Great Greek Composers
The 48th edition of Film Fest Gent - with a focus on Greek cinema - welcomed back the annual film music concert after a trying year without live concerts. On Friday 22 October 2021, Film Fest Gent presented in Opera Ghent the concert Great Greek Composers with film music by - among others - Eleni Karaindrou, Mikis Theodorakis and Evanthia Reboutsika. The day after, the best film and TV composers of the past year were honoured at the prestigious World Soundtrack Awards.
Ever since the 1980s, Film Fest Gent has had a distinctive and unique focus on film music, bringing the greatest film composers and their work to Ghent. With the annual World Soundtrack Awards and film music concerts, the festival highlights the art of composing for screen. The Film Fest Gent concerts bring live music, performed by Brussels Philharmonic, conducted by FFG music director Dirk Brossé and accompanied by film scenes projected on a big screen.
In 2021, the film festival explored Greek cinema, which is brimming with drama and captivating music. Through the concert Great Greek Composers: The Film Music of Eleni Karaindrou, Mikis Theodorakis, Evanthia Reboutsika et al., Film Fest Gent wanted to showcase the richness and genius of Greek composers. On 22 October 2021, the festival invited film music fans at Opera Ghent.
Special attention was devoted to Eleni Karaindrou, the long-time composer of Greek director Theo Angelopoulos, who passed away in 2012. Karaindrou received the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award during the World Soundtrack Awards Ceremony & Concert on 23 October. At the Great Greek Composers concert, Film Fest Gent brought symphonic tribute to her music with pieces from The Suspended Step of the Stork, The Weeping Meadow, Eternity and a Day, The Dust of Time and more. Karaindrou joined the orchestra as soloist at the piano, as would the Greek violinist Evanthia Reboutsika, who won the 2006 World Soundtrack Discovery of the Year Award for My Father and My Son.
The country where the tragedy was invented holds an eclectic mix of composers and instruments. Fans of film music could expect the melancholic atmosphere of Karaindrou's oeuvre, the inspiring music of Evanthia Reboutsika and the 'metasymphonic' compositions of Mikis Theodorakis, the 2007 World Soundtrack Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.