Composer and librettist John Aylward’s one-act chamber opera film ‘Oblivion’ has won ‘Best Musical Film’ at this year’s Cannes World Film Festival. Aylward wrote the story, libretto, and music for the 70-minute film, produced by Ravenser Odd Productions and co-produced by independent filmmaker Graham Swon. The film was directed by Laine Rettmer with Alice Millar as Director of Photography and is cast with Ty Boque, Nina Guo, Lukas Pappenfuscline, and Cailin Marcel Manson.

Aylward began work on Oblivion just before the COVID-19 pandemic and immediately began to imagine a live staging, which seemed impossible at the time. He pitched the idea of creating a film to Swon and Rettmer, who became pivotal collaborators. The team shot the film in 12 days at Clark University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and the Copper Lantern Motel in West Brimfield, Massachusetts. Aylward worked with a post-production team to create the visuals that fused the pre-recorded studio audio and footage from the film shoot together.

The work is exploring the value of self-knowledge, the nature of redemption, and the human capacity to distinguish truth from falsehood. Drawing inspiration from Dante’s Purgatorio, Oblivion takes us inside a surreal netherworld where two disoriented Wanderers struggle to make sense of their existence, unsure of whose account to trust – or whether they even want the answers.

The atmosphere is set by Aylward’s score for four voices, backed by viola, cello, double bass, electric guitar, and electronics. Notes by Dan Lippel, who performs the electric guitar part, call the score “beguiling and mysterious … virtuosically intertwining spoken and sung texts with angular figures in the instruments… The closing material in the ensemble has an ethereal and disembodied ambience, as if the musical figures themselves are circles in Purgatory.”

The film’s cast recording, released on New Focus Recordings in September 2023, features Laura Williamson, viola; MIZU, cello; Greg Chudzik, contrabass; Daniel Lippel, guitar; John Aylward, electronics; Stratis Minakakis, Musical Director; and Joel Gordon, recording engineer.