Alexandre Desplat (1961–present)

Alexandre Desplat is a French composer and conductor, and one of the most acclaimed film composers of his generation. Born in Paris to a French father and a Greek mother, he grew up bilingual and immersed in a wide range of musical traditions, studying flute and composition and drawing on classical, jazz, and world-music influences. He has said that hearing John Williams's Star Wars score in 1977 helped set him on the path to film scoring.

Desplat composed prolifically for French cinema through the 1980s and 1990s before his international breakthrough with Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003). A remarkably fast and versatile writer, he became one of Hollywood's most in-demand composers while continuing to work in European cinema, scoring films for directors including Wes Anderson, Stephen Frears, Roman Polanski, Terrence Malick, and Guillermo del Toro.

His many honours include two Academy Awards for Best Original Score, for Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and del Toro's The Shape of Water (2017), along with numerous further Oscar, BAFTA, César, and Grammy recognitions. His scores — noted for their delicate orchestration, rhythmic ingenuity, and distinctive use of woodwinds and strings — range from intimate chamber textures to large-scale blockbusters such as the final Harry Potter films and Godzilla.