Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards — Film/Media Scoring.
with Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards — award cycles running back to 2012, with the 2024–2025, 2021–2022 and 2020–2021 editions each indexed on the organizer’s own past-winners page · listed Aug 13Verified · Aug 13
one price per division — no early or late tier is published
It pays
$1,000 US cash to the emerging division winner and $750 US to the youth division winner
plus possible publication by founding partner Concord
Your rights
The license has no stated end date — the Film/Media Scoring rules page (captured August 13, 2026).
A heads-up: the Film/Media Scoring rules page (captured August 13, 2026) takes a licence over what you send and never states how long it lasts. Scope, duration and revocability are what a licence means — an ownership disclaimer standing next to it settles none of them, so this is the question to put to Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards in writing before you enter.
A publicity-rights note: the Film/Media Scoring rules (promotion) gives Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards the right to promote anyone who enters to print, broadcast or internet media — a publicity-rights grant over the person entering, and a separate question from what happens to the work.
An awards cycle with a real calendar behind it, and the longest runway on this desk: registration closes March 31, 2027, nominees are announced July 15, 2027, and the ceremony follows that autumn. Two divisions run inside the Film/Media Scoring category — Youth at $50 (US) to register, Emerging at $75 — and each carries its own cash prize: $1,000 (US) to the Emerging winner, $750 (US) to the Youth winner.
The rights position is three sentences long, and the heads-up on this card is about what they do not say. The scoring rules take a promotional licence over selected work — “All selected scores may be excerpted for publicity purposes”, with a compilation DVD or online video named as one destination for it — and attach no end date to that licence anywhere on the captured page. Scope, duration and revocability are what a licence means, so the duration is the question to put to the organizer in writing before entering. A separate sentence belongs to the publicity family rather than the song one, and is noted separately on this card.
One clause on the same page is not this category’s, and it is quoted here so nobody has to re-derive that. The rules also state that “each entrant in the Arranging and Orchestration category agrees to irrevocably assign all right, title, and interest” in the work created for the awards — an assignment, which is the shape of clause that stops a listing running on this desk at all. It binds the Arranging and Orchestration category only: the same boilerplate appears on the awards’ Classical Composition page with the same category named inside it, and both pages were captured on the same day to check that. A Film/Media Scoring entrant grants the promotional licence above, not that assignment.
The record
Source
The awards’ own Film/Media Scoring page, its Classical Composition page and its past-winners index (hamlischawards.org), all captured August 13, 2026.
What it costs
“Youth Division (All Categories): $50 (US)” and “Emerging Division (All Categories): $75 (US)”. One price per division, with no early-bird or late tier published on the page. Captured August 13, 2026.
The prize
$1,000 (US) cash to the Emerging Division winner and $750 (US) to the Youth Division winner. The non-cash side is named rather than implied: “your piece may be published by our sponsor Concord”, and nominees are invited to a professional-development day in New York City.
Fee against prize, by division
$75 to enter the Emerging Division against a $1,000 top prize is 7.5%. $50 against $750 in the Youth Division is 6.7%. Both are shown because a schedule with two divisions has two ratios, and the desk’s own detector compares the lowest fee with the highest prize — which would have printed 5.0% and told you less than the arithmetic does.
Rights, plainly
“All selected scores may be excerpted for publicity purposes.” Separately: “MHIMA may, at our discretion, transfer a portion of your submitted work to a compilation DVD or online video file for promotional purposes.” No duration, territory or revocation is stated for either on the captured page. A third sentence — “Contestants do not have the right to assign rights to their version of the entry, film footage, or provided music” — restricts the entrant, and grants the organizer nothing.
The clause that is not this category’s
“As a condition of entry, each entrant in the Arranging and Orchestration category agrees to irrevocably assign all right, title, and interest in and to any arrangement, orchestration, or other derivative work created in connection with The Marvin Hamlisch Awards.” The same sentence is printed on the Classical Composition page with the same category named inside it, so it travels with the boilerplate rather than with the category you are reading. It does not apply to a Film/Media Scoring entry.
Past winners
Named by year and division on the organizer’s own index: Matthieu Lechowski (Emerging) and Matthew Caren (Youth) took Film/Media Scoring in 2020–2021; Rory Finn and Daniel DiMarino in 2018; Chris McGuire and Chance Anderson in 2017; Robert Neumair and Lawson Madlener in 2016; Carlos Simon in 2015; Paul Devlin in 2014; Ken Pierson and Seth Tsui in 2013.
Who is behind it
The Marvin Hamlisch International Music Awards, contactable at hello@hamlischawards.org and +1.202.257.3066, with Concord, Caroline’s Cakes, Queens College (CUNY) and the Kupferberg Center listed as founding partners.
more from this desk
Scoring & placement
Soundscape — non-exclusive representation for film, TV and advertising
with Soundscape Media Inc.
Closes
Rolling
Rolling — no deadline pressure
Entry
Free to submit
It pays
No cash up front — 50% of all Net Receipts Soundscape actually collects on your music, plus 100% of the writer’s share of performance royalties paid to you direct by your PRO
A non-exclusive license, limited to licensing your compositions and masters to media productions worldwide, for a three-year term that renews yearly unless either side gives 60 days’ notice; it reverts once the term ends — Section 2(1).
A heads-up: Section 7(2)(b) uses perpetual/irrevocable licensing language over the song, regardless of any separate ownership disclaimer — scope, duration and revocability decide, not the disclaimer.
A publicity-rights note: Section 2(4) grants Soundscape Media Inc. the right to use your name, likeness and photographs in connection with the rights it licenses — a publicity-rights grant, and a separate question from what happens to the song.
No cash up front — 42.5% of every licence fee Tribe of Noise collects on your music, with 42.5% to the platform and 15% held back against transaction costs
The license has no stated end date — Section 9.1.
A heads-up: Section 9.1 takes a licence over what you send and never states how long it lasts. Scope, duration and revocability are what a licence means — an ownership disclaimer standing next to it settles none of them, so this is the question to put to Tribe of Noise BV in writing before you enter.