THE FURRED MAN – Paul Terry

Original Review by Alan Rogers

The Furred Man (2010) sees Max (play by Daniel Carter-Pope) as a guy who resorts to donning a werewolf costume in order to drum up business for his failing camping site business. But things get out of hand when he finds himself sitting in a police interrogation room, his furry suit caked in dried blood and under suspicion for having carried out a particularly gruesome murder. Writer/director Paul Williams’ award-winning, low-budget short film is a darkly comedic piece that’s carried by Carter-Pope’s playing of Max’s bemusement at his circumstances. And it’s well worth a watch HERE.

Composer/producer Paul Terry has written for a number of films and has released a series of non-film related albums under the alias, Cellarscape. Terry has also co-authored a number of books including “Fringe: September’s Notebook – The Bishop Paradox” and the official “Lost Encyclopedia”. When writing for short films composers need to be both versatile (because of limited music budgets) and to get straight to the point in terms of establishing any thematic material (due to the film’s short running time). The Furred Man delivers on both counts.

The 2014 IFMCA Award winners are…

INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2014 IFMCA AWARDS; HANS ZIMMER, ALEXANDRE DESPLAT TAKE TOP HONORS

http://filmmusiccritics.org/2015/02/ifmca-award-winners-2014/

FEBRUARY 19, 2014 — The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of winners for excellence in musical scoring in 2014, in the 2014 IFMCA Awards.

The award for Score of the Year goes to composer HANS ZIMMER for his work on the Christopher Nolan-directed epic science fiction odyssey INTERSTELLAR. IFMCA member James Southall called the score “one of the most impressive creations of Zimmer’s career” and felt that the film “inspired him to create something unusually personal and about which he is understandably proud,” while IFMCA member Kaya Savas called Interstellar “one of Hans Zimmer’s finest accomplishments as a composer”. This is the third IFMCA Award of Zimmer’s career, and the first time he has been awarded Score of the Year.

IFMCA RADIO – Best New Music and Soundtrack Releases of 2014

The International Film Music Critics Association is proud to announce the third in its annual IFMCA Radio broadcasts, celebrating the music nominated for the 2014 IFMCA Awards, and featuring selections by several members which represent, in their opinion, some of the best individual film, TV and video game cues from the preceding 12 months.

Please take a listen to the show at the IFMCA website.

The selections in this special epic 4-hour programme includes music from THE ABYSS (Alan Silvestri), ASTERIX: THE LAND OF THE GODS (Philippe Rombi), THE BANNER SAGA (Austin Wintory), CANTINFLAS (Roque Baños), CASTLEVANIA: LORDS OF SHADOW 2 (Óscar Araujo), CIVILIZATION: BEYOND EARTH (Geoff Knorr and Grant Kirkhope), EMPIRE OF THE SUN (John Williams), GODZILLA (Alexandre Desplat), THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Alexandre Desplat), GUNSHI KANBEI (Yūgo Kanno), HIDDEN KINGDOMS (Ben Foster), THE HOMESMAN (Marco Beltrami), HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 (John Powell), THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY, PART I (James Newton Howard), THE IMITATION GAME (Alexandre Desplat), INHERENT VICE (Jonny Greenwood), INTERSTELLAR (Hans Zimmer), ISABEL (Federico Jusid), LAIR (John Debney), THE LEFTOVERS (Max Richter), THE LIBERATOR (Gustavo Dudamel), MALEFICENT (James Newton Howard), THE MONKEY KING (Christopher Young), THE MONUMENTS MEN (Alexandre Desplat), RED KROKODIL (Alexander Cimini), SON OF BATMAN (Frederik Wiedmann), THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (Jóhann Jóhannsson), UNDER THE SKIN (Mica Levi), THE UNKNOWN KNOWN (Danny Elfman), and WORLD OF WARCRAFT: WARLORDS OF DRAENOR (Russell Brower et al).

ANATOMY OF A LOVE SEEN – Thom Robson

Original Review by Alan Rogers

How a relationship, where two people seem to love each other so deeply, can ultimately fail is a question that is explored in Marina Rice Bader’s 2014 film, Anatomy of A Love Seen. Leading actresses Zoe (Sharon Hinnendael) and Mal (Jill Evyn) fall in love while filming a love scene and what follows is a six-month whirlwind love affair. Unfortunately for them both, the relationship comes to a turbulent end when Mal leaves without explanation. However, things are complicated when, soon after the split, the two women must re-shoot the love scene in order to secure a broadcast deal for the movie.

