Four screen music organisations work together to curate WSA Public Choice and WSA Game Music Awards longlists

Up until August 21st, screen music fans worldwide can cast their vote on their favourite film and game scores from the past year and decide who wins the WSA Public Choice and WSA Game Music Award. The nominees will be invited to the World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony & Concert on 10 October 2026, where the winners will be announced. In 2025, French composer Lorien Testard won the Game Music Award for his score for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Laetitia Pansanel-Garric took home the Public Choice Award for the original music for the animated film Hola Frida.

From this year onwards, the longlists for these awards will be curated by a selection of organisations, each active in a different domain of the screen music industry and each with a different focus in terms of expertise or target audience. The Composers Diversity Collective (CDC) is a community of music creatives who actively want to create an entertainment industry as diverse as our society. The UK & European Guild of Music Supervisors (GMS) is an organisation dedicated to raising awareness for the role of a music supervisor within the entertainment industries. The Alliance for Women Film Composers (AWFC) is dedicated to supporting and celebrating the work of women and gender diverse composers through advocacy and education. Lastly, the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) is an association of online, print and radio journalists who specialise in writing and broadcasting about original film and television music.

Through this new initiative, the festival aims to present a competition that draws on a diverse range of professional perspectives and fosters new connections between key organisations that serve as the backbone of the screen music industry.

The winners will be announced during the World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony & Concert on 10 October 2026. This is the closing event of the WSA Film Music Days (8 - 10 October 2026), which takes place during the 53d edition of Film Fest Gent (7 - 18 October). Tickets are available on filmfestgent.be and worldsoundtrackawards.com.