2 February 2007. The members of the International Film Music Critics
Association (IFMCA) have announced their nominees for the 3rd IFMCA
Awards, honoring achievements in film and television music in 2006.
The nominees are:

A - FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR
* The Black Dahlia (Mark Isham)
* The Da Vinci Code (Hans Zimmer)
* The Fountain (Clint Mansell)
* Lady in the Water (James Newton Howard)
* Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tom Tykwer, Reinhold Heil and
Johnny Klimek)
* X-Men: The Last Stand (John Powell)

B - FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR
* Alexandre Desplat
* James Newton Howard
* Mark Isham
* John Powell
* Hans Zimmer

C - BEST NEW COMPOSER OF 2006
* Caine Davidson (An American Haunting)
* Nicholas Dodd (Renaissance)
* Mark Orton (Sweet Land)
* Douglas Pipes (Monster House)
* Brett Rosenberg (Half Light)

D - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DRAMA FILM
* The Black Dahlia (Mark Isham)
* The Departed (Howard Shore)
* The Good German (Thomas Newman)
* The Nativity Story (Mychael Danna)
* The Painted Veil (Alexandre Desplat)
* The Queen (Alexandre Desplat)

E - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A COMEDY FILM
* The Holiday (Hans Zimmer)
* Little Miss Sunshine (Mychael Danna)
* Miss Potter (Nigel Westlake and Rachel Portman)
* The Pink Panther (Christophe Beck)
* The Shaggy Dog (Alan Menken)

F - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ANIMATED FILM
* Cars (Randy Newman)
* Charlotte's Web (Danny Elfman)
* The Ant Bully (John Debney)
* Happy Feet (John Powell)
* Ice Age: The Meltdown (John Powell)

G - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ACTION/THRILLER FILM
* Casino Royale (David Arnold)
* The Da Vinci Code (Hans Zimmer)
* Firewall (Alexandre Desplat)
* Mission: Impossible III (Michael Giacchino)
* Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Hans Zimmer)

H - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION/HORROR FILM
* Eragon (Patrick Doyle)
* The Fountain (Clint Mansell)
* Lady in the Water (James Newton Howard)
* Superman Returns (John Ottman)
* X-Men: The Last Stand (John Powell)

I - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR TELEVISION
* 24 Season 5 (Sean Callery)
* Battlestar Galactica Season 2/3 (Bear McCreary)
* Lost Season 2/3 (Michael Giacchino)
* Planet Earth (George Fenton)
* The Ten Commandments (Randy Edelman)

J - BEST SINGLE CUE OF 2006
* "Evey Reborn" from V for Vendetta (Dario Marianelli)
* "The Great Eatlon" from Lady in the Water (James Newton Howard)
* "Chevaliers de Sangreal" from The Da Vinci Code (Hans Zimmer)
* "Eragon" from Eragon (Patrick Doyle)

K - FILM MUSIC RECORD LABEL OF THE YEAR
* Film Score Monthly (Lukas Kendall, producer)
* Intrada (Douglass Fake, producer)
* La-La Land (MV Gerhard and Matt Verboys, producers)
* MovieScore Media (Mikael Carlsson, producer)
* Varese Sarabande (Robert Townson, producer)

German composer Hans Zimmer leads the field with six nominations, for
Score of the Year, Composer of the Year, one in the Comedy category,
two in the Action/Thriller category, and for Best Single Cue of the
Year. Other composers with multiple nominations include John Powell
(5), Alexandre Desplat (4) and James Newton Howard (4).

The International Film Music Critics Association, is an association
of editors, journalists and reviewers from online and print
publications who specialize in writing about original film and
television music. The IFMCA is a truly international organization,
with members from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Greece, Italy, Poland,
Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Previous winners of the IFMCA Score of the Year Award include John
Williams' Memoirs of a Geisha in 2005 and Michael Giacchino's The
Incredibles in 2004.

Where's the association's website? It would be nice to contact the organization to provide suggestions and encouragement.

Thanks for those links, btw, I see all of my posts from last year and agree with them all over again! Where's Best package? Best engineering/mixing? Best producer? ETC (go read again). This group is focusing narrowly on our subject, and as such should critically get into everything that is overlooked by mainstream award centers, not just another group handing out heavy card stock award certificates.

