After graduating from high school in Esslingen/N., he received a scholarship from the Berklee College of Music, but decided to study at the Folkwang University of the Arts, where he studied from 1992 to 1998 and graduated with an artistic diploma.
He composed the music for the Oscar-nominated cinema documentary “Of Fathers and Sons”. In addition to being nominated for the Academy Award 2019 in the Best Documentary category, the film was also nominated for the Independent Spirit Award 2019 for Best Documentary and won the World Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival 2018, among others. The film has also screened at over 100 festivals worldwide and received over 30 awards. The music was praised in the “Hollywood Reporter”.
FARUK by Asli Özge with the film music by Elias was awarded the “FIPRESCI Jury Award for Best Film at Berlinale Panorama” by the international film critics at the 74th Berlinale in 2024. He composed a tonal and atonal string quintet as the heart of the film music for FARUK, which he recorded with musicians from the Staatskapelle Halle. Der Tagesspiegel, Der Rollingstone and Tip! counted “Faruk” among the recommended films at the Berlinale.
In 2023 he was nominated for the second time in the category COMPOSITION AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA for the GERMAN MUSIC AUTHORS’ AWARD 2020/21 of GEMA.
In 2021, he composed the music for “Ku’damm 63”, one of the most successful fictional programs in the ZDF Mediathek. The soundtrack reached number 2 in the soundtrack charts. As part of the Halle Film Music Days in November 2021, the Staatskapelle Halle played a symphonic suite at the opera.
In 2024, he composed the music for Irene von Alberti’s contemporary adaptation of Robert Merle’s novel dystopia “The Protected Men”, recorded with the Staatskapelle Halle, which premiered at the Munich Film Festival.
He produced the songs for “Die Ironie des Lebens” (Warner) by Markus Goller with Corinna Harfouch and Uwe Ochsenknecht.
“A woman and a man sit in front of a white grand piano and sing a duet. It could be terribly kitschy if it weren’t for Corinna Harfouch singing – completely unaffected. Uwe Ochsenknecht only has to carefully join in with “Halt Dich an Deiner Liebe fest” by Ton Steine Scherben. It’s one of the most beautiful moments in “Die Ironie des Lebens”, because during the song two people who had been far apart move a little closer together again on the piano stool.”
— Walli Müller, NDR Kultur
He composed the music for the multi-award-winning feature film “RHYTHM IS IT!”, which was awarded the GERMAN and the BAVARIAN FILM PRIZE, among others. He recorded the music with the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. His film music for the television film “Treasure Island” and “Bella Block – White Nights” was awarded the GERMAN TELEVISION PRIZE in the “Best Music” category.
For the Warner movie “Die Ironie des Lebens” by Markus Goller, he produced songs with Corinna Harfouch and Uwe Ochsenknecht.
The film music for “Die zweite Welle” (“The second wave”), one of the most successful series of 2024 on ZDF Mediathek, was composed by Elias, who traveled to Bangkok to record the soundtrack for the series together with Thai artists.
“In ‘Die zweite Welle’, I confront my characters with the blind spots in their self-image, forcing them to confront an old guilt – while Karim catches them again and again with his wonderful and sensitive music, carrying them through the story and ensuring that they never lose their dignity.”
— Sarah Schnier (Showrunner „Die zweite Welle“)
Rollingstone review of the film music for „Die zweite Welle“
“For the six-part series, I spent four weeks in Thailand making recordings. Firstly, I used field recording to capture the atmosphere of the surroundings. The many Thai temples with their mystical and special-sounding gongs, drums and bells of all sizes and colors were empty. Due to Covid and the complicated entry modalities, there were no tourists. I was able to take in all these many gongs, bells and drums, some of which are very old and otherwise inaccessible because they are overrun with tourists, as well as monk chants. In addition to the diverse atmospheres of nature, birds that I had never heard before, wind, water…”
— K.S. Elias
“Saudi Runaway” (to be seen on National Geographic), for which he composed the music and which was positively reviewed in the Hollywood Reporter, celebrated its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival 2020 in February 2020 and screened there in the World Cinema Documentary Competition section. The film took 2nd place in the Panorama Audience Award of the Berlinale 2020 in the Panorama Documentary category. Saudi Runaway was also nominated for the Amnesty Film Prize 2020. In the same year, it was nominated for Best Documentary at the European Film Awards and received the European University Film Award.
The award-winning feature film “Nahschuss” starring Lars Eidinger and Luise Heyer, directed by Franziska Stünkel and scored by Elias, was screened at the Munich Film Festival 2021.
