Hearing the film. Oscar-nominated sound designer Laia Casanovas is a guest at the 17th FKA.

Participants of the 17th Kamera Akcja Festival will meet Spanish sound designer Laia Casanovas, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her sound work on “Sirât”. Together with Amanda Villavieja and Yasmina Praderas, Casanovas created one of the most distinctive soundscapes in contemporary cinema.

For their work on Óliver Laxe’s film, the team received the 2026 Goya Award and Gaudí Award, as well as a nomination from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, becoming the first all-female team nominated for an Oscar in this category.

Laia Casanovas graduated from the Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya (ESCAC) in 2012, specializing in sound. Since then, she has worked on numerous film and television productions, helping shape their concepts and overseeing the creative process. Her credits include “The Human Voice” and “Parallel Mothers” by Pedro Almodóvar, as well as the acclaimed series “Veneno” by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, about a transgender television icon. Casanovas was also responsible for the sound design of Celia Rico Clavellino’s “The Good Manners”, whose Polish premiere is part of the program of the 17th Kamera Akcja Festival.

At the same time, Casanovas’s filmography demonstrates the diversity of her approach to sound. In the intense “Sirât”, sound becomes part of the physical experience of space and a tool for building tension. In Celia Rico Clavellino’s “The Good Manners”, greater importance is given to silence, the acoustics of domestic spaces, and the seemingly ordinary sounds of everyday life. Meanwhile, her collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar demonstrates her experience working on cinema in which sound is an integral part of the director’s style and cinematic language.

“We want to show that sound design does not begin and end with the technical side of filmmaking. It is a conscious process of building narrative, emotion, and space. Laia Casanovas is a great example of a creator who can completely transform her approach depending on the film” – says Malwina Czajka, director of the Kamera Akcja Festival.

The “Sound Design” section is organized in cooperation with the Embassy of Spain in Poland. The section’s partners are the Łódź Film School and Filmweb

The 17th Camera Action Festival will take place from October 22 to 25, 2026, in Łódź, and online from October 19 to 21, 2026, on the Think Film platform. This project is made possible thanks to funding from the City of Łódź’s budget. It is co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund—a state-administered special-purpose fund—as well as by the Polish Film Institute and the University of Łódź, the festival’s patron. The “Sound Direction” section is organized in collaboration with the Łódź Film School and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Poland. Filmweb is a partner of the section. The festival’s main partners are Monopolis, the Łódź Film School, and the Museum of Cinematography. The Camera Action Festival and the “Man in Danger” Media Festival form the “Łódź Film Festival” network.