The challenge for participants of the 12th FMF Young Talent Award will be to compose music for an excerpt from the movie The Peasants [Chłopi]. This international competition is an opportunity for young composers to gain recognition in the music and film industry and among the general public. The winning composition will be performed live in May during the 17th Film Music Festival in Krakow.
Krakow’s Film Music Festival is one of the world’s most important film music events. It has hosted many of the greatest composers of our era, including Oscar winners: Volker Bertelmann, Alexandre Desplat, Elliot Goldenthal, Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, Dario Marianelli, Steven Price, Howard Shore and Hans Zimmer. An important part of the festival is FMF Young Talent Award – a competition that draws the attention of the industry and the general public to the most talented young composers. Its previous editions attracted more than 700 participants from a few dozen countries, and winners are successfully active in scoring for films, series and video games.
The task to be faced by participants of this year’s competition will be to score a composition for an excerpt from the film The Peasants [Chłopi] directed by DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman. The plot is based on the eponymous novel by Władysław Stanisław Reymont, who was honoured with the Nobel Prize for Literature a hundred years ago. The four-volume epic was appreciated by the Swedish Academy for the multidimensional description of life in a Masovian village at the turn of the 20th century.
The film adaptation of The Peasants that premiered in 2023 highlights, among others, motifs of the family conflict and social inequality, but it also shows villagers’ close relationship to nature. The production of the film involved a special animation technique. Each of around 40,000 frames shot on the set was subsequently painted with oil paints in a style inspired by paintings from Reymont’s times.
A very important role in The Peasants is played by the score that combines traditional Slavic motifs with trance and classical music. It was composed by Łukasz ‘L.U.C.’ Rostkowski – a composer, producer, vocalist and lyricist – and musicians of the Rebel Babel Film Orchestra. The soundtrack features the artists who have drawn upon folk music for years: Maria Pomianowska, Laboratorium Pieśni, Dagadana, Tęgie Chłopy and Vyrij Choir, as well as recognised figures of Polish popular music: Kayah, Julia Wieniawa, Ralph Kaminski, Apolonia Nowak, Kwiat Jabłoni, Bela Komoszyńska and others.
‘When thinking about the task to be set for participants of this year’s FMF Young Talent Award, we decided that it would be worth discovering new musical interpretations of The Peasants,‘ says Robert Piaskowski, the artistic director of the Film Music Festival in Krakow. ‘The distinctive soundtrack whose fragments became as popular as last season’s hottest hits is a huge challenge in this case. We expect participants not to imitate the solutions used so far but to find their own key to the proposed scenes. The international jury will seek new unconventional ways of illustrating the work that was a Polish Oscar candidate in many categories, including film score,’ adds Piaskowski.
The participants’ proposals will be assessed by an international jury consisting of composers, performers and other persons connected with the film score industry. The sessions of the jury will be chaired by Miriam Cutler – an Emmy-nominated composer specialising in documentaries, producer, educator and co-founder of the Alliance for Women Film Composers. Works of young composers will be assessed also by Łukasz ‘L.U.C.’ Rostkowski.
The jury will select laureates of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. The winner will receive an FMF Young Talent Award statuette and an opportunity to perform his/her composition live during the 17th Film Music Festival in Krakow that will be held on 22nd–26th May 2024. Apart from that, twelve authors of the best works will take part in a prestigious workshop for young composers that will be conducted by specialists from the film music industry on 19th–22nd May 2024 in the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice. This year’s main topic will be the co-operation between the film director and the composer. The participants of the workshop will have an opportunity to record their compositions during a professional recording session.
The competition is open to persons aged between 18 and 35 years. Applications will be accepted by 29th February 2024. The composition for the competition must be presented by 5th March 2024. Finalists will be announced on 28th March 2024.
The organisers of the Film Music Festival in Krakow are: the City of Krakow, the Krakow Festival Office and RMF Classic. The programme of the event will be announced soon.
How to take part in the competition?
General rules:
– The competition is addressed to persons aged between 18 and 35 years (born after 31st December 1988) who are of legal age at the time of submitting the application.
– Each participant may submit only one application.
– Winners of previous editions and laureates of the 2nd and 3rd place of FMF Young Talent Award 2023 are not allowed to participate.
Step-by-step application process
1. Fill in the application form available HERE.
2. After your application has been positively verified, you will receive:
– the web address from which you can download an excerpt from the film for the purposes of your task;
– the line-up of the orchestra;
– the link to the disk onto which you must upload your work;
– your inidual application number.
3. Mark your composition with the application number you received.
4. Upload your work with the same name as the application number in ZIP or RAR format (e.g., 123.zip) onto the disk. The application should include two files:
– a score in PDF format (123.pdf);
– an audio-video file in MP4 or QuickTime format (123.mp4, 123.mov or 123.m4v).
5. The message whether your application has been accepted or rejected will be sent to your e-mail address stated in the form.
The rules of the FMF Young Talent Award competition and criteria of assessment of works are available HERE.
