Emerging from the Shadows: Rediscovering the Legacies of Weinberg & Korngold, the music documentary directed by U.S.-German filmmaker Veronika Emily Pohl, has been named an Official Selection of the 2026 Newport Beach Film Festival.
The film will screen Oct. 18 at 3:30 p.m. at The Triangle in Costa Mesa as part of this year’s festival program.
Produced by Bernhard Fleischer Moving Images GmbH, Emerging from the Shadows explores the lives and music of composers Mieczysław Weinberg and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, two artists whose work was deeply shaped by displacement, persecution, survival, and artistic reinvention.
The documentary follows cellist Kristina Reiko Cooper and four-time Grammy-nominated conductor Constantine Orbelian as they perform with the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra in Lithuania. The film combines concert performance, archival material, historical context, and personal reflection to reintroduce the composers’ work to contemporary audiences. Watch the trailer below:
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Featured pieces include Weinberg’s Cello Concerto in C minor, Op. 43 and Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 52, along with Korngold’s Cello Concerto in C Major, Op. 37.
Korngold, who fled Vienna and built a major career in Hollywood, won two Academy Awards for Best Original Score and became an influential figure in the development of symphonic film music. Weinberg escaped to Moscow after his family was killed in the Holocaust. Though their careers followed very different paths, the film connects them through their Jewish heritage, experiences of exile and the music they created in response to upheaval and loss.
“To perform this music is to enter a conversation with history,” Cooper said. “Weinberg and Korngold each transformed personal and collective tragedy into work of remarkable beauty, intimacy, and strength.”
Pohl described the documentary as “a journey through artistry, history, and identity—honoring two composers whose voices refused to vanish.”
She added, “Music has a profound ability to connect and heal. I hope this film can foster understanding, and allow for human connection in the here and now.”
The Newport Beach selection continues a growing festival and industry run for the project. The documentary has also screened at the Consonance Music Dance Screenings Film Festival in Tbilisi, Georgia, was shortlisted for the Screen International Global Production Awards at Cannes and received an industry screening at the Directors Guild of America Theater in New York.
Critic Jeffrey Lyons called the film “a beautiful documentary about two great composers of classical music forced to flee Hitler,” adding that “even if you’re not a fan of classical music, Emerging from the Shadows is a treat for your ears.”
The companion album, Hidden Legacies, featuring Cooper, Orbelian and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, was released by Delos.
Emerging from the Shadows: Rediscovering the Legacies of Weinberg & Korngold screens Oct. 18 at 3:30 p.m. at The Triangle, Screen 3, 1870 Harbor Blvd. in Costa Mesa.