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Originally posted by PeterK:
Interesting. No Pan's Labyrinth anywhere? And only 4 cues nominated for "best cue of the year"? There must be a bunch of special rules I don't know about!

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I think because very few voters would nominate the same set of cues, it would be hard to get some consensus on 'Best cues' more than any other category. It would probably only take 2-3 mentions at the most for something to make the nomination list, and you couldn't then pick a fifth from the many scores that received one vote, because there would be no way to rank the many nominees.

Other than that... I'd say the IFMCA has quite good collective taste.

Also: are you quite sure you posted this on every message board available?
CK

[Message edited by Christian Kühn on 02-03-2007]

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Originally posted by Christian Kühn:
[B]Also: are you quite sure you posted this on every message board available?
CK

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It's called PR. You gotta get the word out any way possible.

-Erik-

Right now the group of 27 looks like a treehouse gang, combining the conventional wisdom of soundtrack review websites. This is good, but it misses a lot of perspective and really won't ever reach out much past the small audience of soundtrack readers as it is.

How do you become a member of this club? Is it by just asking, or do you have to meet certain requirements like most other societies that exist primarily to hand out awards? A good example for IFMCA to follow would be the OFCS. Speaking of OFCS, every single one of those guys should be invited to be on the IFMCA.

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Originally posted by PeterK:
Speaking of OFCS, every single one of those guys should be invited to be on the IFMCA.

Good luck.

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One distinction you make is interesting, and very important to make sure we're clear on. The IFCMA is really all about soundtrack albums, not necessarily film music as it is in the movie. Otherwise, why would it matter whether or not if albums are "in the collection" of its members?

There are some obvious people missing from this club, if all that's needed are people who live and breathe soundtracks. Have they simply declined invitation?

It depends who you mean. Those with specific ties to record labels have not been invited; some writers have either chosen to leave the group over the preceding years; some, just haven't been invited, either because we forgot, or didn't think there was any chance that they would actually want to join.

About the other issue, I see your point about it being a standard set of people, but if by that you mean a set of people likely to have similar tastes then you would be surprised how divergent the nominations were (from which the "published" nominees were then picked). Personally, there are some scores on the list I despise, and many more which I think are OK but hardly worthy of award consideration, and many more which aren't on the list which I am shocked about. I had expected some far less mainstream picks.

The objective is probably to provide recognition for quality film music but being more inclusive than the major awards which honour it (we all know that scores for certain types of films will never be nominated for anything no matter how good they are, and I had hoped that a movie's box office would have no effect on the chance of a nomination here) - and hopefully to provide more sensible selections than the absurd World Soundtrack Awards.

Clearly the group would like to be taken seriously, but if we started inviting more "serious" critics from the mainstream film media then we might just end up nominating the same things as every other set of awards for the Best Score category, and I onder whether they would actually have enough knowledge about individual scores to be motivated enough to nominate things in the individual categories.

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Originally posted by PeterK:

One distinction you make is interesting, and very important to make sure we're clear on. The IFCMA is really all about soundtrack albums, not necessarily film music as it is in the movie. Otherwise, why would it matter whether or not if albums are "in the collection" of its members?

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I think it matters because they have a very general observation on how music works in film. They see the film once and make a general one-to-two sentence comment about the score and move on. And some film critics don't even mention the music at all. How many of the OFCA either go back to the film numerous times and really pay attention to the score and/or have the soundtrack album and give it a good 5-10 listens before passing judgment. That's the difference here. We, the IFMCA, dissect the music while most film critics give the music one pass a usually forget about it by years end. Another difference is that we are FILM MUSIC critics. We listen to film music and critique only about film music. This is not the International Film Music and Film Critics Association. I really don't see why film critics need to be involved unless they are as hardcore about film music as the rest of the IFMCA.

Also, what does it say about the OFCA tastes when they nominated Babel as one of the best scores of the 2006?

-Erik-

Paragraph 1 response: But I see listed people who have connections to record labels already, but perhaps you mean producers who work for only one label and not freelance producers or liner-note writers. This oversight is too bad. When you mean people who live and breathe film music, do you really mean it? Producers, record label owners, all of them should be included. Some key luminaries have been shut out in favor of others who may be fans today, but perhaps not in a few years when they are tired of paying the bills to host their review site. Whatever you are trying to protect by not having them included does more damage to the overall mission.

