Composers are the major new addition to the fifth edition of València Film Afers, Mostra’s co-production forum, which will take place from 8 to 10 November at Veles e Vents. With Meet the Composer, the forum opens its doors to film music for the first time, encouraging encounters between composers and filmmakers from the Mediterranean and expanding international networks for Spanish composers. Isabel Latorre, Tomás Santibáñez, Nerea Herreros López, Manel Brancal and Isabel Royán are the five composers selected for this first edition. They will present their work at a listening session for industry professionals on Sunday, 8 November, in the Sala García Navarro at the Palau, as part of the 12th International Film Music Congress. They will also attend a masterclass led by composer Aránzazu Calleja and hold individual meetings with the directors and producers of the projects participating in this fifth edition of València Film Afers.

Seven feature films in development, from Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Portugal, Palestine and Spain, will seek partners through pitching sessions and individual meetings with co-producers. The projects from Egypt are ‘A Young Man in Trouble’, by Ahmed Sobhy, and ‘Beaufort Scale’, by Ahmed Samir; from Lebanon comes ‘Before Now, Later’, by Karim Kassem, and from Tunisia, ‘The Corner Where I Met You’, by Yasmine Bouabid. The selection is completed by the Portuguese-Finnish co-production ‘Capricorn Syndrome’, by Miguel Munhá; the documentary ‘Super Sila’, in which Gaza-based filmmaker Mohammed Alshareef turns his young daughter into a superhero to protect her from the war; and ‘Vincent, Serge and the Others’, by Bruno Morat, a Spanish-French co-production by Valencia-based Barret Cooperativa about an 80-year-old man who has been convinced for three decades that he owns a Van Gogh painting.

The projects will be presented to leading professionals from the European and Arab film industries. They include Franco-Tunisian producer Nadim Cheikhrouha (Tanit Films), responsible for ‘The Voice of Hind’ and films by Kaouther Ben Hania such as ‘Four Daughters’ and ‘The Man Who Sold His Skin’; French producer Marc-Benoît Créancier (Easy Tiger Films), winner of the César Award for Best First Feature Film with ‘Divines’ and ‘Magnetic Beats’; Catalan sales agent Queralt Pons, co-founder of More Than Films; Lebanese filmmaker and programmer Chadi Zeneddine, director of Cairo Film Connection; Egyptian cultural manager Sara Nour, associated with the Cairo and El Gouna film festivals; Belgium’s Katleen Goossens (Bulletproof Cupid); and Germany’s Karoline Henkel (Wood Water Films).

The forum will also host the seventh edition of Adapta Literary Market, a meeting point between literature and the audiovisual industry, connecting authors and publishers who hold adaptation rights with producers, screenwriters and other professionals seeking stories to develop new audiovisual projects.