Ghent puts composers centre stage as Coward opens festival

Belgium's Oscar entry "Coward" will open Film Fest Ghent on 7 October, setting up three days devoted to the music behind the pictures.

The World Soundtrack Awards' Film Music Days run from 8 to 10 October in Ghent, marking the 26th edition of the event, according to Variety. The awards strand starts a day after the wider festival opens.

Ghent has form here. The festival made screen music its calling card in the 1980s. That long focus led to the World Soundtrack Academy and its awards around the turn of the millennium. Programme director Wim De Witte oversees the Film Music Days.

Opening-night film "Coward" comes from Belgian director Lukas Dhont. It is Belgium's submission for the Academy Awards in the United States, where each country enters one film in the international feature race. Dhont describes it as "a musical about the repression of emotions."

Music is central to that story. So one headline session pairs Dhont with composer Valentin Hadjadj, who wrote the score, and music supervisor Pierre-Marie Dru, who finds songs and clears the rights to use them. A second pairs German director Edward Berger with composer Volker Bertelmann. Bertelmann has twice won WSA Film Composer of the Year.

The programme also looks at how such partnerships begin. Third Character, an annual market organised with Music & Cinéma Marseille, pairs composers with producer-director teams working on new projects. Dhont and Hadjadj first met as students at a Third Character session in France in 2013. They are now bringing a finished film back to Ghent.

It is not the only Ghent connection. Director Jacqueline Lentzou and composer Colin Stetson met while serving on the festival's jury in 2023. Organisers point to moments like that as the reason for matchmaking and student networking sessions alongside the talks.

For fans, this means a different kind of festival access. Most film festivals put directors and actors on stage. Ghent puts composers next to them and asks how a theme was built, where music replaces dialogue, and when silence works better.

Professionals can follow the full strand through Industry Packages, which give entry to talks, masterclasses and concerts on the days attended, plus network events. The aim is practical. Young writers meet directors early, before projects are cast and financed.

That chain matters in film. A score is usually one of the last creative pieces to be added, but the working relationship often starts years earlier.

Ghent's bet is simple. Celebrate that work in public, and help the next collaboration start in the room.