Symphony For the Future
Feature | Germany, Japan, Austria | 76 Minutes | English, German and Japanese

Japan’s most renowned student orchestra, the Waseda Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, brings its concert tour back to life. One hundred and fifty students, restless, ambitious, and none of them actually studying music, step into grand halls such as Vienna’s Musikverein and the Berlin Philharmonie. Performing works by Mahler, Korngold, Bernstein, Strauss, and Ishii Maki, they confront both the grandeur of the repertoire and the intimacy of their shared journey. Written and produced together with the students, SYMPHONY FOR THE FUTURE captures how music becomes a vessel for connection, resilience, and quiet transformation. A meditative portrait of a generation learning to breathe, and play together again, it is a rehearsal for their journeys ahead. Director: Lars Ostman. Theater A

The Final Bow
Short | United States | 17 Minutes | English, Portuguese

THE FINAL BOW follows master bow maker Christophe Landon, celebrated cellist Coleman Itzkoff, and Brazilian conservationists, united by a struggle over pernambuco - a rare tree found only in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and essential to the world’s finest stringed instrument bows. As the government moves to upgrade the species to the highest level of international protection, conservationists fight illegal logging while musicians fear losing the tool that connects their souls to their music, while not actually helping to save the species. The film explores the clash of regulation, conservation, and art. It questions the effectiveness of the proposed upgrade, and asks what will happen to classical music if one of its most vital tools is banned across borders. Directors: Iona Horton and Luisa Barone.
After the screening: A live conversation with Co-Directors Iona Horton and Luisa Barone