Polish composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek said Monday he was a "relaxed and happy man" after his music for "Finding Neverland" won him the Oscar for best original score - a win he credited to the strength of the movie itself.
"I knew that I would most probably win, because I had a very good movie to back me up, unlike my competitors, and that was very important," Kaczmarek, 51, told Poland's TVN24 television.
"Finding Neverland," directed by Marc Forster, features Johnny Depp as playwright J.M. Barrie in a whimsical exploration of the creation of his masterpiece "Peter Pan."
"My talent and my music is one thing but the context in which I appeared helped me a lot," said Kaczmarek, who moved from Poland to the United States in 1989. "I am a relaxed and happy man now."
Kaczmarek's music beat out competition from the scores of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," "The Passion of the Christ" and "The Village."
His win was welcomed in Poland, where he started his career in 1976 as a musician accompanying theater performances in the city of Poznan.
"Kaczmarek is an unconventional composer," said Jacek Bromski, the head of the Polish filmmakers' association.
"He creates a new trend in the American cinematography - he writes a different kind of music from what Hollywood feeds on daily," Bromski told Poland's PAP news agency.
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