Amine Bouhafa

MASTERCLASS

Born in 1986, French-Tunisian Composer Amine Bouhafa began to play the piano at the tender age of three. A few years later, he was offered a place at the National Music Conservatoire in Tunis from which he graduated at the age of twelve. He quickly embarked on a career as a pianist and arranger, and composed his first score for a short film. Bouhafa gained more experience by working on a number of series and feature films and joined the Conservatoire de Paris (CRR) to study Harmony and Orchestration.

Drawing on his bi-cultural background, Amine Bouhafa developed his own personal style, whilst avoiding the usual clichés of Orientalism. As a result of the quality of his compositions and the originality of his style, he was chosen by producer Sylvie Pialat and Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako to compose the score for Timbuktu. In 2015, the film was honoured with, among other distinctions, no less than seven Cesar Awards, including one for Best Original Music. This score also earned Amine Bouhafa the Special Award France Musique – SACEM 2015.

For this occasion, he was invited to put together a concert piece for the Philarmonic Orchestra of Radio France. His symphonic suite Tolérances & Interdits created one year later met with general acclaim from the general public, as well as professionals and critics.

In 2017, Amine Bouhafa composed the score for Beauty and the Dogs by Kaouther Ben Hania, which was screened at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the official selection of Un Certain Regard, and received the Best Sound Creation Award. Furthermore, he wrote the score for Looking for Oum Kulthum, a film by Shirin Neshat screened at the 74^th Venice Mostra.

Masterclass moderated by Hubert Charrier.
Hubert Charrier is the creator of La Grande Évasion, a webradio station entirely dedicated to film soundtracks.