MOSTRA DE VALÈNCIA LAUNCHES ITS INTERNATIONAL CO-PRODUCTION FORUM

Four years after its relaunch, Mostra de València takes a definitive step towards consolidating its professional section with the creation of an international co-production Forum that aims to become the epicentre of film creation in the Mediterranean. The main objective of this meeting platform is to promote the audiovisual industry and encourage projects that will become a reality thanks to its presence in Valencia.

This is an initiative that arose from the festival itself, after some initial steps in the path of promoting the audiovisual industry in which it hosted the presentation of the Circuit Cultural Valencià and held a series of professional panels as part of the VLC Pitch Forum. Now, the Mostra is launching a project aimed at providing funding and viability for the projects of filmmakers from the Mediterranean basin. 

The Forum is conceived as a space to facilitate the meeting between projects in progress and sources of funding. Unlike development laboratories, it does not focus on mentoring ideas, but seeks to contribute to making film initiatives a reality by encouraging investment and creating links with international companies willing to commit to co-production. The challenge is to create solid alliances between members of the audiovisual industry in the Mediterranean countries, with Valencia as a professional link between the countries covered by the festival: Spain, Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Libya, North Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Palestine, Portugal, Slovenia, Western Sahara, Serbia, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.

“Since the reactivation of the Mostra, we have been aware of the importance and the need to set up industry activities to boost and encourage the international audiovisual market and, consequently, the Valencian audiovisual market. In this sense, the creation of this Forum represents a new, firm and ambitious commitment to position the festival in the sector, fulfilling one of the priority objectives we set ourselves in 2018,” said Gloria Tello, executive president of Mostra de València.

In charge of coordinating the Forum, which will include project presentations, one-to-one meetings and various parallel activities, is the Spanish-Lebanese Nadia Hotait, independent producer, head of development at Lola Films and associate producer of several Spanish-Arab co-productions released in cinema. With experience in developing projects in English, Spanish and Arabic, as well as in international markets such as the European Film Market (Berlin), the Marché du Film (Cannes) or the Red Sea IFF (Saudi Arabia), she will be responsible for a working forum around ten projects selected from an international public call, which offers creators the opportunity to meet with representatives of production, distribution, platforms, and various film support funds.

In addition, the Forum will explore the international potential of the projects and will follow them beyond the forum, accompanying those responsible for them until the films are completed.
The first Mostra de València Mediterranean Co-production Forum will take place during this year’s festival, from October 20^th to 30^th. The call for entries is open to both fiction and non-fiction feature film projects, and registration is open until 8 July 2022 via the website www.lamostradevalencia.com.