Composition Competition Ghent Film Festival goes European!

During the past seven years, the composition competition was targeted exclusively at Belgian musical talent, but due to the increasing interest from abroad, the competition is now open to all young European composers. Candidates have to be younger than 36 years old and have to compose a soundtrack for the animated short film Food by Maya Gouby. In the short film, an old lady gives bread to the ducks in the park, but her intentions are much less noble than they appear. Gouby graduated with Food at the KASK (Faculty of Fine Arts) department of the University college Ghent in 2004. At the time, this was the first animated film school on the European continent, and it has been a partner of the Ghent Film Festival for years. In 2004, Food was selected for the Ace Competition for the Best Student Short Film at the festival. With this competition, the film festival wants to offer young European musical talent the chance to get known as a composer of film music. After all, the composition competition always attracts a lot of international attention. Participants can follow in the footsteps of a number of famous composers that attended past editions of the festival, such as Angelo Badalamenti, Dario Marianelli, Gustavo Santaolalla, Hans Zimmer, John Powell, Maurice Jarre, Alberto Iglesias, Elliot Goldenthal and Gabriel Yared. Candidates can register up to 30 June 2009, while their compositions have to be submitted by the end of August. A professional jury with international experience comprising people from the film and music world will careful evaluate the pieces. The Brussels Philharmonic under the direction of Dirk Brossé will perform the winning composition during the World Soundtrack Awards ceremony on 17 October at the De Bijloke Music Centre in Ghent. For more information about registration and the competition rules, please contact Danielle Heynickx of the Ghent Film Festival (tel: 0032 9 242 80 67 - e-mail: danielle@filmfestival.be).