Music on Film: music as the main character at Film Fest Gent 2026

For decades, Amadou & Mariam turned their blindness and life in Mali into a remarkable musical journey. Their fame spread far beyond Africa, while their love endured for nearly half a century. The Blind Couple from Mali looks back at their extraordinary partnership, from Bamako to Amadou’s death in 2025, with rare intimate footage.

Once Upon a Time in Harlem captures the legendary meeting of the Harlem Renaissance, a group of exceptionally talented Afro-American artists, writers and musicians who forged a new sense of self-awareness and a voice of their own that would permanently transform American culture. 

When journalist Jan Brokken meets flamboyant Soviet pianist Youri Egorov in Youri, an interview blossoms into an extraordinary friendship. Joes Brauers and Levan Gelbakhiani shine in Sander Burger’s warm adaptation of In het huis van de dichter, a moving story of two artists, the freedom to forge your own path and the encounters that can change a life forever.

As his Vienna apartment filled with musical memorabilia faces demolition, ageing bluesman Al Cook finds himself surrounded by memories of a life lived to the rhythm of Elvis and the blues in The Loneliest Man in Town. Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel blur fact and fiction in this tender, wry portrait of a man forced to let go, and finally chase a long-deferred dream.

In the unconventional biopic Everybody Digs Bill Evans, jazz pianist Evans loses his bassist and closest musical companion, Scott LaFaro, and stops playing too. 

During Videodroom, the yearly creative dream date between Film Fest Gent en Arts Centre VIERNULVIER, iconic films are treated with a newly written soundtrack performed live. Different musicians bring their own interpretation of cult classics and forgotten gems. 

The selection of competition films also includes many films that stand out because of their remarkable score or strong sound design. There is a Ramones cover, a string quartet that makes the inner workings of a mind affected by dementia audible, and a South African debut that derives its structure directly from the Goldberg Variations. This makes the selection a perfect fit for the DNA of Film Fest Gent. Listen closely here, and you will see more.