February 23, 2007. The members of the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) have announced the winners of the 3rd Annual IFMCA Awards, honoring achievements in film and television music in 2006.

Leading the pack with the most wins is James Newton Howard, for his score to M. Night Shyamalan´s "Lady in the Water" which picked up three awards including Best Film Score of the Year, Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film and Individual Cue of the Year for "The Great Eatlon." Although the actual movie was not a critical favorite, Mr. Howard has continually done superlative work for Mr. Shyamalan, having scored his last four films. "Lady in the Water" is available on CD from Decca Records.

Hans Zimmer, who led the 2006 nominations with six nods, wins two awards: Best Original Score for an Action Film for Ron Howard´s "The DaVinci Code" (Decca Records) and for Best Original Score for a Comedy Film for Nancy Meyers´ "The Holiday" (Varese Sarabande), which coincidentally includes a main character played by Jack Black who is a film composer.

Other score winners include Mark Isham who wins the Best Original Score for a Drama Film of 2006 for his film noir-inspired score to Brian De Palma´s "The Black Dahlia" (Silva America). The Best Original Score in an Animated Film goes to John Powell´s score to the tap-dancing penguin hit, "Happy Feet," directed by George Miller (Atlantic Records). The Best Score for Television goes to "Planet Earth" by George Fenton (EMI Records), the 11-part BBC documentary miniseries, which aired in the U.S. on the Discovery Channel, showed life on earth, from forests and caves to ice worlds and shallow seas, all, of course, in high definition.

Film Composer of the Year honors goes to Alexandre Desplat who composed music for, among others, three high profile movies in 2006, including his score to Richard Loncraine´s "Firewall" (Varese Sarabande), his Oscar-nominated score to Stephen Frears´ "The Queen" (Milan Records) and his Golden Globe winning score to John Curran´s "The Painted Veil" (Deutsche Grammophon).

Brett Rosenberg is named Best New Composer of 2006 for his score to Craig Rosenberg´s thriller, "Half Light" which starred Demi Moore. The score is available for download on iTunes from MovieScoreMedia.

The Film Music Label of the Year honor goes to Intrada Records. In 2006 the independent label released among many worthy score CDs two of its planned three "Amazing Stories" compilations, from the popular but short-lived 1985-87 anthology TV series produced by Steven Spielberg as well as Bruce Broughton´s Emmy Award-winning scores to ABC´s "Eloise at the Plaza" / "Eloise at Christmastime." Douglass Fake is owner and President of Intrada.

The complete list:

A - FILM SCORE OF THE YEAR
* Lady in the Water (James Newton Howard)

B - FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR
* Alexandre Desplat

C - BEST NEW COMPOSER OF 2006
* Brett Rosenberg (Half Light)

D - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DRAMA FILM
* The Black Dahlia (Mark Isham)

E - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A COMEDY FILM
* The Holiday (Hans Zimmer)

F - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ANIMATED FILM
* Happy Feet (John Powell)

G - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ACTION/THRILLER FILM
* The Da Vinci Code (Hans Zimmer)

H - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION/HORROR FILM
* Lady in the Water (James Newton Howard)

I - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR TELEVISION
* Planet Earth (George Fenton)

J - BEST SINGLE CUE OF 2006
* "The Great Eatlon" from Lady in the Water (James Newton Howard)

K - FILM MUSIC RECORD LABEL OF THE YEAR
* Intrada (Douglass Fake, producer)

The International Film Music Critics Association, which was founded in 2004, is an association of editors, journalists and reviewers from online and print publications who specialize in writing about original film and television music. The IFMCA is a truly international organization, with members from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Please visit our website at www.filmmusiccritics.org for more information on this year´s nominees and winners as well as additional background about the organization.

Scoremagacine