Choosing the winner of the best composition has been a major challenge for this year’s jury. Following long deliberations, the laureate of the 9th international competition for young composers of film music has been announced as Yeakun Yoo from South Korea – student at the University of South California and composer of soundtracks to computer games, films and TV productions in South Korea and Los Angeles.
The second place was awarded to Francesco Berta from Italy, and the third to Nicoletta Nomicou from Greece. Once again, the participants were given a task to compose a soundtrack to a popular Netflix production; this time it was the first episode of The Witcher.
The chosen scene posed a major challenge for the young artists, especially since they had no support from the director. “The excerpt didn’t feature any music, so it was all about sensitivity and intuition – factors which are frequently overlooked even though they are essential in this job,” said Richard Bellis, chairman of the jury, composer, educator, Emmy Award winner and member of the American Association of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
Other jury members included Natalie Baartz (Vice President, Creative, Film, TV & Visual Media at BMI), Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli (composers of the original soundtrack to The Witcher), Alex Garcia Lopez (director of the third and fourth episodes of the first season of The Witcher), Mateusz Bień (composer, sound engineer and programmer from the Academy of Music in Kraków), Arkadiusz Reikowski (composer, co-creator of the soundtrack to the game The Medium), Michael Todd (Assistant Vice President, Film & TV at ASCAP), and Magdalena Wojewoda-Mleczko (music director at RFM Classic – co-organiser of the Film Music Festival in Kraków).
The aim of the FMF Young Talent Award is to find young, talented composers and present their achievements to the public and representatives of the film industry. Past winners include Matthijs Kieboom (2013), Jan Sanejko (2014), Antonio Di Iorio (2015), Joep Sporck (2016), Paweł Górniak (2017), Marco Valerio Antonini (2018), Hubert Walkowski (2019) and Henrik Lindström (2020).
