2x25: 25 unique short films by national and international talent

Composer seeks filmmaker

The impact music can have on a film cannot be underestimated. Yet composers are usually involved quite late in the process of filming or even only in post production, and their music is often of secondary importance to the image on the screen. For this anniversary project, Film Fest Gent turns the tables. The festival firstly approached musicians to create a short composition, from living legends like Gabriel Yared (The English Patient, The Talented Mr Ripley) and Béla Tarr's composer Mihály Vig (Sátántangó, Werckmeister Harmonies) to relative newcomers to the profession like Eiko Ishibashi (Drive My Car), and from composers like Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings, Se7en) and Daniel Pemberton (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Ferrari) to experimental musicians like Pauchi Sasaki (Canción sin nombre) and Colin Stetson (Hereditary). What this diverse collection of composers does have in common is that they each have their own chapter in the Film Fest Gent history books.

The scores of 17 composers (Florencia di Concilio, Shigeru Umebayashi, Gustavo Santaolalla, Eiko Ishibashi, Alex Heffes, Arnaud Rebotini, Jung Jae-il, Gabriel Yared, Colin Stetson, Daniel Hart, Evgueni Galperine, Rachel Portman, Gabriel Chwojnik, Abel Korzeniowski, Patrick Doyle, Howard Shore and Anne Dudley) were recorded by Brussels Philharmonic conducted by maestro Dirk Brossé, who also composed a score for the project himself. For Ishibashi, Rebotini and Chwojnik, this project was their first opportunity to have their scores be performed by a symphonic orchestra and recorded.

Next, Film Fest Gent sought out filmmakers. Again, the festival contacted a wide range of directors: fiction filmmakers such as Paul Schrader (American Gigolo, Mishima, First Reformed) and Naomi Kawase (Suzaku, True Mothers), documentary filmmakers such as Alexandre O. Philippe (Lynch/Oz), experimental filmmakers such as Helena Wittmann (Human Flowers of Flesh) and Belgian talent such as Stijn Coninx (Daens) and Jessica Woodworth (King of the Belgians). The filmmakers were able to choose between a few pieces of music. Only when they had chosen a score, the name of the chosen composer was revealed.

The festival only paired directors and composers who had never worked together before to ensure creative cross-pollination. Film Fest Gent also aimed to make their selection of participants geographically diverse, with filmmakers and composers from all parts of the world, including Guatemala, Ethiopia, Georgia, Scotland, the Philippines, Tunisia, Portugal and Japan.

Films to be seen online and on the big screen

The short films will be shown before each feature film during the festival and can already be seen on Film Fest Gent's Youtube and Vimeo channels. From 10 to 21 October, the films can also be seen on the big screen before each festival screening of the 50th festival edition and in S.M.A.K., the Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent.

2x25 Couples

• Florencia Di Concilio (Uruguay) x Terence Davies (UK) - Passing Time
• Shigeru Umebayashi (Japan) x Radu Jude (Romania) - Greetings from Crîngasi
• Gustavo Santaolalla (Argentina) x Jacqueline Lentzou (Greece) - Pleiades (or Going Home)
• Eiko Ishibashi (Japan) x Laura Citarella (Argentina) - Trenque Lauquen
• Mihály Vig (Hungary) x Alexandre Koberidze (Georgia) - The More I Zoom in on the Image of These Dogs, The Clearer it Becomes They Are That They Are Related to the Stars
  
• Alex Heffes (UK) x Alexandre O. Philippe (USA) - Film Fest Gent
• Arnaud Rebotini (France) x Helena Wittmann (Germany) - The Swell
• Jung Jae-il (South Korea) x Jayro Bustamante (Guatemala) - Fuego Sagrado
• Gabriel Yared (Lebanon) x João Pedro Rodrigues (Portugal) - Tempo
• Daniel Pemberton (UK) x Paul Schrader (USA)
• Colin Stetson (USA) x Ildikó Enyedi (Hungary) - My Fear in My Arms
• Nainita Desai (UK) x Brillante Mendoza (Philippines) - Moro
• Daniel Hart (USA) x Wannes Vanspauwen & Pol De Plecker (Belgium) - It's Raining, It's Pouring
• Evgueni Galperine (France) x Bi Gan (China) - Shards of Moon
• Teresa Barrozo (Philippines) x Jia Zhangke (China) - Out of Jungle
• Rachel Portman (UK) x Diana Cam Van Nguyen (Czech Republic, Vietnam) - Dancing Fruit
• Pauchi Sasaki (Peru) x Jessica Beshir (Mexico, Ethiopia) - Ladan
• Amine Bouhafa (Tunisia) x Naomi Kawase (Japan) - echo
• Gabriel Chwojnik (Argentina) x Imge & Sine Özbilge (Belgium, Turkey) - Meshes
• Abel Korzeniowski (Poland) x Anthony Chen (Singapore) - The Cigarette
• Dirk Brossé (Belgium) x Meltse Van Coillie (Belgium) - Chamariz
• Patrick Doyle (Scotland) x Juanita Onzaga (Colombia) - Sanctuary
• Tsar B (Belgium) x Jessica Woodworth (Belgium) - fly
• Howard Shore (Canada) x Anthony Nti & Chingiz Karibekov (Belgium) - Drift
• Anne Dudley (UK) x Stijn Coninx (Belgium)