Paragraph 2 response: I don't mean that, otherwise I would hardly be surprised that only 4 tracks were nominated for best single cue. But as it turns out, there are only four nominees because there are 27 members. There were probably 23 different cues selected for this category! I understand this is a treehouse club, but it's not the Hans Zimmer treehouse club.

Paragraph 3 response: Sensible smenchible! I understand where you are coming from, but when the reality exists where the Oscars nominate Pan's Labyrinth and those who live and breathe soundtracks make no mention of it, "sensible" seems just another fancy word for nothing. Ok, that's putting it extremely, but still... there's a point in there somewhere.

Paragraph 4 response: You might just end up doing the same as others by inviting those others, but I guarantee you won't. The make up of the crowd would be different. I am not asking you to replicate the A.M.P.A.S. or the HFP. Look at the OFCS again. Those are some seriously well-rounded nominees and winners. Serious film critics, whether hard core soundtrack fans or not, can remember good scores... even when broken down into various film genres.

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Originally posted by Erik Woods:
Also, what does it say about the OFCA tastes when they nominated Babel as one of the best scores of the 2006?

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I don't want to discuss at this level, because it's absurd. For this kind of question, there will always be the "Why didn't the IFCMA even notice Pan's Labyrinth? What about taste now?"

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Originally posted by PeterK:
<font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by Erik Woods:
[b]Also, what does it say about the OFCA tastes when they nominated Babel as one of the best scores of the 2006?<HR size=1>

I don't want to discuss at this level, because it's absurd. For this kind of question, there will always be the "Why didn't the IFCMA even notice Pan's Labyrinth? What about taste now?"

So, let's get past this if we can.[/B]

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Actually, that was me being a smart ass. Forgot the winky winky icon. Aaah, there it is!

As for Pan's Labyrinth... I've seen the film and heard the score numerous times and it's really nothing to write home about. Nice lullaby but maybe the score was mixed to low in the film but I had no emotional connection with it at all.

-Erik-

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Originally posted by Southall:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by PeterK:

Clearly the group would like to be taken seriously, but if we started inviting more "serious" critics from the mainstream film media then we might just end up nominating the same things as every other set of awards for the Best Score category, and I onder whether they would actually have enough knowledge about individual scores to be motivated enough to nominate things in the individual categories.

[Message edited by Southall on 02-05-2007]

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quote:

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Originally posted by PeterK:
Referring to Southall's post above:

Paragraph 1 response: But I see listed people who have connections to record labels already, but perhaps you mean producers who work for only one label and not freelance producers or liner-note writers. This oversight is too bad. When you mean people who live and breathe film music, do you really mean it? Producers, record label owners, all of them should be included. Some key luminaries have been shut out in favor of others who may be fans today, but perhaps not in a few years when they are tired of paying the bills to host their review site. Whatever you are trying to protect by not having them included does more damage to the overall mission.

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I think we didn't want to compromise the integrity. Mikael Carlsson is a member, but refused to vote. I'm not sure anyone else is that involved with a particular label, at least not one releasing brand new music (though you know better).

If there were four times as many members then it wouldn't matter, of course, because an individual would then hardly be able to swing the vote substantially in his favour.

quote:

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Paragraph 2 response: I don't mean that, otherwise I would hardly be surprised that only 4 tracks were nominated for best single cue. But as it turns out, there are only four nominees because there are 27 members. There were probably 23 different cues selected for this category! I understand this is a treehouse club, but it's not the Hans Zimmer treehouse club.

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Indeed. Were we to do it again, I certainly hope the individual cue category wouldn't be there. That's a learning point. It was done with the best of intentions, but barely anyone picked the same as each other, and those that did, seemed to be Hans Zimmer fans!

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Paragraph 3 response: Sensible smenchible! I understand where you are coming from, but when the reality exists where the Oscars nominate Pan's Labyrinth and those who live and breathe soundtracks make no mention of it, "sensible" seems just another fancy word for nothing. Ok, that's putting it extremely, but still... there's a point in there somewhere.

