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The 1st MSCN International Film Music Prize is an international call for emerging and early-career film composers who wish to challenge their craft at the highest professional level. Created by the MSCN Film Music Festivals Academy, the award recognises exceptional talent in film music scoring, celebrating clarity and imagination in musical storytelling alongside professional-level technical skill and presentation. Designed as a serious artistic and professional challenge, the prize highlights composers who demonstrate maturity, narrative awareness, and a strong personal voice in writing for the screen. Distinct from many film music competitions, the MSCN International Film Music Prize is defined by its demanding structure and comprehensive evaluation process. For its first edition, composers are invited to create an original score for an exclusive sequence from The End of The Neubacher Project (2006), directed by Marcus J. Carney. The selected film material places particular emphasis on placement, restraint, emotional intelligence, and the meaningful use of silence and space, challenging participants to demonstrate control, sensitivity, and dramaturgical awareness. The jury will evaluate submissions with close attention to dramaturgical timing and cue placement, emotional restraint, the expressive use of silence, spatial awareness within the film, musical clarity and narrative cohesion, and the overall professional quality of the score’s technical execution. The MSCN International Film Music Prize welcomes submissions from emerging and early-career composers worldwide. The competition is open to all applicants regardless of age, experience, gender, education, or geographic location. MSCN actively encourages participation from individuals belonging to underrepresented groups. Applicants must submit a completed score for the competition film sequence, including a video file of the fully scored film with synchronized audio and a standard professional cue sheet. All valid submissions will be reviewed by the film’s director together with an international jury of professional composers, educators, and industry professionals. The prize recognises outstanding work through one Gold MSCN Award and two Silver MSCN Awards. The Gold Award includes a professional orchestral recording of selected cues with the Budapest Pannonia Film Music Orchestra at Pannonia Studios (valued at €1,300), mentoring during the preparation and recording process, and extensive professional written feedback. Two Silver Award recipients receive full scholarships to the MSCN Film Music Festivals Academy (valued at €500 each) together with detailed written feedback from the jury. Early Bird registration is available until 30 April 2026, with a final submission deadline of 16 June 2026. The winners will be officially announced during SoundTrack_Cologne 23 (14–17 July 2026). For more information: https://www.mscnfilmmusicfestivalsacademy.com/mscn-international-film-music-prize

What I feel like would be a better version is if you made this a canon. Then to end it you end with that starting theme.

A beautiful piece. It doesn't seem very complex, but it's very well structured (which, for me, is one of the biggest challenges). And the dynamic control is exquisite.

Things added - drums- riser at start- bass near end part- added instruments for beat drop- anyway, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x7rf-YpS7E&list=PLiE7K7q7K-Uv6JjIVF5EUzVzvZQ2YrXIP&index=41 Audio-score

this piece was composed with me hearing absolotly nothing while in the making of it, I wanted to see how well can I make pieces like that. yipieeee.mp3 wadanada.pdf

So very Nice to see even Admin, contribute Content, with such a High Degree of Contemporary Quality.

remix

I have just updated the post - up to 13 themes now!!!

Good for you! I'm too embarrassed to share my earlier works lol

Here's a very short piano composition I composed for my daughter many years ago. Nothing extravagant .... simple theme and tone. Mark

Thanks for the comment! I’m sure there could be plenty of changes to do, however, this work was one of my earlier attempts at writing for the orchestra. A time before I got any composition feedback from any mentors. I thankfully won a competition and spent a week working with composer Robert Bradshaw. During that time, he gave me tips on voicing, orchestration, and understanding tessitura. My rewrite was not to completely redo the work but polish it with the new information and techniques I learned. So, while I appreciate the feedback, I will not be rewriting certain spots in the work as I still want to keep it as is to show my growth overtime.

What can you do with 3 notes then?

This is a very well constructed piece! I think it's a little too on the "safe" side. When I envision a piece about storms (be it Vivaldi's Summer, Beethoven's 6th, Alpine Symphony), I want to hear rapid scales (especially in the strings and woodwinds), wild tremolo in the strings & percussion, and more dissonant chords in the brass. Maybe I'm biased after listening to those pieces. I think the D major section (starting around 94) is too similar in terms of orchestration as the beginning. I think this should be more brighter sounding, maybe with some instruments playing an octave higher than written (for example violins/violas in 126). In general, a little variety would help differentiate this section.

@Wieland Handke Apologies, I didn't think anyone would be interested in seeing the score. In any case, here it is.

A very short thought, or a bubble. A fleeting moment. Built around a Csus2/F# to Cmaj9(add13). That's it. Just a moment. Just this evening. Love me some lydian and b9 and #7 sounds. Acoustic guitar, DADGAD capo 7. 🔹 Quarter-to.mp3

I agree with most of the comments above...that is a LOT of instruments! Even if you're trying to emulate Mahler's 6th Symphony (which clearly you are with the choice of key and title of the movement), Mahler shows restraint on how he orchestrates. The big loud moments when all the instruments play together is rare, and is used for an effect rather than just bombast. In the current state, this sounds more like a background score to a film, rather than a symphonic movement. @Sojar Voglar pretty much sums it up. There needs to be direction, a form, and something to keep people's attention.

@therealAJGS WOW! What an improvement! It is night and day. I have no comments on the music as again, I do not know much on what is meant to accompany, but it definitely conveys something dire or thrilling. As a point of enjoyment, I must say there feels like too much distortion in the file. Just about 30 seconds worth of a blurriness that is very overwhelming compared to the literal music. For me, it took my attention away... especially with headphones 😓

Hi @Sonata_5! Do you have an audio rendition of your symphony we could listen to?

It's them! they started "Random"!

ok, I worked on it and gave it a MUCH needed improvement. this is what is it looks like right now. I honestly don't know what to do next, and I'm curious what you guys think, or if I should add any new instruments for either The next part or the part I have right now. to note, I also want it to be ~3 - 4 minutes long. This song actually came to me about 3 years ago, before I even knew what a "sharp" was, and before I started composing music. I Don't know how I still remember it. back then I thought of a lot of melodies in my head when I was bored and learned them on my Piano; now, I mostly play piano and if I play something I like, I continue it with my software, FL studio. I got really confused when I realized in the old one, after the intro it changed to C# and I thought the intro was D# so I changed the chorus to that, but apparently it was A# anyway. small mistake, big difference. anyway, here's how the progress is going. take a listen.

kinda ambient.

ok I guess I'll work on this song. reccomend any plugins or soundfonts?

Hi! I composed this string symphony a while ago and my orchestra director at my school wants to play this piece. Is there anything I can improve on? Feedback now would be very helpful as we are rehearsing in two days. Thank you!

Hi @MichaelJohn, I'm using Noire Pure!