The German Film and Media Rating Board (FBW) rated PRÄDIKAT BESONDERS WERTVOLL: “ […] The sepia-colored images create an oppressive atmosphere, the musical accompaniment by the score by Sebastian Karim Elias maintains a good balance between drama and subtly threatening mood. [… ] ”
In 2021, “9 Tage Wach” was nominated for the Baden Baden Television Film Festival with its score directed by Damien John Harper.
“A Tunnel” for which he composed the music premiered at the IDFA in 2019, screened at numerous festivals worldwide including the Trento Film Festival in Italy, the MakeDox Festival in North Macedonia and the Underhill Festival in Montenegro.
In 2019 he composed the music for the ZDF Neo series “Dunkelstadt”, which can also be seen on Netflix.
The television station SWR and the film funding organization MFG awarded him the “Rolf Hans Müller Prize for Film Music”. In 2015, he was nominated for the GEMA German Music Authors’ Award for the first time in the AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA COMPOSITION category. His music for the film “In Heaven Underground”, which won the PANORAMA PRIZE at the 61st Berlinale, was praised in the “Huffington Post”, “The Jewish Week NY” and “Film Journal International” at the film’s release in New York.
K.S. Elias composes for the successful German television series “Tatort”, “Polizeiruf” and “Schimanski”. He received a “Golden CD” for more than 150,000 records sold for the composition and production of the CD “Hinter Gittern” with songs and film music for the series.
He composed the film music for the TV movie “Die Spielerin” and “Die Fahnderin”, as well as for “Nichts mehr wie vorher”, which was awarded the Audience Award of the “German Television Thriller Festival” and received a nomination for the GERMAN TELEVISION AWARD 2014. In 2018, he composed the music for the TV movie “Einmal Sohn immer Sohn”, which ARD produced for Christiane Hörbiger’s 80th birthday. The film achieved the best ratings in its time slot (Friday evening 8:15 pm) on ARD in 2018.
At the cinema festival in Lünen, he was awarded the prize for Best Film Music for his compositions for the cinema documentary “Gerdas Schweigen”. His film music for the film “Siegfried”, produced by Bernd Eichinger, was pre-selected for the GERMAN FILM PRIZE.
The feature film “Der Schmetterlingsjäger”, for which he wrote the score, was shown at the “Viennale” and at the “Duisburger Filmwoche”. He composed the music for the successful Sat1 series “Einstein”. The music for the SWR series “Labaule und Erben”, which can also be seen on Netflix, was also composed by K.S. Elias. With over one million views, the series was an extraordinary streaming success in the ARD media library. The feature film “Zwischen Welten”, for which he composed the music, screened in competition for the Golden Bear at the 64th Berlinale in 2014.
In 2016, the two-part film “The Dasslers” received the Bernd Burgemeister Television Award at the Munich Film Festival with his film music. He composed the film music for the arthouse box office success “Rabbi Wolff”, which won the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Achtung Berlin Film Festival. He also composed the score for the multi-part event film “Die Puppenspieler” by Rainer Kaufmann, which screened in competition at the 2017 Munich Film Festival. He wrote the big band and orchestral score for “Otto`s Eleven” for Otto Waalkes. He also composed and arranged two family concerts for Otto Waalkes at the Berlin Philharmonie with orchestra and Otto as narrator. For the Nikolaisaal in Potsdam, he composed a new version of “Auguste the Christmas Goose” for orchestra and narrator.
He has worked with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the BSOF, Giora Feidmann and Till Brönner, among others, on recordings of his music.
Elias was on the jury for the GEMA German Music Authors’ Prize in 2013 and 2014 and on the pre-selection jury for the GERMAN FILM PRIZE in 2012.
In 2017, he published the article “Filmmusik heute – Aus dem Arbeitsalltag eines zeitgenössischen Filmkomponisten” in the Springer Professional Handbook of Functional Music. In the book Filmmusik-Bekenntnisse by Béatrice Otterbau and Thomas Schadt, he gave insights into his work as a film composer.
In cooperation with the German Film Academy, its knowledge portal vierundzwanzig and the Film University Babelsberg, supported by the GEMA Foundation, he initiated a filmed master class in 2017, for which he interviewed the nominees for the German Film Award in the “Best Music” category and analyzed their compositions in terms of their impact.
K.S. Elias was appointed professor for “Composition and Arrangement for Media” in the Master’s program Film Music at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf in 2013 and has been a full member of the Film University Senate since 2020.
He has been a member of the board of the German Film Academy since 2017.