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I'm surprised by Pan's absence, though not particularly disappointed (I don't think it's anything special). Far more surprising to me is the lack of Morricone (in my opinion - clearly not shared by any of my fellow members - he wrote music streets ahead of anyone else's during 2006, and it was precisely that sort of thing I was hoping would get selected); or, say, Igelesias for Volver. Especially considering a large proportion of the members are from Europe, I had expected far less of a Hollywood-look to the list - but this is clearly where people's tastes lie.

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Paragraph 4 response: You might just end up doing the same as others by inviting those others, but I guarantee you won't. The make up of the crowd would be different. I am not asking you to replicate the A.M.P.A.S. or the HFP. Look at the OFCS again. Those are some seriously well-rounded nominees and winners. Serious film critics, whether hard core soundtrack fans or not, can remember good scores... even when broken down into various film genres.

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Come on, there are plenty of big name movie critics who love film music. That they don't champion scores in their reviews should be understood as a professional judgment. What did John Williams once say? "If the audience takes notice of the music, it's not doing its job." In other words, most film critics have it right when they leave their mentioning of scores to a sentence or two, or even half a sentence, because that's where it belongs when a movie is critiqued as a whole.

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Originally posted by PeterK:
Who's Ennio Morricone?

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Incidentally, I checked up on Maltin to see if he's still in love with film music, and sure enough.... His latest entry is an interesting read, with a nice shot of Desplat only followed by one of Eastwood and Spielberg:
http://www.leonardmaltin.com/

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Originally posted by PeterK:
Come on, there are plenty of big name movie critics who love film music.

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As the one who actually founded this association a couple of years ago I would like to point out that this is a organisation comprised of film MUSIC critics, not FILM critics. I do think that there is a big difference.

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Originally posted by Erik Woods:
As for Pan's Labyrinth... I've seen the film and heard the score numerous times and it's really nothing to write home about. Nice lullaby but maybe the score was mixed to low in the film but I had no emotional connection with it at all.

-Erik-

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Uh... Erik, didn't you just say that you are "MUSIC critics" and not "FILM critics," and you thus look at film music objectively -- not tied to the merits/box office of the film? The mixing of the score within the film is very irrelevant, I think. A good score's a good score, mixed well or not. Same goes for lousy scores.

I haven't even seen the film, and I recognize Pan's Labyrinth as a tremendous accomplishment in intelligent musical composition... and it absolutely deserved a nomination.

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Originally posted by NeoVoyager:

Uh... Erik, didn't you [b]just say that you are "MUSIC critics" and not "FILM critics," and you thus look at film music objectively [/B]

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Umm... I don't think I said that at all. I said we are Film Music Critics and as a Film Music Critics we concentrate our efforts only the music from the film only (in and away from the film) while FILM critics have to take into account everything from acting to cinematography to directing to editing to costume design, etc when writing their reviews.

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Originally posted by NeoVoyager:

-- not tied to the merits/box office of the film? The mixing of the score within the film is very irrelevant, I think. A good score's a good score, mixed well or not. Same goes for lousy scores.

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Film music can have a very different affect on you when you listen to the score with and without the picture. I agree a good score is a good score... or good 'music' is good 'music but there are times where even good music doesn't mesh will with the images on the screen. I first heard Pan's Labyirith away from the film so I was familiar with it when I finally saw the movie... and I honestly wasn't that impressed by it with my stand alone listen. It's good but nothing spectacular. And when I heard the score with the film I had no emotional connection their either. However, if I could hear the score in the mix I might have had a different opinion about the score in the film.

-Erik-

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Originally posted by NeoVoyager:

I haven't even seen the film, and I recognize Pan's Labyrinth as a tremendous accomplishment in intelligent musical composition... and it absolutely deserved a nomination.

[Message edited by NeoVoyager on 02-05-2007]

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Well, like it or not, the way this stuff works in films is pretty crucial to its identity and value. And yes, there is the independent listen too, but truthfully, when I thought of the fantasy/horror/sci-fi genre scores of 2006, I put PAN'S at about 7, and since you could only nominate 5, it didn't make it.

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Originally posted by franz_conrad:
And yes, there is the independent listen too, but truthfully, when I thought of the fantasy/horror/sci-fi genre scores of 2006, I put PAN'S at about 7, and since you could only nominate 5, it didn't make it.

