At Aesthetica, the boundaries between creative disciplines have always been deliberately blurred, and in 2026, the Festival’s New Music Programme takes this philosophy further, bringing together the worlds of music, film and games across three days of live performance, masterclasses, conversations and industry exchange. As a BAFTA and BIFA-Qualifying Festival, Aesthetica has established a distinctive position within the UK’s moving image landscape, while its wider programme embraces XR, games, performance, music and digital culture. The New Music Programme stems from this multidisciplinary approach – recognising that the most exciting creative possibilities often emerge when different forms meet. “Aesthetica has always been about bringing new voices, stories and ideas to audiences,” says Director Cherie Federico. “The New Music Stage extends that vision, giving audiences the opportunity to discover tomorrow’s stars while creating a space where film and music can collide.”

Few UK film festivals place music, moving-image and interactive culture in close discussion – fewer still build chances for those groups to actively meet, exchange ideas and collaborate. A filmmaker may meet a musician whose work changes the direction of a project, while a composer can explore opportunities across film, television and games. The programme is not simply an additional strand running beside the festival’s film screenings – it is part of a wider ecosystem in which different forms of storytelling inform one another. Sound can transform an image; music can create a world and game audio can make an interactive experience emotionally resonant. Aesthetica’s ambition is to create the space for these connections to happen naturally – bringing artists, audiences and industry into the same spaces.

On Thursday 5 November, Sync Licensing: A Creative and Practical Guide with Beggars Group, explores one of the most direct connections between recorded music and moving image. Beggars Group – home to 4AD, Matador Records, Rough Trade Records, XL Recordings and Young – will unpack the creative and practical realities of placing music across film, television, advertising and video games. From working with music supervisors and navigating rights and clearances to establishing realistic budgets and finding tracks that support narrative, emotion and atmosphere, the session moves behind the finished soundtrack to examine the structures that make it possible. For filmmakers, it introduces an essential part of the production process; for musicians, it opens up another route through which their work can reach new audiences. Finally, Beggars Group Meet the Music Industry Networking & Drinks, brings artists, industry professionals and delegates together to continue conversation.

On Friday, the focus shifts to the craft of sound with Bohemian Rhapsody to Wuthering Heights: A Masterclass in Sound Design. Academy Award-winning Nina Hartstone and Emmy-winning Louise Burton explore the ways dialogue, effects, foley and other elements of audio can transform the emotional and physical experience of a film. Their shared credits include Bohemian Rhapsody, Saltburn and Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, offering an extraordinary perspective on contemporary sound design. Film may begin with the image, but sound is integral to how audiences understand space, character, tension and atmosphere – often operating almost invisibly beneath the surface. The masterclass reveals the intricate processes through which sound gives a story its texture, rhythm and pulse.

That exploration continues with The Power of Soundtracks, led by music supervisor Jen Moss. With more than 15 years of experience and credits including I, Tonya, Saint Maud, American Animals, Misbehaviour and the BAFTA-winning Beast, Moss has built a career around understanding the relationship between music and narrative. Music supervision exists at an intriguing intersection of creative instinct and practical negotiation – requiring an understanding of a director’s vision alongside licensing, publishing, budgets and the emotional resonance of a particular track. Her masterclass offers a behind-the-scenes look at how unforgettable soundtracks are constructed and why a song can become inseparable from the image it accompanies. It is precisely this kind of exchange that Federico sees as central to the New Music Programme – “creating connections, sparking collaborations and nurturing the next generation of artists across multiple disciplines.”

Saturday broadens the conversation further with Scoring to Picture: In Conversation with Anna Rice, bringing film, television and games into a single discussion. Multi-award-winning composer, lyricist, arranger and producer Anna Rice has worked across a 20-year career with performers including Lang Lang and Ronnie Wood, while her screen credits span film, television and games including God of War and Ghost of Tsushima. She is joined by Kathryn Rodger, Head of Film & TV at Wise Music, whose career has encompassed pitching and clearing composers and catalogue music for projects including Day of the Jackal, Amy and The Crown. Together, they will examine the creative and practical realities of scoring to picture – and what changes when the picture becomes an interactive world. It is a conversation that demonstrates why the programme reaches beyond traditional definitions of cinema, recognising the shared creative language connecting film, music and games.

