Film Fest Gent and World Soundtrack Academy announce Composition contest finalists!

The candidates were asked to compose music for 'The Big Shave', a short film directed by Martin Scorsese in 1968. The Italian-American director has a very special connection with Belgium: he received his very first honour at the festival of experimental film in Knokke organised by the Royal Belgian Film Archive, where this shocking short film was a prize-winner. Scorsese gave the festival organisation permission to have a fragment of this legendary short film rescored for this composition contest.

“This year, the quality of the submitted pieces was exceptionally high. On paper, everything looked excellent and professional. While most composers stayed well within the boundaries of traditional film music, some did delve into the diverse realms of jazz and modern contemporary classical music.

However, when the music was put together with the images, some of the scores fell flat due to instrumentals that were too busy or too heavy, a mismatched musical style, too little excitement, too little build-up and overall too little dialogue between images and music. There was too little experimentation or consideration for the silences, rhythm and flow of the film.

Three composers did, however, manage to catch the jury's attention with their interesting scores. Three pieces were selected and will be presented during the 13th WSA. And then all we have to wait for are the magic words: "And the winner is...", “says Dirk Brossé.

The professional jury was composed of Dirk Brossé (Conductor and Music Director Film Fest Gent), Patrick Duynslaegher (Artistic Director Film Fest Gent), Stefan Rycken (ACE Image Factory), director Bavo Defurne (‘North Sea Texas’) and Michel Herr (composer).

The eventual winner will be awarded the SABAM Award For Best Young European Composer (with a value of €2500) and will follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner Valentin Hadjadj and a number of big composers like Angelo Badalamenti, Dario Marianelli, Gustavo Santaolalla, Hans Zimmer, John Powell, Maurice Jarre, Howard Shore, Alberto Iglesias and Elliot Goldenthal.

13th World Soundtrack Awards & Concert
Saturday 19 October at 8 pm at ’t Kuipke in Ghent
Performance by the Brussels Philharmonic conducted by Dirk Brossé accompanied by film scenes projected onto a big screen

Tickets cost €29, €39 or €49 and are available here.
VIP tickets (1st category + reception) can be purchased for €80 via the link above.