Krakow Film Music Festival 2026

Lees het artikel in het Nederlands.

The month of May has been very important for Soundtrack World for many years. It is the month when I attend the Krakow Film Music Festival (FMF), a festival I have been visiting for a long time, even before the inception of Soundtrack World in 2017. The FMF has been around much longer than that and celebrated its 19th edition this year. It was however the first year under new leadership, as Agata Grabowiecka has taken over from Robert Piaskowski. It is a festival I do not have to think about attending, after all the fantastic experiences I have had in the past, but I was curious about how this festival would be under the new leadership. 

The concerts

For this edition, fans of film music could attend up to six concerts: five main concerts in the evenings and a special, extra one added later in the afternoon of the final day of the festival. This year the venues were pretty exciting, ranging from a cave in the salt mines to a massive sports arena.

May 13: FMF Awards Gala: “Duduś” Matuszkiewicz | Kuźniak | Mancini

The first concert of the festival was held on Wednesday evening and was a new experience for me, as I had never been to a big band concert at the FMF before. This concert could be divided into two different parts. In the first part, we could listen to the big band performing all kinds of music from Polish composers Jerzy “Duduś” Matuszkiewicz and Henryk Kuźniak, who were active a couple of decades ago, as well as music from their American counterpart from that same era, Henry Mancini. I am pretty familiar with Mancini’s music, such as The Pink Panther and other soundtracks, but I had never heard any music by these Polish composers, who are very well known in Poland. Between the delightful light-hearted music performed by Big Band Małopolski, several awards were handed out, including the Young Talent Award, the Polish Soundtrack Award and the Audience Award. 

After returning from the intermission, the stage had changed as a smaller stage with a drum kit had been added. The drummer was joined by a double bass player and composer Mikołaj Trzaska, who would be playing saxophones and bass clarinet. In the second half, we could listen to the music from Trzaska, which was a little bit jazzy, but more on the experimental side, with all kinds of noises from the woodwind instruments and the double bass. Even the drummer had a drum computer for different kinds of strange sounds. It was music I could appreciate, but not really something I could enjoy for long.

May 14: The Magic of James Newton Howard

The main guest of this festival was James Newton Howard. After experiencing his concert back in 2017, I was looking forward to seeing his music performed again at the festival this year. As he did at that previous concert, he would be conducting the orchestra himself and also speaking to the audience between the pieces. On the program were all kinds of suites of his film music, composed over his massive career, some of which had been arranged especially for this concert.

It was a long concert, at almost four hours. There were some speeches in between by Polish people, including an extremely long one by the two local politicians who handed out the Kilar Award to James Newton Howard, but most of the time was spent listening to the composer’s music. The cues not only featured Newton’s iconic themes but also fragments from other scenes in the movies, resulting in a fantastic showcase of how brilliant his film music is. One thing he is not very skilled at is conducting, which he was very open about during the evening and mentioned that he was making mistakes while conducting. From my point of view, he did a decent job, but at certain moments, I noticed that having a professional conductor would have elevated some of the pieces to the next level. However, that would make that night less of a James Newton Howard show, and that is exactly what we got: a wonderful James Newton Howard experience.

May 15: Immersive Experience: Hauschka

Another big guest at the festival was Volker Bertelmann, who has won an Oscar for his score for All Quiet on the Western Front. This concert would not be about his soundtracks, though. He would improvise music from his alter ego, Hauschka, on a prepared piano and other electronic devices around him, based on his latest album, Philanthropy.

I am not the biggest fan of experimental music, but I could immerse myself quite well in the music this time. The prepared piano is quite an interesting instrument, and the sounds and patterns Bertelmann can produce are quite compelling. The highlight for me was the finale of his hour-long piece, where Bertelmann stood up from his stool and started to remove all the things that were installed in the piano, like a screwdriver, a small tambourine, tape and many other silly things. After they were removed, he went back behind the piano and started playing emotional melodies without any enhancements. He was not done, though. As an encore, he grabbed some tape and used it to manipulate some snares in the piano for his final piece. It was an excellent finale of this very interesting musical journey.

May 16: FMF International TV Series Gala

Around 10 years ago, the FMF began using the massive sports venue, Tauron Arena, as one of its concert halls, including a concert in 2015 dedicated to TV music. After the COVID years, the FMF slowly returned to that venue by hosting movies with live orchestra concerts. This year was the first time they returned with a varied program and also their second concert dedicated to TV music in this arena.

The program of this TV concert featured music from many guests who were invited to the festival, including Jeff Russo, James Newton Howard, Bartosz Chajdecki and Cristobal Tapia de Veer. We could also listen to music by Mick Giacchino, who was announced as a guest but couldn’t make it at the last minute. One of my favorite pieces was the suite from Star Wars, including music from Kevin Kiner, which I had never heard live before and the music from The Studio, with Antonio Sánchez himself behind the drums. However, the composer who really needs to be mentioned here is Brian Tyler. He conducted his music from Yellowstone, and he also gave a glimpse of his new project, Are We Dreaming, which was a bold statement of sound, light, and a little bit of orchestra and choir. While I still prefer a traditional concert hall to a sports arena, I am happy that the FMF pulled it off again, filling an arena with people to enjoy soundtrack music. 

May 17: REscoringWajda

A special concert had been organized on the afternoon of the last day of the festival. In the iconic Salt Mines near Krakow, the Polish Radio Choir interpreted music from the movies from Polish director Andrzej Wajda. Unfortunately, I was not present during this performance.

May 17: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in Concert

The last concert of the festival was again at the Tauron Arena, where we could watch the first Harry Potter movie on a massive screen while the orchestra performed the score. The concert was a family concert, meaning the movie was dubbed in Polish with English subtitles. Conductor Benjamin Pope also instructed the audience that it was okay to cheer for their favorite characters on screen and to boo the ones they did not like. This concert was a wonderful introduction to film music for a young audience.

Panels

Not only are the evening concerts important during the festival. There are also many meetings during the day that are worth attending. This year, there were many industry-focused panels that weren’t very interesting to me, except for the one featuring publicists Ray Costa and Jana Davidoff, who discussed their experiences. There were also many fantastic panels for film music fans, including meet-and-greets with James Newton Howard and Brian Tyler.  

Karnets

One thing that was new in this edition was the treatment of so-called ‘karnet’ (Polish word for ‘pass’) holders, which would give you access to all the evening concerts. This year, they received some extra appreciation from the festival organizers. They received a wonderful goodie bag with exclusive items, including a fantastic FMF bag and pin. They also received tickets to an official FMF after-party, but the icing on the cake was a private session with Jeff Russo, which I, an industry pass holder, was not allowed to attend. I think this is a wonderful idea to reward these loyal festival fans, and I hope the organization will continue doing so next year.

Conclusion

It is always hard to write a conclusion for this festival, because there is a reason I have attended it since 2011. It is simply one of the best places to be as a film music fan. I do love the fact that most of the panels returned to the festival’s office on the main market, rather than on the other side of the city as last year. It is a fantastic festival if you are working in or want to work in the industry: I have seen so many people grow their careers because of it. It is also one of the places to be if you want to interact with one of the composers who are invited. On top of all that, you can attend fantastic concerts with lots of music you have never heard live before, including yet another major concert at the Tauron Arena. It was an amazing edition of this festival, organized by a fantastic team, led for the first time by Agata Grabowiecka. I am confident that this festival is in good hands.

Photos