Three-time Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland has boarded the documentary short film The Tuners as an executive producer. The Polish writer and director joins Polish actress and singer Joanna Kulig (Cold War, Fatherland, Ida) as exec producers on the film, a portrait of musical craftsmanship and backstage rivalry.
Directed by Pawel Chorzepa (Sonny) and produced by International Emmy winner Joanna Chorzepa (Pianoforte), the short heads into awards season with three Oscar-qualifying festival awards and an upcoming mid-November release from The New York Times Op-Docs. The film has also been selected for the DOC NYC short list and the IDFA market in Amsterdam.
“The Tuners reveals a shadow competition unfolding beyond the spotlight of Warsaw’s prestigious International Chopin Piano Competition,” reads a synopsis. “As pianists prepare for career-defining performances, three expert piano tuners representing leading grand piano manufacturers work day and night in pursuit of the perfect sound. Each brings a distinct philosophy, intuition and technique to the task, knowing that the instrument a pianist chooses — and how it responds — could help determine a victory. Across 22 minutes, the film transforms this exacting, often unseen work into a suspenseful human drama about artistry, ambition and the quest for excellence.”
The movie is a Bees Film House production presented by The New York Times Op-Docs.
“The Tuners is a beautiful film about great music, the love of it and those who remain in the shadows, even though their knowledge and passion make everything possible,” said Holland.
“Agnieszka Holland joining The Tuners is an immense honor and a truly meaningful recognition of our film. We have the deepest admiration for her extraordinary body of work, her artistic integrity and her remarkable ability to capture the complexity of the human experience,” said producer Joanna Chorzepa.
“She is one of the most distinguished and internationally respected filmmakers of our time, an artist whose work has shaped generations of storytellers,” added director Pawel Chorzepa. “Her remarkable sensitivity to human stories, her artistic courage and her ability to bring visibility to those who often remain unseen resonate deeply with the spirit of our film. To have a filmmaker of her stature believe in The Tuners and support its journey means more to us than I can express.”
The Tuners, featuring Jarosław Bednarski, Ortwin Moreau and Hidemi Okubo, also includes Weronika Milczewska among its executive producers. Edited by Kosma Kowalczyk and Jakub Darewski, the film features cinematography by Pawel Chorzepa and Maciej Kwasniewski.
“For most of my life, I worked behind the camera as a cinematographer and a camera operator. I spent months traveling in tiny crews, closely observing other people’s lives and helping directors shape their films. Even when those films succeeded, I remained invisible, somewhere in the background,” Chorzepa says in a director’s note. “Over time, I realized how deeply this position influenced the way I look at the world. When my wife, the producer of this film, told me about piano tuners working at the International Chopin Piano Competition, I immediately felt connected to them. I understood their silence, their precision and the strange loneliness of carrying enormous responsibility while remaining unseen.”
He also shares: “The first time I observed the tuners during the Chopin competition, I thought I was simply watching craftsmen at work. Late at night, after everyone had left the concert hall, they entered almost silently, wearing white slippers, moving carefully through the darkness. But as I listened to the sounds surrounding them — isolated harmonics, tiny vibrations, the tension of strings — and watched the concentration on their faces, I realized I was witnessing something much more intimate and artistic. They were not merely repairing instruments. They were creating a world of sound.”
Concludes Chorzepa: “From the beginning, I knew I did not want interviews or narration. I wanted the viewer to discover this world the same way I discovered it: through immersion, curiosity and patience. Visually, the film became intimate and tactile, using macro details and long lenses to enter the physical space of the piano itself. Thanks to a collaboration with the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, we could access spaces normally hidden from the public and reveal a side of the competition that most people don’t see. More than anything, this film became a tribute to people who dedicate themselves completely to helping others shine and whose artistry often remains invisible.”
The Hollywood Reporter can now exclusively premiere a new trailer for The Tuners. No words needed to let you dive into a rarely seen world of sound.