153 composers from all continents submitted their own scores for the short film «Au Revoir Jerôme» to the renowned International Film Music Competition. Three favourites have now been chosen from the 150 or so anonymously submitted compositions, and their composers will be invited to the ZFF. Together with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, they will rehearse their compositions, which will then be premiered at the «Cinema in Concert» gala under the musical direction of Frank Strobel and in the presence of the jury. «The Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich has made a name for itself in the field of film symphonies. Looking to the future in this genre as well and giving young composers a stage is very important to us as an institution,» says Marc Barwisch, Head of Artistic Department of Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich.
This year's jury, presided over by Oscar winner Volker Bertelmann, will select the winning composition on the same evening and will present the winner of the IFMW with the Golden Eye for «Best International Film Music 2023», which is endowed with 10,000 Swiss francs. «The ZFF is a film festival that is committed to promoting young talent and strives to bring the new talents into contact with established greats of the business. We also underline this with IFMW, where we have an Oscar winner as jury president for the third year in a row, which is of course a great encouragement for the young composers,» explains Artistic Director Christian Jungen. «With the IFMW, we also want to show a broad audience the immense importance of film music, without which a cinematic work would only be half as emotional.»
These are the finalists
Carl Falkenau
Carl Falkenau is nominated for the Golden Eye «Best International Film Music» for the second time. Among other things, the Swedish-German pianist has already composed soundtracks for Scandinavian television programmes and symphonic arrangements for various Swedish artists. In addition, he has released his own records under his alter ego The Grim, which contain orchestrated cinematic metal. In addition to working in his own recording studio, he teaches piano at Lund Culture School in Sweden.
Elliot Murphy
The Irish cellist and composer Elliot Murphy currently lives in Berlin and is also nominated for the Golden Eye «Best International Film Music» for the second time. His compositional focus is broad and ranges from aleatoric, i.e. works influenced by chance, to more classical folk music. He is also adept as a performer on the cello in a variety of styles, especially improvisation. His current projects include improvised cello playing with live electronics for theatre and the release of his own album.
Cian McCarthy
Irish-born Cian McCarthy currently lives in New York, where he divides his time between orchestrating for musical theatre and composing music for various media. He has been musical director and conductor for hit Broadway productions such as MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL and THE BOOK OF MORMON. He has also served as orchestrator on several projects in recent years, including the new musical LEMPICKA, soon to be performed on Broadway.
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