Live Performance and the Moving Image

Creation, Performance and Transmission

The moving image plays an increasingly important role in live performance. Film, video, animation, projections, digital technologies and real-time generated imagery are transforming the ways in which artists compose, stage works and engage with audiences.

This afternoon session will explore artistic forms at the intersection of music, cinema, performance and the performing arts. Particular attention will be given to the ciné-concert, while also considering a broader range of relationships between performers, visual media, stage space and the shared temporality of live performance.

Often confused with film music, the ciné-concert has a distinct identity. Whereas a film score is generally designed to be incorporated into a fixed and edited audiovisual work, the ciné-concert is based on a live performance situation involving performers, an audience, a film projection, a stage space and a shared moment in time. The music does not simply accompany the image; it enters into dialogue with it, reinterprets it, shifts its meaning and may even contradict it. The film thus becomes a genuine dramaturgical partner.

The lectures and panel discussions will address several questions: How can music be composed for the moving image within a live performance? How can composition, improvisation, synchronisation, sonic dramaturgy, scenography and technology be brought together? How should young composers and performers be trained in these practices? What place should they have within conservatoires, universities, festivals and professional training programmes? How can these creations engage with film heritage, silent cinema, animation, contemporary imagery and digital art?

The study day will conclude with a concert performed by students from the MSc Creative Music and Sound Design for Visual Media Scoring. This artistic presentation will put the day’s discussions into practice and offer audiences the opportunity to discover new works created in close dialogue with the moving image.

Organised by 3IMC, the study day will take place at Campus Georges Méliès in Cannes as part of NIMFA 2026, in partnership with Université Côte d’Azur, FEVIS, SMC, FAMDT and Grands Formats.