AFI Fest to Open With World Premiere of ‘Music by John Williams’ Documentary

AFI Fest will feature a lot of music by John Williams.

Laurent Bouzereau’s new documentary, Music by John Williams, is set to have its world premiere on opening night of the 2024 edition of the Los Angeles film festival, which will be presented by new exclusive sponsor Canva with additional support from Fiji Water. The 38th AFI Fest kicks off Oct. 23 and runs through Oct. 27 at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatres.

Hailing from Lucasfilm, Amblin Documentaries and Imagine Documentaries, Music by John Williams is billed as comprehensive look at the life and legendary career of the prolific composer who has been nominated for 54 Oscars and won five. In 2016, he was presented with an AFI Life Achievement Award, which made him the first composer to receive the honor. Williams, now 92, has so many credits on his résumé (hundreds) that there’s not enough space to fit them all here. But he won his Oscars for Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial and Schindler’s List.

“Growing up in France, I discovered the soundtracks I bought on vinyl ahead of most American movies that would come out months after the U.S. release. John Williams was the composer I immediately identified with; his scores made me fall in love with music, and made me realize at a very young age, the power that a score had on cinematic storytelling,” said Bouzereau. “This was an important story to tell, not only because it is about one of the greatest composers of all time, but because of the message it carries about the survival of orchestral music, and musicians.”

The doc team snagged sit-down interviews with a host of collaborators and admirers like Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Kate Capshaw, Gustavo Dudamel, J.J. Abrams, Chris Martin, Ron Howard, Chris Columbus, George Lucas, Itzhak Perlman, Lawrence Kasdan, Yo-Yo Ma, Ke Huy Quan, James Mangold, Alan Silvestri, David Newman, Thomas Newman, Seth MacFarlane, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Branford Marsalis. Spielberg, Howard, Kennedy, Marshall, Brian Grazer, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, Meredith Kaulfers and Bouzereau produced the project with Markus Keith and Michael Rosenberg serving as executive producers.

“John Williams is an American icon with a true and timeless global impact,” said AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale. “One could say we are ‘over the moon’ to host the World Premiere of the film, but that sentiment would hardly soar without the music of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”

Following its world premiere, Music by John Williams will have a limited theatrical release before premiering on Disney+ on Nov. 1. The full AFI Fest lineup will be be revealed Oct. 1.