CINE Announces The Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest

For over 60 years, CINE has honored student and emerging talent in film and video. But the use of music in media is more important than ever - so in 2012, CINE created a unique, innovative contest to identify and honor emerging media composers. The legendary composer Marvin Hamlisch agreed to serve as a guest judge for the inaugural contest, and announced its creation while receiving the CINE Legends Award at the 2012 CINE Awards Gala; sadly, Mr. Hamlisch passed away before the first competition commenced.

In tribute to Mr. Hamlisch and through the generosity of his family and estate, CINE is proud to announce that its Film Scoring Competition for Emerging Composers has been named in Mr. Hamlisch's honor: The Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest for Emerging Composers. The contest winner will receive the Marvin Hamlisch Award, presented at a CINE Celebrates cocktail party in New York City in 2015.

"It's really a privilege for us to honor Mr. Hamlisch's legacy in this way," said John L. Simson, CINE Vice President and the Chair of the Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest. "In the brief time we knew him, we witnessed Mr. Hamlisch's extraordinary generosity and passion for sharing his incredible talents with a new generation of artists. His master class in 2012 was remarkable. We are very grateful to Terre Blair Hamlisch and his estate for giving us this opportunity."

The Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest will open to emerging composers - defined as student and amateur composers - on December 2, 2014. Composers will submit a new score to a CINE Golden Eagle Award-winning short film, and after the scores are anonymously evaluated, the top-rated scores will be sent to a distinguished jury who will select a contest winner and runners-up. Our distinguished jury from the 2013-2014 Film Scoring Contest returns for the first Marvin Hamlisch Contest: Academy Award-winning composer Mychael Danna (Best Original Score, Life of Pi, 2012); multiple BMI-award-winning composer and Emmy nominee George S. Clinton (Chair of Film Scoring at Berklee College of Music); and Emmy Award-winning music editor, supervisor and conductor Daniel Carlin (Chair of Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television at USC's Thornton School of Music).

Nearly 400 emerging composers from 33 countries participated in the 2013-2014 Film Scoring Competition, re-scoring the CINE Golden Eagle Award-winning short film Sebastian's Voodoo by Joaquin Baldwin. Paul Devlin, a native of Scotland and student in the Composition for Screen program at London's Royal College of Music, was named the competition winner, with runners-up Richard Gould (First-Runner Up) and Jeremy Leidhecker (Second Runner-Up).

For more information on the Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest for Emerging Composers, visit www.cine.org/hamlischcontest. For more information about the life and legacy of Marvin Hamlisch, visit www.marvinhamlisch.us.

ABOUT CINE

CINE (the Council on International Non-Theatrical Events), a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization, was created in 1957 as a private-public partnership with the USIA branch of the State Department as a way to accredit U.S. documentary and industrial films to send to large foreign festivals such as Berlin, Venice and Rotterdam. The prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award was created as the method to choose films for submission to the overseas festivals, and the CINE Golden Eagle Competition eventually expanded to include student, independent, narrative and television productions. In the mid-1990s CINE's partnership with the State Department ceased, and the Golden Eagle Awards were presented as a symbol of peer-reviewed media excellence rather than as a conduit to foreign film festivals. Beginning in 2014, CINE now presents the Golden Eagle Awards in three annual cycles: The CINE Golden Eagle Awards for Professional Media (now accepting entries, deadline January 30, 2015), the CINE Golden Eagle Awards for Independent & Emerging Media (opening January 2, 2015), and the CINE Golden Eagle Awards for Student & Youth Media (opening May 1, 2015).

CINE Golden Eagle Award-winning alumni are working throughout the industry. For some, such as Steven Spielberg (1969) and Ken Burns (1981), it was their first major industry recognition; others, such as Martin Scorsese (2006), Barbara Kopple (1992) and Spike Lee (1999) were honored well into their illustrious careers.

In 2012, CINE launched its first Film Scoring Competition for Emerging Composers, renamed in 2014 as the Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest for Emerging Composers.

Photo Credit: Official Site

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