The score is written by UK-based composer Thom Robson, whose resumé includes a number of award-winning short films (Sit In Silence, Carriages), several feature films (including Strings) and the video game, Morphopolis.

TIDSREJSEN – Flemming Nordkrog

Original Review by Alan Rogers

Tidsrejsen is a Danish television family drama starring Bebiane Ivalo Kreutzmann as Sofie, a social outsider who is having a difficult time at school and is having to deal with the recent divorce of her parents. All she wishes is to have her old life back, where her parents love each other again and everyone is happy. It’s at this point that a strange boy comes on the scene; the Justin Bieber-lookalike Dixie (Hannibal Harbo Rasmussen). Although new to the area, Dixie seems to know an awful lot about Sofie. Being a “TV- Julekalender” (a traditional 24-episode “event” shown on consecutive nights in the run up to Christmas), director Kaspar Munk’s Tidsrejsen is a Christmas tale where family and social conflict are resolved with the backdrop of a cosy blanket of yuletide love. But, there’s a twist in this particular tale: time travel. With significant nods to films such as Blade Runner, Men In Black and particularly Back To The Future, Sofie and Dixie (who is from the future) travel back in time, crossing Sofie’s parents’ timeline, to hopefully stop Sofie’s parents from divorcing. Added to the mix are sinister agents from the future who are trying to foil the plans of Sofie and Dixie.

IFMCA Award Nominations 2014 have been announced

INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARD NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED; COMPOSERS JAMES NEWTON HOWARD AND ALEXANDRE DESPLAT DOMINATE

FEBRUARY 5, 2014 – The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of nominees for excellence in musical scoring in 2014, for the 11th annual IFMCA Awards. The most nominated composers are American JAMES NEWTON HOWARD and Frenchman ALEXANDRE DESPLAT.

Howard received seven nominations, including nods for Score of the Year, Composer of the Year, Best Action/Adventure/Thriller score, and Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror score, all of which were split between his two main works of 2014: the action adventure sequel THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY, PART I, and Disney’s reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty story, MALEFICENT. Howard also received an unprecedented three nominations in the Film Music Composition of the Year category, including one for the song “The Hanging Tree,” which he co-wrote with Jeremiah Fraites and Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers, and Hunger Games book series author Suzanne Collins, and which was performed by the film’s lead actress, Jennifer Lawrence. Howard has previously been nominated for a total of 23 IFMCA Awards, winning six of them, including Score of the Year in 2006 for LADY IN THE WATER.

 

Desplat received six nominations: for Score of the Year, two for Best Drama score, Best Comedy score, Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror score, and overall Composer of the Year. Desplat’s work in 2014 comprised several outstanding works, notably the blockbuster monster movie GODZILLA, director Wes Anderson’s quirky comedy THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, the critically acclaimed biopic of British code breaker Alan Turing THE IMITATION GAME, and the George Clooney-directed WWII drama THE MONUMENTS MEN. Desplat has previously been nominated for a total of 35 IFMCA Awards, winning nine of them. He won the Best Score award in 2008 for THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, and was named Composer of the Year in 2006, 2007, and 2010.

2014 Reel Music Awards – The Winners

2014 Reel Music Awards

 

It’s generally agreed that 2014 has been a great year for music written across all areas of the soundtrack industry. Music written for film, television and video games have all given us wonderful and varied experiences whether it be from full orchestra, theme-rich compositions from well-known composers to smaller scale ensemble scores or electronic-derived pieces from composers we are less familiar with (or various combinations of the above). As such, it’s been a difficult task whittling down around 400 soundtracks to a nomination list of 10 for each featured category and an even more challenging effort to choose each of the winners.

Each of the winning scores are examples of compositions that have in some way marked them for me as particularly noteworthy. As with last year, each selections is based upon a mix of emotional impact, innovative music and overall listening enjoyment. The lists are a reflection of my own personal taste, on music that has piqued my enthusiasm in a particular way to raise them above a strong pool of other worthy soundtracks.