1st Prize in International Film Music Competition

Claire Cowan wins 1st Grand Prize at Oticons Faculty International Film Music Competition

Listen to the recent interview I did with RNZ Concert about the win.

Representing New Zealand, at the top of the leaderboard is Composer Claire Cowan (and only woman in the top ten!)

A few months ago I heard about this film scoring competition run by Oticons, a composer talent agency based in Europe. The competition is open to all ages and professional composers as well as less experienced. The aim is to discover international film scoring talent, and participants test their imagination through four unique scoring “impossible” challenges, written especially for the competition.

Task 1: write a main theme that is hummable even after one listen

Task 2: write an epic, heroic track but only using acoustic strings

Task 3: Score a scene from the provided script, but make it suitable for both the opening and closing scenes, which are quite different.

Round Two:

Task 4: Send your “ best” pre existing work to impress the judges. You decide duration but up to 4mins.

I found out about the competition on Jan 31st and had 28 days to get my entries together, alongside my other work.

A big thanks to Lydia Cole for making my main theme “hummable after one listen” with her beautiful voice. Also thank you to my wife and friends who encouraged me and listened and gave feedback.

I look forward to becoming part of the Oticons Family, and attending the Krakow Film Music Festival later this year.