This ambitious competition is envisioned and created by the talent agency Oticons Ltd., and it will be open for Registrations and Submissions until April 10th 2016. The Oticons Faculty is a unique platform for film composers, whereby successful working professionals from the industry evaluate their music, offer advice, and help open doors to experience, knowledge and the professional relationships that will further their careers.
Last year, from among 123 participants, the Jury of seasoned professionals selected two winners and awarded them with attendance of the World Soundtrack Awards in Belgium and the Krakow Film Music Festival in Poland. For 2016, the judging panel remains on the same status and caliber by having on board Oscar-winners Jan Kaczmarek (Finding Neverland) and Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare in Love), acclaimed artists Shigeru Umebayashi (In the Mood for Love), Jean-Michel Bernard (Be Kind Rewind), Bruno Coulais (Coraline), Tuomas Kantelinen (The Legend of Hercules) and Jesper Kyd (Assassin’s Creed videogames). The Jury will be helmed by the most celebrated conductor of film music, Sir Dirk Brossé! The two big winners of the 2015 edition, Andrea Grant (1st Prize) and Bartosch McCarthy (2nd Price), hailed the mark the contest’s awards made on their careers! Andrea stated how honored he was ‘‘to meet composers such as Alan Silvestri, Patrick Doyle and get mentored from a lot of other professionals from whom I come back with the most important feedback of my career and a lot of contacts.’’ Both of them were also Awarded the respective 1st and 2nd Prizes at the Transatlantyk Film+Sound Festival of Poznan, a festival founded by our very own juror Jan A.P. Kaczmarek! This is definite evidence that the Oticons Faculty Competition’s mission and revolutionary objective is met step-by-step, year after year and that its Jury - loyal to the contest’s focus in artistic qualities in film music - always selects the most talented special film music composers, to receive the Oticons Faculty career-transforming Awards! The two big Awards will be the same again in 2016. For the 1st Winner, it’ll be the attendance of Film Fest Gent and the World Soundtrack Awards, who celebrated in 2015 its special guest Alan Silvestri. The 2nd Prize Winner will attend the amazing Krakow Film Music Festival and all its events and masterclasses, for which Bartosch McCarthy commented that ‘‘sheer amount of industry talent present at the FMF Kraków was absolutely awe-inspiring!’’
OTICONS FACULTY FILM MUSIC COMPETITION: THE STRUCTURE
Once again, every step of the Competition will take place online on the dedicated Oticons Faculty website’s multi-layered platform (http://faculty.oticons.com). Registrations and submissions of the completed Assignments will be accepted till April 10th 2016! Any composer, from anywhere around the world and any walk of life is eligible to apply. The two big Winners and finalists in the second round will be announced on the first week of May 2016! Application form, competition guidelines, official rules and awards information, are available on the competition’s Web site: http://faculty.oticons.com