Dario Marianelli

Born in Pisa, Dario Marianelli has built a reputation as an Italian composer whose output spans both the concert hall and the cinema. He is recognized above all for his repeated partnerships with director Joe Wright, resulting in the scores for Pride and Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), and Anna Karenina (2012). Each of those works earned Academy Award nominations, and Atonement claimed the prize in February 2008.

Marianelli began his musical training in Pisa at the age of six, serving as a chorister while learning piano and voice. Once his voice changed, he turned his full attention to the keyboard and to composition. He pursued private lessons and sat external examinations in Florence, Lucca, and Livorno before relocating to England. There he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, followed by three further years at the National Film and Television School. His first film assignment arrived in 1994, when he scored Paddy Breathnach’s Ailsa.

Throughout the following ten years Marianelli wrote music for I Went Down (1997), Julian Temple’s Pandaemonium (2000), David Thewlis’ Cheeky (2003), and Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm (2005). The 2005 release Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley, initiated his collaboration with Wright. In addition to receiving nominations from the European Film Awards and the International Film Music Critics Association, the score was nominated for the Oscar for Best Original Score.

Marianelli’s compositions appeared in V for Vendetta (2006) and The Brave One (2007) before he rejoined Wright for Atonement, whose release rolled out across different markets from the latter half of 2007 into early 2008. He received the Academy Award for that score in February 2008. Their next joint project was The Soloist (2009). Subsequent assignments included Eat Pray Love (2010), Lasse Hallström’s Salmon Fishing in Yemen (2011), and the 2011 adaptation of Jane Eyre starring Mia Wasikowska. In 2013 Marianelli collected his third Oscar nomination for Anna Karenina (2012).

Later scores encompassed the animated feature The Boxtrolls (2014), the mountaineering drama Everest (2015), and Darkest Hour (2017), Wright’s portrait of Winston Churchill and the fifth film on which the two artists worked together. Marianelli also replaced Nick Urata on Paddington 2, which reached American theaters in January 2018.