Being a film music supervisor demands a finely tuned ear, a talent for coordination, creative vision and above all, patience. Pierre-Marie Dru has been honing these skills for over 20 years.

One of the go-to professionals in the industry, his credits include Jacques Audiard's 2024 musicalEmilia Perez a four-year collaboration which went on to win a slew of prizes, including the Oscar for Best Original Song.

Four more films he worked on were featured at this year'sCannes Fim Festival: World War I dramaCoward, directed by Belgian Lukas Dhont;Agns Jaoui's opera comedyCrescendo; the animationLucy Lost by Olivier Clert, and biopicDe Gaulleby Antonin Baudry.

RFI met him inCannesto discuss how he got into film music, his career highlights, industry challenges, and whether artificial intelligence could one day impact his profession.

Pierre-Marie Dru has been working for more than 20 years as a film music supervisor.

RFI: What does a film music supervisor do?

Pierre-Marie Dru:A music supervisor is someone who works behind the scenes and helps the composer, director and producer create the music. Sometimes it's very technical, sometimes legal, sometimes artistic, sometimes it's about the composer and director communicating with each other.

At the beginning, it's a delicate process. Telling them they're on the right track is about building trust, because when you listen to a finishedfilmscore, you think it's great but before that, you hesitate, you don't know if it's the right music, and so you have to help them through that. It's very intuitive.

There are more structured things, like how you work with a singer or an orchestral musician on a film set. How do you shoot a film with music, how do you record it? And then there's a whole other aspect: how we go from the original music to the additional music. Sometimes we buy music, so we have to negotiate that's the legal side of things. And we manage the overall music budget. So in discussion with the composer and the director, we decide where we're going to spend the money, when, whether we need to record a soloist very early on to introduce the theme to the rest of the team...

It's always different. But the idea is to guide this trio composer, producer, director to create the best possible music in the end.

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RFI:Are you a musician by training? What led you to this career?

PMD:The starting point is that I'm a music lover. From my childhood to my adolescence, I spent all my time listening to music... I was interested in all kinds of music, but in a very amateur way. I also play guitar, but it's more for myself.

I studied architecture, which is another part of building my career. It means thinking about how, when you have a script, a film will come together. Its like building a house. What is the floor plan? Which entrance, door, window; how many floors do you want to design? I think a bit about space, the spatialisation of a film. Choosing to study architecture helped me with that.

Actor Simon Abkarian in "De Gaulle", directed by Antonin Baudry and screened at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

RFI: You worked withJacques Audiardon the award-winning film Emilia Perez. What has stayed with you from that project?

PMD:What was so special about this film was that Jacques, [singer-songwriter] Camille and [composer] Clment [Ducol] started with a blank page, and watching them dive into it was fascinating. Being around such great creators is a real privilege. Initially, they didn't intend to make a film. They wanted to create a kind ofThreepenny Opera. So we started working on a sort of show together.

Before it became a film, there's a key moment I often like to talk about. Jacques was having trouble integrating the songs into his story, so we made a kind ofpodcast. What was supposed to take three days took three months. But we recorded voices, added sound and incorporated songs that were popular at the time, songs that have changed a lot since then.

Another moment that I find truly crucial, aside from the obvious quality of the story and the performances of all the actresses, was the work on the score on everything that isn't the songs or the music. Camille and Clment did something quite brilliant; they really insisted on working with the voice, which is the main element of this soundtrack. I think we're all touched by this film, for different reasons, but the fact that the most beautiful instrument in the world, the human voice, is present in this film, and not just in the songs, is truly important.

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"Emilia Perez" actor Zoe Saldana (L) with Camille and Clment Ducol, whose song "El Mal" won Best Original Song at the 2025 Academy Awards.

RFI: How do you choose a project? What attracts you to one film more than another?

PMD:I've been doing this job for 20 years, so there are different periods. Obviously, I've enjoyed all the work I've done over the last 20 years... I was happy as well as when I had the chance to work with Agns Jaoui [onCrescendo], someone I've admired since her first films. When you're a fan, it's pretty fantastic to be able to work with people you admire so much.

And then there are young directors like Lukas Dhont who call me and I jump on a train and go to Belgium to have dinner with him and start talking about this incredible film [Coward]. There are no rules.

Above all, there's no snobbery about anything. I love working on all sorts of different things: live performances, independent films, animated films, children's films, films for American streaming platforms, series... It's great. In this case, the real luxury is being able to work on such diverse projects. I'm very curious about people, and I enjoy listening to and supporting directors with different visions. That's one of the joys of my job.

A scene from the film "Coward" directed by Lukas Dhont, in competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

RFI: What are the difficulties and challenges of your profession?

PMD:It's important to talk about the music. I'm optimistic that producers and directors today pay attention to the musical aspect, perhaps more so than when I started out.

However, there are real budget problems. Producing a film is complicated. And the music, in fact, comes last because first you have to shoot. The actors need to be able to express themselves fully. So you have to dedicate a lot of time, energy and money to it. Post-production is variable depending on special effects. In a way, music gets the budget that's left.

But there are things to stand up for, and I always say it's a serious matter. It might sound fanciful, but you have to devote special thought to the music early in a film, because you have to earmark a budget for it. Sometimes films only need small music budgets, but other films require a lot of money for the music, and so it's important to discuss this early on. I'm fortunate enough to be able to talk to directors and producers about this very early in the process, and to tell them: "I haven't always set aside a large budget for the film's music, but seriously consider the number of people who will have to work on it and ensure they are paid fairly." So this is a real issue: the money allocated to film music.

Then there's the question of timing. When should we do what? When should we compose? When should we go into the studio? When should we play the music? When everything is fragile, and the ideas are fragile, you have to defend them. That's my job.

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RFI: Are you surprised there isn't an official prize for music atCannes?

PMD:I know that the festival and its president pay very close attention to film composers. It's true that an award would help them gain more exposure. I was talking about budgets earlier. It's obviously important; when you showcase the music and the work of the composers, it helps the entire profession, along with the whole team around it, the entire music ecosystem.

So I'm obviously in favour of having an award for music at Cannes. I'd prefer it to be part of the competition. Beyond that, I think we can also do things around it to raise awareness and promote music more effectively. And I think these issues are moving in the right direction.

RFI: A lot of people are worried aboutartificial intelligenceand its impact on the film industry. What's your view?

PMD:I'm worried and optimistic. It's very complicated. I'm thinking about future generations. I've been lucky enough to do this job for 20 years, and I know very well that there will be music composed by AI. It's happening, it's starting.

I spend so much time with directors and composers talking about how music is made. It's such a handcrafted process that I find it hard to imagine all of that being replaced by AI. I see more and more young directors who are passionate about music and want to work with composers of their generation, especially female composers, young people. All this makes me optimistic.

I think we're going to have to be very careful about all of this. I believe that what interests us all, and why we have a festival like Cannes, is the collective experience it's about doing things between human beings and there's nothing better than music, getting together in a studio and making music. We can certainly do things with AI, but I don't think we'll replace human beings and great artists.

Originally published on RFI