Alexandre Desplat, who wrote the score for The King’s Speech, will defend his title of Composer of the Year at the World Soundtrack Awards which take place during the Ghent Film Festival.

Alexandra Desplat and Hans Zimmer are amongst the nominees for the 2011 World Soundtrack Awards, which will take place on the closing night of the Ghent Film Festival (October 22).

The awards are split into three categories - Composer of the Year, Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

Desplat, who won the Composer of the Year, award in 2010, is up for the prize again this year for his scores including The King’s Speech, The Tree Of Life and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part 2.

He will be pitted against Hans Zimmer for his rousing Inception score, Clint Mansell (Black Swan), John Powell (Rio, Kung Fu Panda 2) and Patrick Doyle (La Ligne Droite, Thor).  

The nominees for Best Original Film Score of the Year are Inception (Zimmer), The King’s Speech (Desplat), The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), Black Swan (Clint Mansell) and True Grit (Carter Burwell).

Meanwhile the contenders for Best Original Song will be We Belong Together from Toy Story 3, Diane Warren’s You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me (Burlesque), Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey and Troy Verges’s Country Strong from Coming Home (performed by Gwyneth Paltrow), Alan Menken and Glenn Slater’s I See The Light (Tangled) and A. R Rahman’s If I Rise from 127 Hours.

Oscar winning composers Elliot Goldenthal, Howard Shore, and Hans Zimmer will attend the ceremony as part of the 38th Ghent Film Festival.