In December 2020, we were cut off from our loved ones. Due to the lockdown, many had to spend Christmas alone for the first time. All cultural institutions were closed, long-awaited events were canceled. All this made the feeling of isolation even stronger. Promoting a sci-fi film about intimacy and space at that time posed a challenge. We decided to meet in an online space to experience together what we all missed the most. Organizing a New Year's concert of hope against all odds, aimed at giving the viewers a chance to meet their favorite artists, experience an extraordinary musical journey into space together, and most of all, hope that after months of isolation a new, better year awaits us. And it was bringing hope – despite the fact that the film is about loneliness, sadness and the need for contact – that was the biggest challenge at that time.

A concert to outer space. Despite some big names in the cast, like George Clooney, we felt that music, as the universal language of mankind, would be the strongest connection for the viewers. Especially the emotionally profound soundtrack composed for the film by two-time Academy Award winner Alexandre Desplat. The concert suite was performed by the famous NOSPR orchestra conducted by Radzimir Debski JIMEK. Our concert was supposed to connect people all over the world and even beyond, so symbolically, referring to the film, we sent it into space in cooperation with the Copernicus Science Center. So that it could reach even those who are millions of light years away from us.

Netflix's new superproduction about space and the human need for intimacy was meant to appeal to a wide range of people expecting a masterful show, as well as sci-fi fans craving for technological innovations. Despite the all-star cast, the use of “classical music” – by its very nature more difficult to listen to – proved that it can become an engaging medium of communication. There was only one condition: to “present” it in a modern form, using cutting-edge technology, so that the frozen form of the concert would come to life and surprise the viewers. We know that concerts available “on demand” had existed before, but they had usually been rebroadcasts of the show for the audience present on site. Focus on the live online premiere raised the whole thing to the next level, going beyond the home attempts to play for fans that later became quite popular.

We undertook the task of organizing something challenging: a live concert, under the baton of Radzimir Debski JIMEK, performed by the NOSPR orchestra in the middle of a lockdown. Musical arrangement of the concert was supervised Alexandre Desplat himself. The project involved scientists from the Copernicus Science Center, who encoded this unique concert into a digital signal and sent it to... the nearest potentially habitable exoplanet! The concert hall was transformed into outer space. Empty seats reflected emptiness of the universe, and a structure built of three large-format screens allowed the viewers to feel as if they had been in the middle of the film. The New Year's concert could be watched live on FB, Onet, and on YouTube Premiere, which allowed fans to comment on and relive the event. The campaign was supported by radio interviews with the artists, a TV spot, influencer mailings and an FB event.

“A real contribution to the culture”, “This work surpasses the film” are two of the hundreds of comments below the concert. More than 110,000 people joined the Facebook event, more than in the case of the most popular 2020 music festivals online. More than 40,000 viewers watched the live concert on the day of its release, and 500,000 - in the following week. The video was ranked in the TOP10 of “Trending” videos on YouTube. It appeared in over 70 publications, including TV. Popularity of the event was even supported by foreign bots selling tickets. It was even mentioned in Polish rap songs. It was one of few live concerts at that time with music by a world-class composer, performed by the outstanding musicians in Europe. We provided everyone with moments of emotion, and the beautiful music at Christmas time made us believe that this new year would be better.