The focus of Saturday is the New Music Stage – a platform that places emerging live music within the cinematic context of Aesthetica Film Festival. Following its inaugural edition in 2025, the stage returns with ten shortlisted artists performing across two live sessions, spanning indie, hip-hop, alt-pop, folk and beyond. The concept is deliberately different from a standard music showcases – artists are encountering an audience that includes filmmakers, producers, XR creators, programmers and international festival delegates, while musicians themselves become part of a wider cultural conversation. “We’re building a festival where creativity meets opportunity,” Federico explains. “It’s not just about performances – it’s about creating connections, collaboration and nurturing the next generation of artists.”

Before the performances begin, Meet the New Music Stage Jury brings together leading professionals from across the music industry to engage in discussions on how emerging talent is discovered, developed and supported. The jury brings together expertise from major labels, independent music, radio, journalism, artist management, live promotion and cultural programming – including Rob Cannell of Beggars Group, Sally Bryant of Futuresound Group, Nicolas-Tyrell Scott, Arusa Qureshi, Christine Osazuwa, James Matthews of Universal Music Group, Jess Iszatt, Pablo Ettinger, Rachel Croft and returning New Music Stage winner Francesca Pidgeon. Their discussion considers the structures behind sustainable careers, from labels and publishers to broadcasters, promoters and curators. The breadth of the jury is significant because the development of an artist rarely depends on one person or one organisation – it is shaped by a network of relationships, opportunities and advocates.

The day continues with Sync in Focus: Connecting Music and Moving Image, with contributions from Universal Music, Rough Trade Records and Domino Recording Company. Here, the emphasis is on the practical possibilities that emerge when musicians and filmmakers work together, exploring the different routes music can enter film and television. Later, BBC Radio 1 presenter Jess Iszatt leads BBC Introducing: Championing Breakthrough Artists, drawing on her work supporting emerging talent across genres. The programme’s live sessions then bring the ten shortlisted acts to the stage, before Dilettante – the 2025 winner – returns for a performance and Q&A. Their return is a reminder that discovery is only the start – the real ambition is to create pathways, allowing artists to develop, connect and progress.

The evening culminates in the announcement of the 2026 New Music Stage winner. Selected by a jury drawn from across the music industry, the winning artist receives a £1,000 cash prize, mentorship from Beggars Group and TALENTBANQ, and the opportunity for their music to be played across Caffè Nero locations throughout the UK. The award is designed to extend beyond recognition on the night, creating tangible opportunities for an artist at a crucial stage in their career. In this sense, the New Music Stage is both a showcase and a launchpad – connecting performance with mentorship, industry access and new audiences. It reflects the Festival’s broader belief that cultural programming can do more than just present work; it can help create and shape the networks through which that work travels.

Aesthetica’s New Music Programme asks what becomes possible when creative disciplines stop operating in isolation. Film, music and games increasingly share the same vocabulary – sound, atmosphere, world-building, emotion and immersion – while artists themselves move fluidly between forms. Aesthetica provides a space where those connections can become tangible, whether through a composer meeting a filmmaker, an emerging musician discovering the possibilities of sync, or a games practitioner approaching sound from a new perspective. For Federico, this is the longer-term ambition: “We want to create a cultural hub where artists have the chance to be heard on a national and international scale – and where new collaborations can emerge across music, film, technology and storytelling.”

As a BAFTA and BIFA-Qualifying Festival, Aesthetica occupies a distinctive position within the UK’s cultural landscape – rooted in film, but continually looking beyond the frame. The New Music Programme extends that outlook, creating a meeting point for established practitioners and emerging voices, industry leaders and independent artists, audiences and future collaborators. What begins with a panel about licensing or a masterclass in sound can lead somewhere unexpected – a new commission, a soundtrack, a collaboration, a career opportunity or simply a different way of thinking about creative practice. That sense of possibility is the programme’s real purpose: not to place music beside film and games, but to ask what happens when they are brought into the same conversation. The answer, at Aesthetica, is a festival that does more than just showcase what is being made now; it creates the conditions and envrironment for what is to come next.

With thanks to our partners – Innovate UK, Beggars Group, Leeds Conservatoire, TALENTBANQ, Caffè Nero and Imagesound – whose support makes this possible.

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Aesthetica Film Festival 2026 runs 4-8 November in York, UK. Click here to book your festival pass.

The Music Programme runs from 5-7 November. View the Music Programme.

Words: Shirley Stevenson

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