Music Film Landscape section explores artists' spirits and their times through films about music and musicians, delving into their creative struggles and profound reflections on music. Divided into three subsections—Curtain Call, Portrait of Musician, and FreeStyle—it offers a rich variety of cinematic experiences.
Curtain Call features films that, like artists being called back to the stage amid unending applause, return to the screen in restored or adapted forms. Highlights include documentaries on legendary bands Oasis and Talking Heads, a hauntingly beautiful Indonesian musical by master Garin Nugroho, and the film version of the Tony Award–winning musical My Favorite Love Story.
Portrait of Musician presents intimate stories of iconic artists whose names evoke the spirit of their eras—French national treasure Charles Aznavour, German icon Hildegard Knef, Nick Cave, and Billy Joel—alongside a moving documentary that rescues drummer Lucas from tragic obscurity.
FreeStyle brings together thirteen feature films and thirty shorts, grouped into six thematic clusters addressing women’s rights, loss and mourning, migration and diaspora, fractured families, and the weight of history borne by musicians. Spanning fiction, documentary, animation, and experimental forms, these works capture music as inquiry, comfort, and resistance.
The festival invites you to embark on this journey through the diverse landscape of contemporary music films, where powerful stories resonate with musical thought and emotion.
