The Competition

The film turns on a piano competition whose winner is guaranteed a career. For Paul this is the last time he is eligible; Heidi, entering for the first time, may simply be better. A relationship starts between them, and the real question becomes whether Heidi, under her teacher Greta’s pressure to win, will hold her own hand back, or condemn Paul to obscurity. What makes it interesting is that the love is placed inside the competition rather than against it; two people want each other and need the other to lose at the same time. Joel Oliansky wrote and directed, from a story by himself and William Sackheim. Richard Dreyfuss, Amy Irving and Lee Remick lead. It received two Academy Award nominations, for editing and for best original song.