International Film Music Competition 2025

A total of around 170 compositions from 36 countries were submitted, and three musicians prevailed in the anonymous selection process: Mikal Grigorowitsch, Antonio Di Iorio and Gary Hirche. All participants in the competition were tasked with creating their own musical composition for the seven-minute short film WILD LOVE.

During the «Cinema in Concert» gala on October 2, 2025, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich will premiere the compositions of the three nominees. On the same evening, the winner will receive the «Golden Eye» for «Best International Film Music 2025» from this year’s jury, which includes Oscar winner Hildur Guðnadóttir.

This year, the International Film Music Competition is once again being held in collaboration with the festival. And this year too, the soundtracks of the three finalists will be played live. This time, the short film “Wild in Love”, which begins with an idyllic mountain tour for two – and ends anything but idyllically – will be set to music. The jury, headed by Icelandic Oscar winner Hildur Guðnadóttir (“Joker”, “Tár” and others), will decide which of the three soundtracks will be honoured with the Golden Eye. Frank Strobel will conduct excerpts from film scores by the jury president and the multi-award-winning Swiss composer Balz Bachmann (“Bis ans Ende der Träume”, “Giulias Verschwinden” and others). The exact programme will follow later.

Supported by the Else v. Sick Foundation, the Freundeskreis Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Fondation SUISA, SWISSPERFORM and the Stiftung Phonoproduzierende

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