The 2016 IFMCA Award winners are…

INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2016 IFMCA AWARDS; “ARRIVAL” TAKES SCORE OF THE YEAR, JUSTIN HURWITZ AND “LA LA LAND” WINS THREE OTHERS

http://filmmusiccritics.org/2017/02/ifmca-winners-2016/

FEBRUARY 23, 2016 — The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of winners for excellence in musical scoring in 2016, in the 2016 IFMCA Awards.

The award for Score of the Year goes to Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson for his work on the critically acclaimed science fiction drama ARRIVAL, directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. IFMCA member Jon Broxton said that “Jóhannsson’s approach to solving the film’s musical problems [is] absolutely fascinating, and the way he was able to musically convey some of the film’s more challenging cerebral ideas involving language and communication is astonishingly accomplished,” while IFMCA member Daniel Schweiger said that Jóhannsson “brilliantly captures both a sense of wonder and fear with beholding the mind-boggling, verbally-scrambled unknown, as whale cry motifs join with alternately moaning and chattering voices, backed by a strong orchestral sound that serves as a powerful universal musical translator in a way that’s both harmonically understandable, and profoundly strange.” This is the first IFMCA Award win of Jóhannsson’s career, him having previously been nominated for Best Original Score for a Drama Film for THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING in 2014.

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The 29th Sammy Film Music Awards

It’s awards season wherever you turn. With our own 2016 Reel Music Awards having recently been announced, and the announcement of the IFMCA Awards and 89th Academy Awards just over the horizon, AmericanMusicPreservation.com have announced the 29th Annual Sammy Film Music Awards (SFMA).

The SFMAs are given in recognition of excellence in film music recordings that is presented on CD and/or other digital formats. Chosen by IFMCA member Roger Hall, the Sammy Awards recognises the release of soundtrack albums featuring music from the Golden Age to current releases.

http://www.americanmusicpreservation.com/sammys2017.htm

IFMCA Award Nominations for 2016 have been announced

INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARD NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED; MICHAEL GIACCHINO AND “LA LA LAND” COMPOSER JUSTIN HURWITZ LEAD THE PACK 

For full announcement at the IFMCA website follow the LINK

FEBRUARY 9, 2017. The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) announces its list of nominees for excellence in musical scoring in 2016, for the 13th annual IFMCA Awards. In a wide open field, the most nominated composers are Michael Giacchino and Justin Hurwitz, with five nominations each, and Abel Korzeniowski, with four nominations.

2016 Reel Music Awards – The Winners

2016 Reel Music Awards

I always look forward to going back over the past year when trying to finalise my favourite scores for that year but, by the time the process has ended, I am exhausted and glad it’s over! It’s such a difficult job trying to whittle down dozens of scores (usually for each category) into a choice of ten nominations, and then decide which titles comes out on top. But, the decisions have been made and below are the fruits of my deliberations: my favourite scores for 2016.

This year – more than any other – I have found myself shying away from the scores that feature huge orchestras and/or a massive choral presence and being more receptive to the smaller-scale efforts that, to me at least, seen to focus more on the ‘less-is-more’ mantra. It goes without saying that many of the larger-scale projects have some great thematic material and some impressive ideas but the inventiveness of some of the scores that feature a more limited number of instruments has caught my ear and that’s reflected in many of my choices.

2016 Reel Music Awards – The Nominations

2016 Reel Music Awards

Now that most of the music for 2016 has been released (I hope so anyway) it’s time for Reel Music to take a look back over the year just passed. I thought that 2016 was another good year for film, television and videogames music and here I want to highlight some of the scores that I particularly enjoyed and which have stood out above the rest. It’s not about what’s the ‘best’ scores of the year though; it’s more a celebration of the music that are favourites of mine.

As with previous years, I have several categories into which the year’s output has been divided and within each category I have chosen (or ‘nominated’) my favourite ten scores*. It’s difficult to articulate the decision process for choosing the various scores: there’s no formal mechanism, it’s how the music makes me feel both as a separate listening experience and – if I am lucky – how the music sits within the medium for which it was written. The quality of music written in 2016 has been very high and many worthy titles have, unfortunately, had to be put to one side and don’t feature in my selections.

I am hoping that my choices will be of interest to people and I would always welcome any feedback on my selections (or my omissions!) I hope that you will want to check out any unfamiliar titles I have listed.

The winners will be announced on Monday, 30th January 2017.

WASTELANDER PANDA: EXILE – Christopher Larkin

Original Review by Alan Rogers

Wastelander Panda: Exile (2014) is an unusual beast. The most recent creation of a larger Wastelander story arc, it’s an Australian 6-part series of 10 minute episodes that follows a family of anthropomorphic pandas across a post-apocalyptic world (think Mad Max) in search of a young girl. Isaac (together with his mother and brother) must find this girl to replace the one he killed at the beginning of the story. Children are a great commodity because of their child-bearing potential and, so that the exiled family can return to Legion (the self-contained human settlement from which they were exiled) Isaac must return with a replacement. So, Wastelander Panda: Exile is essentially a story of a violent panda’s quest to kidnap a human child. Director Victoria Cocks has created quite a dark and violent world where the presence of the pandas is played completely straight. The score is composed by Australian Christopher Larkin.

PIXEL SOLDIER – Alex Ball & Scott Hazell

Original Review by Alan Rogers

Pixel Soldier is an excellent short animated film written, directed and produced by Chris Landy. The movie follows a group of video game characters as they are sent behind enemy lines to take and hold a building of strategic importance. Senseless killing on both sides ensues as the troops fight for survival. Landy shifts between a number of different perspectives to tell the story and skilfully moves between 2-D and 3-D animation as these viewpoints change. British composer Alex Ball was tasked with writing the score for Pixel Soldier, beginning to write music for the project when still at an early stage back in 2012 and being responsible for the overall approach to the music. Fellow composer Scott Hazell joined the team later and provided additional music for several scenes.