Michael Phillips

Throughout the month of February, Chicago’s classical music station will be going to the movies — musically speaking — with Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Phillips.

Leading up to the 88th annual Academy Awards on February 28, WFMT FM 98.7 will air a daily feature on great music from the movies, hosted by Phillips, who will share his favorite compositions written for films from the 1930s through the present.

Starting Monday, “The Film Score” will air at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays on the Window to the World Communications classical/fine arts station. It’s part of WFMT’s monthlong celebration exploring “the relationship between music and the silver screen.”

“With the Oscars coming up, it’s the right time to dive into eight decades’ worth of award-winning movie music,” Phillips said. “A lot of it will be familiar. But a lot of it won’t. We’ve come up with a pretty wild mixture that runs from Bernard Herrmann to Ennio Morricone to ‘The Social Network.’ Plus my favorite film theme of all time. That one’s a secret — at least until late February.”

The series will culminate in an “audio film festival” — a marathon of music composed for, inspired by, and featured in movies — to air February 27 and 28, according to David Polk, program director of WFMT.

“We are delighted to welcome Michael to our broadcast booth,” Polk said. “He is passionate about film music, and I know that we’ll all be learning a lot from him in the lead-up to the 2016 Academy Awards.”

Phillips joined the Tribune as theatre critic in 2002 and was named film critic in 2006. A frequent contributor to Turner Classic Movies, he co-hosted the final season of the nationally syndicated movie-review show “At the Movies” with A.O. Scott of the New York Times. Phillips is married to Tribune columnist Heidi Stevens.