ASCAP Screen Time Hosts Exclusive Interviews Featuring Composers Anna Meredith (Wicker) and Shelby Gaines (The Weight)

, /PRNewswire/ – The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) announces the ASCAP songwriters and composers taking the stage for the 28th Annual ASCAP Music Café at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Together with Acura, longtime Presenting Sponsor and Official Automotive of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, the Café will feature exciting live music performances and interviews with top film music composers on Sunday, January 25 from 2:00 - 6:00 PM and Monday, January 26 from 2:00 - 5:00 PM at Acura’s House of Energy, 550 Swede Alley, Park City, UT.

This year’s ASCAP Music Café at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival will host performances from Grammy and Emmy Award-winning composer and songwriter Emily Bear, pop, rock and country singer-songwriter Josh Kelley, American glam rock band Foxy Shazam, Grammy-winning artist-songwriter Nathalia, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ron Artis II and composer, drummer, DJ, producer and musical polymath Photay.

ASCAP Screen Time, the ASCAP Film & Television team’s ongoing interview series about the craft and business of music for screens, will present three exclusive conversations with the creators behind some of the festival’s most anticipated films. Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna joins director Tamra Davis to discuss her documentary The Best Summer, an oral and visual history of an era-defining moment in music with behind-the-scenes footage featuring Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Rancid, Beck, The Amps and Bikini Kill. Then, composer **Shelby Gaines and director Padraic McKinley will discuss working on the film The Weight, a tense, atmospheric Depression-era crime drama that follows a group of desperate convicts on a perilous journey through a physically and morally treacherous backcountry. The interview series will also feature composer Anna Meredith in conversation with directors Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer **on scoring the film Wicker, a twisted, unconventional love story set in a medieval fishing village.

"For 28 years, the ASCAP Music Café at the Sundance Film Festival has built a rich history celebrating the love affair of music and film and the creators behind it from the Festival’s home in Park City," said Loretta Muñoz, ASCAP AVP Membership. "We’re grateful for our enduring partnership with the Sundance Film Festival and look forward to this year’s event at The Acura House of Energy, where we’ll once again create the magic the Café is known for with intimate performances and conversations from a remarkable lineup of songwriters and composers."

See the full schedule and get performer/panelist bios at www.ascap.com/sundance2026.

For the latest information on ASCAP events at the Sundance Film Festival, follow ASCAP on X, Facebook and Instagram, and through the event hashtag, #ASCAPMusicCafe.

Music in Film The 2026 Sundance Film Festival includes many films and audio/visual projects that prominently feature the music of ASCAP’s composer and songwriter members. ASCAP composers and foreign affiliates who have scored Festival films and audio/visual projects this year include:

Cristóbal Tapia de Veer (Nuisance Bear), Marcelo Zarvos (Troublemaker), Devonté Hynes (The Invite), Brooke Blair & Will Blair (The Shitheads), Anna Meredith (Wicker), Shruti Kumar (BAIT), Amanda Jones (Cookie Queens), Shelby Gaines & Latham Gaines (The Weight), Celia Hollander (Union County), Nathan Halpern (Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, Take Me Home), Chris Ruggiero (Take Me Home), Oliver Coates (Frank & Louis), Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe (Rock Springs), Curtis Green (Stairs), Michael Brook (Bedford Park), Andrew Orkin (The Gallerist), Marius de Vries (Tuner, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist), Matt Robertson (The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist), Alex Weston (HOLD ONTO ME (Κράτα Με)), Cameron Moody (The Baddest Speechwriter of All), Denise Santos (Taga), Jeff Morrow (La Tierra del Valor (The Home of the Brave), Jordan Seigel (See You When I See You), Lukas Frank (Soft Boil), Charles Humenry (Callback), Amine Bouhafa (Faux Bijoux), Arthur Sharpe (Extra Geography), Beatrice Deer & Mark Wheaton *(Mangittatuarjuk (The Gnawer of Rocks)), *Cam Ballantyne (Big Girls Don’t Cry), Chiara Costanza (Silenced), Chris Brocato (Queen of Chess), Dana Kaproff (Who Killed Alex Odeh?), Fletcher Aleckson (Luigi), Gael Rakotondrabe (Tell Me Everything), Helena Czajka (Sentient), Hichem Khalfa (Jazz Infernal), Jakub Rataj (How to Divorce During the War), Karl Frid (Sauna Sickness), Khari Mateen (Jane Elliott Against the World), Luca Scoppetta-Stern (Crisis Actor), Malcolm Parson (If I Go Will They Miss Me), Mario Batkovic (Shame and Money), Natalia Tsupryk (The Lake), Nicholas Semrad (Seized), Nyokabi Kariũki (Kikuyu Land), René Boscio (TheyDream), Roy Werner (STILL STANDING), Simon Russell (One In A Million), Suad Bushnaq (American Doctor), Sven Faulconer (Hanging by a Wire), Taul Katz (Barbara Forever), Tom Hodge (The Last First: Winter K2), Tomás Barreiro (The Huntress (La Cazadora)), Will Epstein (Joybubbles), William Ryan Fritch (The Oldest Person in the World), Yuli (Murder 101)

As part of its farewell to Park City, the festival is welcoming back several feature films with their "Park City Legacy Program." This celebration of independent film and four decades in Park City will feature films like House Party (with music by Marcus Miller) and Half Nelson (with music from Broken Social Scene).

Find more information about the ASCAP composers at this year’s Festival www.ascap.com/sundancecomposers2026.

**About ASCAP **The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is a membership association of more than 1.1 million songwriters, composers and music publishers, and represents some of the world’s most talented music creators. Founded and governed by songwriters, composers and publishers, it returns nearly 90 cents of every dollar collected to its members as royalties and has the lowest overhead rate of any U.S. PRO. ASCAP licenses a repertory of over 20 million musical works to hundreds of thousands of businesses that use music, including streaming services, cable television, radio and satellite radio and brick and mortar businesses such as retail stores, hotels, clubs, restaurants and bars. ASCAP collects the licensing fees and identifies, matches, processes and pays royalties to its members for trillions of performances every year. The ASCAP blanket license offers an efficient solution for businesses to legally perform ASCAP music while respecting the right of songwriters and composers to be paid fairly. ASCAP puts music creators first, advocating for their rights and the value of music on Capitol Hill, driving innovation that moves the industry forward, building community and providing the resources and support that creators need to succeed in their careers. Learn more and stay in touch atwww.ascap.com, onX andInstagram @ASCAP and onFacebook.

SOURCE ASCAP - American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers

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