The Gandia Campus of the UPV becomes the great showcase for emerging audiovisual talent in the Valencian Region.
The eighth edition of the Talent Audiovisual Universitari-Pitching Universitats Valencianes-Audiovisual Sector has broken participation records with 67 projects presented, 256 students involved and ten finalist proposals. This year, the Gandia Campus of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) has been in charge of hosting the initiative promoted by À Punt and the Valencian universities, consolidating itself as a meeting point for the emerging audiovisual talent of the Valencian Community.
“For the campus is a pride to be again the meeting point of the Valencian university audiovisual talent. This type of initiative reflects our commitment to training connected to the professional reality,” said the director of the UPV Gandia Campus, Vicenç Almenar.
During the day, held in the Aula Magna, the finalist projects have been defended before representatives of production companies, professionals and managers of the Valencian audiovisual industry. The jury in charge of evaluating the presentations was formed by Alejandra Mora, vice-president of the Valencian Audiovisual Academy; the screenwriter and director Nacho Ruipérez, a graduate of the Gandia Campus of the UPV; the producer and coordinator of ProMercat, Joana Chilet; and Alfred Costa, deputy director of Contents of À Punt.
For the professor of the Degree in Audiovisual Communication and coordinator of the initiative at the Gandia Campus, Germán Llorca, “the pitching is a communication formula typical of the audiovisual industry, so the students experience for the first time what it is like to have to explain a project in public”.
Three UPV projects among the finalists
The final selection was made from among 34 pre-selected proposals, evaluating aspects such as originality, formal quality, social and cultural impact and the viability of each initiative.
Three of the ten finalist projects have been developed by UPV students. They are Salvadora by Laia Duarte, from the Audiovisual Communication Degree; Cuento de viejas by Niko Díaz, Isaac Serrano, Gabriel Camacho, Asunción Alcaraz Ros, Aitana Sampedro, Jesús Díaz and Laura Flores, from the Master in Animation; and So by Andrea Cerdà, Àlex Galiana and Mònica Santolaria, also from the Master in Animation.
“All three projects have received very good reviews from the members of the panel of experts,” said Professor Germán Llorca. Likewise, Salvadora by student Laia Duarte, “has managed to capture the attention of the producer and coordinator of ProMercat, who publicly committed to develop the format”.
Salvadora a story born out of personal admiration
Salvadora inspired by a trans woman, “is a project I’ve been working on for a long time,” acknowledged Laia Duarte before its presentation. “It was all born because I have always been fascinated by Salvadora, a neighbour of my town, her story and her life trajectory”, she explained.
Laia, a student of Audiovisual Communication at the Gandia Campus, also wanted to highlight her university experience: “Both the faculty and the students have been like a family. In addition, we have many opportunities to carry out audiovisual projects and develop professionally.
Cuento de viejas seeks to make the leap to festivals
From the team of Cuento de viejas, Niko Díaz emphasized that the pitching is an opportunity to find professional support to promote the dissemination of their project. “We would love to have someone to help us in the distribution and to move the work to festivals. The production is on our own because it is part of our Master’s thesis,” he explained.
So makes the reality of blind people more visible
So proposes a reflection on the perception of the world from the experience of a blind person and, as Àlex Galiana explained, the work explores how the protagonist imagines what he has never been able to see. “We wanted to tell a story that would contribute to normalize the reality of blind people, giving visibility to experiences that are not usually represented in the audiovisual”, he said.
Promoted by the Valencian public radio and television since its inception, the Pitching Universitats Valencianes-Audiovisual Sector has established itself in its eight editions as one of the main platforms for discovering new creative voices and promoting the incorporation of young professionals to the Valencian audiovisual industry.
Photographs: Laura Navarro