MUSA Film Music Critics Award – 3rd Edition – Winners

https://www.colonnesonore.net/news/premi-e-concorsi/11596-premio-musa-2026-i-vincitori.html

 

The winners of the third edition of the MUSA Film Music Critics’ Award have been announced. The award was established to celebrate excellence in film soundtracks and the quality of music for moving images in Italy, and this year it has once again confirmed its status as one of the leading authorities in the promotion of music for the audiovisual sector.

 

The winners of this edition, which, as we recall, recognises soundtracks from works released in 2025, are: Fabio Massimo Capogrosso with *Primavera* in the film category, Paolo Buonvino with *Il Gattopardo* in the television series category, and Franco Eco with *Hadar – Il frutto di Dio* in the documentary category. The awards ceremony will take place this summer at the Premio Mercurio d’Argento in Massa.

 

Here is what the two creators and founders, Marco Testoni and Massimo Privitera, directors of Soundtrack City and Colonnesonore.net respectively, have to say: ‘The Musa Award,’ explains Testoni, ‘was created to highlight the role of film music, and this year’s results speak for themselves. In fact, our international jury has demonstrated that the value of a soundtrack remains a recognisable factor for those who possess the critical tools to evaluate it and, above all, for those who are free from dynamics that have little to do with music.” As Privitera explains, in fact: “The Musa Award is the accolade of an international, distinguished and specialised film and music critics’ panel, which watches and listens to films, television series and documentaries with true expertise, delivering a sound judgement not dictated by passing fads or by who has achieved the greatest success.”

 

The official presentation of the plaques to the winners will take place as part of the Mercurio d’Argento Award in Massa, confirming the synergy between the two events and offering a significant opportunity for visibility for the key figures in music for the screen. With the conclusion of this edition, the MUSA Award continues to strengthen its role in the Italian cultural landscape, promoting the artistic value of soundtracks and contributing to the dissemination of film and music culture. The upcoming Mercurio d’Argento will also be an important occasion to announce the introduction of two further new categories and their corresponding awards, which will be presented from the 2027 edition of the MUSA Award onwards: Best Music Supervision and Best Cinemusical Book.

 

The third edition, which has just concluded, has also been enriched by new and significant collaborations with organisations in the sector, such as the publications Cinecorriere and Cinema Italiano and the school of film and musical arts Cineartemusica, as well as renewing the partnership with the Mercurio d’Argento Award in Massa, the event at which the plaques are presented to the winners.

 

We also summarise all the finalists, which, it should be noted, correspond to works produced in 2025. The list of six finalists in the Best Film Soundtrack category included: 40 Secondi by Alessandro Bencini, Cinque Secondi by Carlo Virzì, Fuori by Valerio Vigliar, Primavera by Fabio Massimo Capogrosso, Qui Staremo Benissimo by Pericle Odierna and Testa o Croce? by Vittorio Giampietro. The six finalists in the Best Television Series Soundtrack category were: ACAB by Mokadelic, Belcanto by Stefano Lentini, Il Gattopardo by Paolo Buonvino, Imma Tataranni 4 by Andrea Farri, Le Onde del Passato by Emanuele Bossi and Michele Braga, and Sandokan by Calibro 35. The shortlist for the Best Documentary Soundtrack category included: Hadar – Il Frutto di Dio, by Franco Eco; Pontifex, by Emanuele Frusi; and Vakhim, by Tony Carnevale.

 

And finally, let us remember that this year the jury has taken on an international dimension thanks to the collaboration with a number of critics from the IFMCA (International Federation of Film Music Critics). This year, on the jury for the Critics and/or Journalists category, listed in alphabetical order by publication: Renato Marengo (Cinecorriere, Ciao 2001), Carlo Griseri (Cinema Italiano), Gianmarco Diana (Cinematica), Matteo Marino (Film TV, Cineforum, Filmcronache), Jon Mansell (Movie Music International), Jonathan Broxton (Movie Music UK), Alberto Bazzurro (Musica Jazz), Piero Chianura (MusicEdu), Mirko Fabbreschi (Musicomics – Romics), Alessandro Boschi (Rai Radio 3 – Hollywood Party), Riccardo Giagni (Rai Radio 3), Alessandro De Rosa (RSI – Radio Svizzera, Rai Radio 3), Fabrizio Forno (Radio Città Aperta), Paolo Nizza (Sky Tg24), Pierluigi Pietroniro (Soundtrack City), Gorka Oteiza (SoundTrackFest), Giuseppe Ceccato (TgCom24) and Federico De Feo (Wired, Rolling Stone). Among the lecturers, record producers and/or composers-essayists we have: Giacomo Agosti (lecturer), Marco Ferretti (record producer), Stefano Mainetti (composer, essayist), Alessandra Mazza (lecturer), Licia Missori (composer, essayist), Andrea Natale (record producer), Ilaria Pilar Patassini (singer-songwriter, lecturer), Fulvio Pietramala (lecturer), Rossella Spinosa (lecturer), Eugenio Tassitano (composer, essayist). Jury chairmen: the two creators and founders, Massimo Privitera and Marco Testoni.