It was a fantastic first year for the London Soundtrack Festival, which took place from 19-16 March 2025 across seven venues.
The London Soundtrack Festival was launched with a flourish in March 2025 and certainly made an impact. Featuring a host of concerts, masterclasses, films in concert, screenings, talks and Q&As, our first year showed just exactly what a festival celebrating London’s contribution to screen music could be. Over ten thousand tickets were sold for our events, which took place at iconic venues such as the Barbican, Southbank Centre, Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall and Roundhouse, the city abuzz with soundtrack music from film, television and videogames.
Our Gala Concert honoured the Oscar-winning Canadian composer Howard Shore, who enjoyed a decades-long collaboration with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on screen. That very orchestra – conducted by Ben Palmer – performed suites and themes from many of its collaborations with Shore, including Tim Burton’s Ed Wood, David Cronenberg’s The Fly and, perhaps most memorably, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of The Ringstrilogy. The orchestra was joined by the London Philharmonic Choir and soloists Charlie Draper (theremin) and vocalist Lior Attar for what was a memorable night of music.
David Cronenberg himself was on hand to present his long-time friend and collaborator with the inaugural ‘Gunning Inspiration Award’, which the festival will bestow each year to a composer who has truly made an impact not just on screen, but on British music-making. Before the Gala Concert, Cronenberg and Shore shared memories of their long partnership with host Jon Burlingame in front of a rapt audience.
In addition to Shore’s music were pieces from the 2025 festival’s guest composers, including Harry Gregson-Williams, Anne Dudley, Stephen Barton, Natalie Holt , Hildur Guðnadottir and Paul Farrar. Highlights were many, none more so than Barton’s performance on the Royal Festival Hall’s organ for his suite from Picard, and Harry Gregson-Williams conducting a suite from Gladiator II with a pencil!
Anne Dudley curated a special evening of ‘Great Movie Songs’ at Roundhouse, featuring performances by Neil Tenant and Jake Shears, while Joker composer Hildur Guðnadottir presented a concert of her own cinematic masterpieces at the Southbank to close the festival.
It wasn’t just musical stars in attendance. Oscar-winning actor Cate Blanchett was in attendance to chat about her performance in the musical thriller Tár with BBC Radio 3’s Matthew Sweet, ahead of a screening of the film. Other screenings included Gladiator II, Crash, Dead Ringers, Joker, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and a special screening of The Silence of the Lambs with a live score.
Hannibal Lecter wasn’t the only one to have live musical accompaniment. There was Charlie Chaplin, too, whose charming film (and score) Modern Times was the centre of attention at Cadogan Hall.
We celebrated videogame scores, too, at Roundhouse. A fine line-up of composing talent assembled to talk about their craft, their music later performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Talking of talking… we hosted several great, and fascinating chats, masterclasses and panels during the week. It was a real treat for fans and students of film music to hear just exactly how its done from the likes of Harry Gregson-Williams, Natalie Holt and Paul Farrar.
And just like that, year one was done. We couldn’t have done it without the audiences who turned up, the composers and performers who took to the stage(s) and the venues who hosted us. A big thank you to all of you.
See you in 2026…
All photos © Julie Edwards Photography