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With no snark involved... would you care to enlighten me as to your picks for other better scores of '06 in these categories? (X3? Lady in the Water? Hmmm...)

I must not have heard them, because as my (fairly large) collection from '06 stands now, Labyrinth is my "best score of the year."

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Originally posted by PeterK:
Oh. So you are purposefully trying to be myopic. Gotcha. In that case, I rescind my entire discussion. Come on... really?
[Message edited by PeterK on 02-05-2007]

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Yes, really!

Myopic? In that case, what is this whole site you're running? You're out on thin ice, Peter.

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Originally posted by NeoVoyager:
With no snark involved... would you care to enlighten me as to your picks for other better scores of '06 in these categories? (X3? Lady in the Water? Hmmm...)

I must not have heard them, because as my (fairly large) collection from '06 stands now, Labyrinth is my "best score of the year."

[Message edited by NeoVoyager on 02-06-2007]

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I am not Franz, but since you asked, here are some of the 2006 film scores I would place above it...

All the King's Men
The Black Dahlia
Cars
Charlotte's Web
Eight Below
Firewall
Fur
Gino Bartali
The Good German
The Grudge 2
Half Light
Happy Feet
Headspace
Karol, Un Papa Rimasto Uomo
Lady in the Water
Little Children
Mission: Impossible III
The Nativity Story
The Painted Veil
The Queen
La Sconosciuta
X-Men 3

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Originally posted by Southall:
I am not Franz, but since you asked, here are some of the 2006 film scores I would place above it...

All the King's Men
The Black Dahlia
Cars
Charlotte's Web
Eight Below
Firewall
Fur
Gino Bartali
The Good German
The Grudge 2
Half Light
Happy Feet
Headspace
Karol, Un Papa Rimasto Uomo
Lady in the Water
Little Children
Mission: Impossible III
The Nativity Story
The Painted Veil
The Queen
La Sconosciuta
X-Men 3

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Wow. How tastes differ. Nothing wrong with that though! That's entirely your prerogative, to be certain.

In my view/taste/opinion... the only members of this list that can hold a candle are X-Men 3, Lady in the Water, and The Nativity Story (maaaaaybe The Painted Veil). I haven't heard the Good German yet, though, so I'll have to see about that one (simply because it's NOT on iTunes! arrrggh!).

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Originally posted by PeterK:
Mikael, I'll excuse myself from this conversation. I think the negative tone and agressiveness is becoming a stronger part of why this discussion continues.

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Peter, you were the one who was negative ("Oh. So you are purposefully trying to be myopic...") but you can't cope with being treated with the same sarcasm?

Anyway, I really don't understand what's so hard to understand about my (and the other members') point here: of course there is a difference between film MUSIC critics and film critics. Sure, a lot of film critics love film music, but there are also a lot of them who don't give a **** about it.

To quote someone who knew all about that:

"You read reviews by top reviewers of films that not only had remarkably interesting scores, but films whose effectiveness was absolutely enhanced, and frequently created by the music, yet the reviewers seem unaware that their emotions and their nervous reactions to the films have been affected by the scoring. This is a serious flaw. Any film reviewer owes it to himself, and the public, to take every element of the film into account."

The man who said that was Jerry Goldsmith.

mikael

[Message edited by moviescore on 02-08-2007]

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Originally posted by NeoVoyager:
With no snark involved... would you care to enlighten me as to your picks for other better scores of '06 in these categories? (X3? Lady in the Water? Hmmm...)

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While I'm not sure it's appropriate for me to reveal this, I'll risk the correction of others. In the genre of sci-fi/fantasy/horror (admittedly a pretty wide genre to take interest), I nominated these five, in no particular order (since we're not allowed to say which of the nominees we vote for):

Fountain (Clint Mansell) (sci-fi)
Perfume: Story of a Murderer (Tykwer/Klimek/Heil) (horror/fantasy - how could it be regarded otherwise? this is no less a fairy tale than Pan)
The Banquet (Tan Dun) (fantasy)
Lady in the Water (James Newton Howard) (fantasy)
Abominable (Lalo Schifrin) (horror)

Before Pan's Labyrinth was this number six...
The Dark (Edmund Butt)