At the Film Scoring Academy of Europe, we take immense pride in our students' progress and success. We're thrilled to share some exciting news about three composers who made waves at the Apulia Soundtrack Awards in Italy this year! Our MFA programme director, Andy Hill, had the privilege of attending the event firsthand and shares his experience below:
When I received an invitation earlier this year from Cyril Morin, a respected French film composer, to give a workshop at the Apulia Soundtrack Awards in Puglia, I wasn’t even sure where Puglia was other than “somewhere in Italy.” It turns out it’s down there at the “heel” of the “boot” and is a lovely and largely unspoiled section of the country. The festival was to take place in the little hilltop village of Caravigno in early July, and students and alums of the FSAE Masters Program were invited to enter the competition for “Emerging Composer of 2024.” Of the twelve composers who were selected for the final round, three of our finest made the cut. One alumnus, Marguerite de Galbert (MFA Class of 2021) and two members of the current MFA class, Can Karacadagli and Parker Phinney. It gives me great pride and pleasure to say that Parker took home the honors this year, and that the score that appears to have carried him over the line was one he wrote for a haunting and exquisitely shot Bulgarian short narrative film called MIRROR TOUCH (Dir. Roman Pessarov). I’m pretty sure that Marguerite and Can offered strong competition.
Parker’s win is the third festival competition to give an FSAE student top honors, after Henrik Lindström’s 2020 Young Talent Award victory at the Film Music Festival in Krakow, and Giacomo Rita’s 2022 receipt of the Sabam Award for Best Original Composition by a Young Composer at the World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent, Belgium. What this tells me is that we are preparing our composers to be “competitive” in the best sense, and to be recognized as such by the professionals whose ranks they hope to join. The juries for all three of these events include people from the top tiers of the industry internationally, and they are highly selective about who they admit to “the club.” Our winning composers have done great credit to the program, and we’re grateful that they chose FSAE for their professional training.
Other attendees and honorees at this year’s Apulia Soundtrack Awards included Sean Callery (Homeland, 24), hitmaker and multiple Oscar nominee Diane Warren, legendary film composer Pino Donaggio (Don’t Look Now, Dressed To Kill), and veteran publicist and tastemaker Ray Costa (who also counts FSAE among his clients). Good company to keep, composers. Hope to see some of you there next year.
Comments