In The Gift (2026), director Sunny Zhao conjures magic from music in ways you’d never have imagined. Since the beginning of time, music has been one of the few art forms that can truly unite humanity and evoke emotion when you least expect it.
Ten-year-old Abigail Phillips (Emma Barnett) has just lost her mother and lays flowers on her grave, which sits on her father’s Virginia farm. On her way home, she comes across something peculiar: an old, abandoned piano with a bullet hole in the front. She sits down and starts to play the perfectly tuned piano.
The next day after school, she heads straight to the piano and spots a young boy, Adam (Eric Brenner), playing a beautiful classical piece. Abigail is frustrated that he is playing on her piano, but Adam’s gentlemanly behavior helps them become friends. Adam offers to teach Abigail how to play in exchange for her company. Over time, he teaches her the importance of practice and discipline and how to harness the power of just twelve simple notes.
Eighteen years later, Abigail is a concert pianist who studied under a great master in Paris and is now touring Europe. She dedicates the tour to her father (Jeff Klemmer), who is sick back home. Before long, she’s flying back to Virginia for his funeral. She then begins exploring the farm, connecting places with memories of her father. There, she uncovers the secret history of the very piano that turned her into the musician she is today.
Adult Abigail Phillips (Emma Barnett) stands alone in a grand concert hall in The Gift.
“The next day after school, she heads straight to the piano and spots a young boy, Adam, playing a beautiful classical piece.”
The Gift is like a song. Director Sunny Zhao, with co-writer Jeremy Fischer, layers several themes from Abigail’s life like a concerto. The story also reads as a fantasy film, with magic sprinkled throughout each theme. Its main theme is music’s power to connect generations and cultures. We all share twelve notes, and together, they can evoke the breadth of human emotion. Abigail experiences music’s true power when she’s given the chance to play Chopin’s Fantaisie-Impromptu for an unsuspecting crowd.
This piano also has magic, as it connects to Adam (minor spoiler alert). It represents music’s enduring spirit. The magic lies in the idea that instruments can take on the spirit of their owners or the historical events of their time. I also love that this piano ends up on a small farm in Virginia, as if to say music knows no class.
My favorite theme is the love of a father who sacrifices time with his only child, Abigail, so she can pursue her gift for the piano. I didn’t mention this earlier, but her father donated the piano to a museum because of its historical significance. Racked with guilt, he goes on a research safari to find its origin.
Sunny Zhao’s The Gift (Fantaisie-Impromptu) is an art film. It has beauty, and that beauty has layers upon layers. It’s also a fantasy piece that exists in both the real and magical worlds. We are given gifts and presented with a destiny that leads us through a maze to a treasure at the end. The Gift might not be for everyone, but if you give it a chance, it just might capture your heart.
For screening information, visit the The Gift official website.
"…conjures magic from music in ways you’d never have imagined."
