Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 8 March 2011. Retrieved 29 April 2010.
13. "Winners – Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
14. "Nominations – Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
15. "2010 Winners - Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 18 November 2010.
16. "2010 Nominations - Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 18 November 2010.
17. "2011 Winners – Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). Archived from the original on 26 January 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
18. "Nominations > Best Music for an Advertisement". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). Archived from the original on 14 May 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
19. "Nominations > Best Soundtrack Album". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
20. "2012 Winners – Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). Archived from the original on 14 April 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
21. "Nominations > Feature Film Score of the Year". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). Archived from the original on 17 May 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
22. "Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
23. "Best Soundtrack Album". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
24. "Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2016.
25. "Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
26. "Best Music for a Short Film". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
27. "Best Music for a Television Series or Serial". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
28. "Best Soundtrack Album". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2016. Archived from the original on 12 November 2018. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
29. "Screen Music Awards". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2019. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
30. "Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2019. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
31. "Best Television Theme". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS) | Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC). 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
32. "Screen Music Awards: Full List of Winners & Nominees". APRA AMCOS Australia. 2020. Archived from the original on 27 December 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
33. "2020 Screen Music Awards winners announced". APRA AMCOS Australia. 1 December 2020. Archived from the original on 27 December 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
34. "Screen Music Awards: Full List of Winners & Nominees". APRA AMCOS Australia. 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
35. "Congratulations to the 2021 Screen Music Awards winners". APRA AMCOS Australia. 22 February 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
36. "Screen Music Awards: Full List of Winners & Nominees". APRA AMCOS Australia. 2022. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
37. "2022 Screen Music Awards Winners Announced". APRA AMCOS Australia. 15 November 2022. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
38. "2023 Screen Music Awards Nominees Revealed". APRA AMCOS. AGSC. 5 October 2023. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
39. "2023 Screen Music Awards Winners Announced". APRA AMCOS. AGSC. 9 November 2023. Retrieved 17 November 2023.

External links

• Official website
• Michael Yezerski at IMDb
• Michael Yezerski discography at Discogs