As part of the Zurich Film Festival's "Cinema in Concert" gala, the International Film Music Competition will take place for the 12th time at the Tonhalle Zurich. The event is organised by the ZFF in collaboration with the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich AG and the Forum Filmmusik. All participants in the competition had the task of composing a new and original piece of music for the short film "The Flying Sailor". The seven-minute animated film by Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby is based on the true story of a sailor who was thrown through the air when a ship exploded.
Three favourites have now been selected from around 192 anonymously submitted compositions and their composers will be invited to the ZFF. Together with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, their works will be rehearsed and premiered under the musical direction of Frank Strobel and in the presence of the jury. This year's jury, chaired by three-time Oscar winner Howard Shore, will select the best composition on the same evening and present the winner of the IFMW with the Golden Eye for "Best International Film Music 2024", worth CHF 10,000.
And these are the three finalists:
Krzysztof Dobosiewicz
Polish composer Krzystzof Dobosiewicz is nominated for the Golden Eye in the "Best International Film Music" category for the first time. He is known for his ability to switch effortlessly between different musical genres such as classical music, film music and jazz. Dobosiewicz has already won several prizes for violin or composition in Poland and Finland. He was recently honoured at the Opera Composition Competition in Poland. He is also a member of the Society of Finnish Composers.
Ahmed Soroko
Canadian-born Ahmed Soroko currently lives in Montreal, where he plays and composes as the official pianist for the Orchestre à Vents de Musique de Film. He holds a post-graduate diploma from UQAM, where he studied with distinguished faculty from institutions such as the Conservatoire de Paris and McGill University. Soroko's works range from film music to electronic and pop music. These have already been presented at various Canadian festivals and shows such as the Festival Quartiers Danses, Bollywood Monster Mashup and l'Art en Soi. Soroko is nominated for the Golden Eye "Best International Film Music" for the first time this year.
Théo Schmitt
Théo Schmitt was born in Switzerland and currently lives in Los Angeles. He studied at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU), the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of Southern California (USC). Schmitt has already received commissions from the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, the Swiss Music Association and the World Association for Symphonic Band and Ensemble (WASBE). He was also honoured at the 9th Swiss National Conducting Competition in Baden in 2009 and nominated for the Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award. In 2024, he also co-founded the Unprecedented Music Assosciation (UMA) and currently serves as its Artistic Director.
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