The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) is delighted to announce that the voting period for the 18th Annual IFMCA Awards, honoring the best film, television, and interactive media music in 2021, begins on Friday, January 14th, 2022.
Scores and composers from 1,225 films, 755 episodic TV shows, and 195 video games from across the world are eligible in 12 competitive categories, with additional categories for archival releases from specialist film music record labels. 77 IFMCA members from 19 countries – film music critics and journalists, historians, film music podcast and radio show hosts, and more – will vote over the course of two weeks, with the nominees being announced on Thursday, February 3rd, 2022.
After a second round of voting is completed, the winners will then be announced live on the IFMCA Youtube channel on Thursday, February 17th, 2022.
As has been the case in several previous years, this year the category ‘Best New Archival Release – New Recording or Re-Recording’ will again be rolled up with ‘Best New Archival Release – Re-Release’ to create a joint Archival category, as there are insufficient new recordings for a viable separate New Recording category. The category for Archival Compilation Albums remains separate.
However, the IFMCA is delighted to announce a brand new competitive category.
The Roberto Aschieri Special Award will be awarded to an individual who has made an important and long-lasting contribution to the art and preservation of film music over a career. This could be a record producer, a journalist, a historian, a label owner, an engineer, an orchestrator, a conductor, a specific musician – anyone who has made a significant contribution to the art of film music, but is not usually awarded as part of our regular awards process. The members will vote for three nominees for this category, and choose one winner; unlike the previous Special Award, there will be a guaranteed winner in this category this year, and each year going forward. The award is named in honor of Roberto Aschieri, the film music journalist and author from Argentina who was a member of the IFMCA until his death in 2017.
Furthermore, the existing Special Award category has now been re-named the Kyle Renick Special Award, and will continue to be awarded to a title not eligible for a standard IFMCA Award, but which has a film music component: for example, a screen musical which contains no original material but is still especially musically excellent, or a song score which contains no score material but contains a number of original songs which are of a significant high quality, or an original classical work/concept album by a composer best known for their film scores, or a score for a short film not eligible in our other categories. This award is not guaranteed to be presented annually, and will only be presented to a project worthy of separate special acknowledgement. In previous years the IFMCA recognized the screen musicals Hairspray and Sweeney Todd, as well composer Christopher Lennertz’s Symphony of Hope charity project. The award is named in honor of Kyle Renick, the film music journalist and theater producer from New York who was a member of the IFMCA until his death in 2019.
For more information about the International Film Music Critics Association go to www.filmmusiccritics.org, visit our Facebook page, find us on YouTube, follow us on Twitter @ifmca, or contact us at press@filmmusiccritics.org.