Audrey Ismaël

Singer-songwriter Audrey Ismaël embodies the flair of the self-taught: an innate sense of rhythm, a visceral connection to music, and a taste for adventure. Her Réunionese roots gave her a love of polyrhythms and an instinctive way of drawing melodic lines and orchestrations from deep within, in order to accompany characters on their journeys onscreen.

Her own journey seems to follow a steady current, tracing a remarkably coherent path. It all began with a foundation of friendship: in 2011, she co-founded the duo Smoking Smoking with Vanessa Filho. Together, they wrote, sang, and released a critically acclaimed album, It’s All About Love.

Songwriting sparked in Audrey Ismaël a desire to compose for film, leading her to co-write the original score for Vanessa Filho’s first feature, Angel Face (Gueule d’ange, 2018), alongside Olivier Coursier (of AaRON). The film was selected for the “Un Certain Regard” section at the Cannes Film Festival.

She has since continued her exploration by composing the original music for several television series: Les Grands by Vianney Lebasque, Germinal by David Hourrègue, and Vortex by Slimane-Baptiste Berhoun. Her work was honored with the Best Score Award at the La Rochelle Festival in both 2019 and 2022.

In 2023 and 2024, she composed for four films, each portraying resilient coming-of-age journeys of young women. These include Consent (Le Consentement) by Vanessa Filho, The Royal Way (La Voie royale) by Frédéric Mermoud, and two noteworthy debuts featured at the 77th Cannes Film Festival: Wild Diamond (Diamant brut) by Agathe Riedinger (Official Competition) and The Kingdom (Le Royaume) by Julien Colonna (Un Certain Regard). In these scores, she explores the emotional range of the cello—a favorite instrument for its voice-like quality and its deep, visceral resonance that seems to echo the souls of the characters.

Whenever possible, she works the material, the texture of sound, the breath itself; weaving the organic with the electronic, exploring instrumental timbres, even pushing their limits to reach the subconscious of both the film and its audience.

With Marmaille, the debut feature by Grégory Lucilly (set for release on December 4, 2024), she returns to her homeland of Réunion. There, she fully embraces the artisanal search for sound, blending maloya influences with traditional Réunionese music—and lends her own voice to the final lullaby, which she sings in Creole.

Audrey Ismaël enjoys the challenge of bringing intimacy and emotional depth to music in genre films or epic narratives. In March 2025, The Secret of Khéops (Le Secret de Khéops), the first feature by Barbara Schultz starring Fabrice Luchini and Julia Piaton, will hit theaters. It’s an adventure film in which she combines Egyptian percussion and the sound of the oud with Eastern-infused rock tones—a way of opening borders, bringing worlds together, and telling stories in a democratic, universal language.

From December 14 to 21, 2024, the Les Arcs Film Festival will honor Audrey Ismaël with the “Breakthrough Composer for Film” award.

In 2025, she is working on several series and feature films, including Belphegor, the first series produced by Pathé (for M6 / HBO), and Enchaînés, produced by Tetra Media for France Télévisions. She is also composing the original scores for La Maison des Femmes, the debut feature by Melisa Godet, and Badh, the second film by Guillaume de Fontenay.