Film Music Reporter

Ennio Morricone has been named European Cinema Composer 2013 by the European Film Academy for his score to Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Best Offer (La migliore offerta) starring Geoffrey Rush & Jim Sturgess. For the first time in the awards history, a winner in the music category (as well as 5 other categories) has been announced before the awards ceremony following a decision of the EFA Board to draw more attention to the awards recipients in these categories. Morricone whose best known scores include The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West and The Mission has previously been nominated for a European Film Award in 2005 for his score for Fateless. Previous composers that were honored with the award include Alberto Iglesias, Alexandre Desplat, Ludovic Bource and Bruno Coulais. The nominations of the major categories will be announced on November 9 and the 26th European Film Awards ceremony will take place at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin on December 7.