INTRO

The World Soundtrack Award honours a soundtrack or even a lifework. The awards shall be distributed annually to mark and celebrate outstanding achievements in scoring music for motion pictures, and to honour other achievements as provided for in the rules and approved by the advisory board of the organizing body, the World Soundtrack Academy.

The statuette is based on a sinewave. This is a sound wave as it is represented on a computer screen. We cut down the sinewave to one single stylised undulation. By then looping a sequence of 5 such undulations (the horizontal lines of a stave) we created a crown.

A soundtrack fills the space of a theatre and is not subject to gravity : it floats in the air. That is why the sinewave is captured in an abstract and transparent space. The dark base is a reference to bakelite; the old much-preferred material for the widespread transistor radio.

THE CEREMONY

The awards are presented at an annual ceremony. Trophies shall be given for the following achievements:

• Film Composer of the Year (award can be presented in respect of one film or in respect of a body of work in the year)
• Best Original Film Score of the Year
• Best Original Song Written Directly for a Film*
• Discovery of the Year (emerging film composing talent)**
• Public Choice Award*** (audiences from around the world will be asked to vote for)

Special awards

• Lifetime Achievement Award
• Major Contribution to the Art of Film Music and Sound - i.e. to special achievements such as the most creative use of existing material in a soundtrack, sound editing, etc. These awards shall be given at such times as in the judgment of the Board of the WSA there are deserving recipients, but are not necessarily given each year
• SABAM Award For Best Young European Composer****, an annual competition for European film music composers aged 36 or less. The prize includes 2.500 euros and a live performance of the composition by the Brussels Philharmonic - the Orchestra of Flanders during the WSA ceremony.