by FilmInk Staff
The Trustees of the Brian May Trust are thrilled to announce that the Brian May Scholarship for 2025-26 has been awarded to Finn Clarke.
The Brian May Scholarship provides financial assistance to promising Australian screen composers to study screen scoring at the University of Southern California, a world leading education facility.
According to Rob Ffrench, a Trustee of the Brian May Trust, “each awardee will receive a fixed sum which will cover most, if not all, of their fees to study for a Master of Music degree in Screen Scoring in the centre of the US film industry at the University of Southern California. The value of this year’s scholarship is A$95,000.”
The 2025-26 recipient, Finn Clarke is a screen composer based in Tasmania, Australia. “I’m incredibly honoured and excited to receive the 2025/26 Brian May Scholarship… Some of my biggest musical inspirations – Thomas Newman, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Christophe Beck, Ludwig Göransson, and Holly Amber Church – have studied at USC, and I’m excited to learn from the same environment that helped shape their careers,” Clarke said.
Clarke was nominated for Best Music for an Advertisement at the 2024 Australian Screen Music Awards, won the Grand Diemen: Digital and Sound Design categories at the 2025 Diemen Awards, and received the Award of Excellence at the 2023 Accolade Global Film Competition. Celebrated as one of Australia’s pre-eminent screen composers, Brian May’s legacy is marked not only by his achievements in composing for film and television but also by his role in revolutionising the industry. One of his most notable contributions was his work on the Mad Max series, where his scores for the original Mad Max and its sequel, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, are particularly celebrated for setting the tone for the post-apocalyptic landscape and action sequences.
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