The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) is a professional association for online, print and radio journalists who specialize in writing about original film and television music.
Its membership includes 65 journalists from 16 different countries who write for such high-profile film and soundtrack-related publications and websites as Film Score Monthly, Filmtracks, SoundtrackNet, Music from the Movies, MundoBSO and UnderScores, as well as more mainstream publications such as Ain't It Cool News, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and the Irish Times.
The group maintains a website documenting its activities; operates a central online review interface which provides links to articles, reviews and interviews written by its members; organizes an annual awards event, the IFMCA Awards, celebrating music for films written during the preceding year; and is involved in organizing major international film music festivals, such as those in Tenerife,[1] Úbeda in Spain,[2] Kraków in Poland,[3] and the World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent, Belgium.
[5] They have been called the "Oscars of film music",[6] have been featured in major daily newspapers in Spain[7] and Portugal,[8] are recognized by major performing rights organizations such as ASCAP in the United States[9] and SGAE in Europe,[10] and most recently have been seen by the video games industry as an important step forward in legitimizing game music as a mainstream creative art form.
[11] Composers as varied as John Debney,[12] Alexandre Desplat,[13] Randy Edelman,[14] George Fenton,[15] Michael Giacchino,[16] James Newton Howard[17] Mark Isham,[18] Andrew Lockington,[19] Abel Korzeniowski,[20] Brian Tyler,[21] Fernando Velázquez[22] and Debbie Wiseman[23] highlight their IFMCA Award wins and nominations in their official biographies.