Following the public performance and announcement of the winner of the 13th International Film Music Competition on 2 October 2025, we received an indication that the awarded composition might not be fully original.

The organising institutions – Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich, Forum Filmmusik and the Zurich Film Festival – took this indication very seriously and jointly commissioned independent experts to conduct a scientific and analytical assessment of the work. The evaluation confirmed that substantial passages of the winning composition were derived from protected works without creating the required copyright distance. As the competition regulations explicitly require participants to hold all rights to the music they submit, this constitutes a clear violation of the participation requirements. The winner has therefore been disqualified retrospectively. As a result, no winner will be awarded for the 2025 edition.

Until now, systematic plagiarism checks were not carried out, as they had not been deemed necessary. However, the integrity and fairness of the competition are of the highest priority to the organisers of the International Film Music Competition. To prevent such an incident in the future, the organisers are reviewing additional measures to ensure that all works qualifying for the final fully meet the competition requirements. Central to the competition remains the creativity, integrity and originality of all participants, in the spirit of supporting emerging talents.

The two other finalists were:

Antonio Di Iorio
(USA/Italy)

Gary Hirche
(Germany)

The compositions of the finalists have been world-premiered by the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra on 2 October 2025. They have been chosen in a first round by an international expert jury (see below) out of 170 participants from 36 countries. Entrants were asked to score the 7‑minute short film WILD LOVE by Paul Autric, Quentin Camus, Léa Georges, Maryka Laudet, Zoé Sottiaux and Corentin Yvergniaux for symphony orchestra. The submission deadline was on 16 June 2025.

The members of the jury were:

President of the jury:
Hildur Guðnadóttir, film composer

Balz Bachmann, film composer

Jasmin Gordon, film director and producer

Frank Strobel, conductor of the award concert
Photo: Kai Bienert

The award ceremony took place during a film music concert. Under the baton of Frank Strobel, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra world-premiered the compositions of the three finalists and performed pieces by jury president Hildur Guðnadóttir who recieved the ZFF’s Career Achievement Award during the same evening. Sandra Studer took the audience through the evening.

The event is organised by Zurich Film Festival, Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich AG, and Forum Filmmusik.