25/02/2013 - Danish pianist-composer – and Grammy winner – Bent Fabricius-Bjerre will receive an Honorary Bodil trophy from the Danish Film Critics' Association

Danish composer Bent Fabricius-Bjerre (photo) wrote his first musical score for a film in 1949 – a short, Opus 1; his 113rd screen credit will be Danish director Jørgen Lerdam’sfully-animated The Olsen Gang in Deep Trouble,which Nordisk Film Distribution will release on October 10.

The signature tunes of The Olsen Gang merchandise – 11 films between 1968-1981, a 14th in 1998 - and the Matador televisionseries, originally aired between 1978-1981 and currently concluding its sixth re-transmission on Danish pubcaster DR, are among Fabricius-Bjerre’s works for film and TV that have become national treasures.

The 88-year-old pianist and composer will receive an Honorary Bodil trophy, when the Danish Film Critics’ Association on March 16 celebrates Danish cinema and its latest achievements at the annual Bodil awards ceremony in Copenhagen’s Bremen Teater, hosted by Mikael Bertelsen.

“For a lifetime – no, for two or three – Fabricius-Bjerre has made songs and soundtracks for Danish films more cheerful, be it for Forelsket i København, Jeg er sgu min egen, the Olsen Gang or Flickering Lights,” said the associations chairman, Danish critic Jacob Wendt Jensen.

Educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Fabricius-Bjerre in 1950 set up the record company, Metronome, which he later expanded to include film production and distribution, cinemas, video and television (Sandrew-Metronome). After he sold the concern in 1996, he has concentrated on music.

He scored his first film in 1959, and besides screen and television music he has signed several compositions for the stage, including musicals and four ballets (from Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, commissioned by the Royal Danish Theatre). Bent Fabric – his international alias – was awarded a Grammy for Alley Cat in 1962.