On Thursday afternoon at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society in Vineyard Haven, music stands shuffled, a student in a bandana played pop songs on the piano in the hall, and a 1920s film reel played in silence on the big screen.

Composers and musicians from Berklee College of Music were warming up in preparation for the opening night film of the MV Film Society’s Filmusic Festival. The festival celebrates the melding of music and film, and features musicians and filmmakers alike. The festival runs from Thursday night to Sunday evening, playing seven different films, including one silent film. This year, Berklee students are once again a part of the festival by scoring the silent film Varieté and playing live during its screening on Thursday, June 23, at 7:15 p.m.

The film choice itself is rather daring. Varieté is a melodrama with the backdrop of a circus that tells the tale of an affair between an older man and a much younger girl. The French film was released in 1925 and brought to the U.S. in 1926, but the low cut dresses and the scandalous love affair in the film were deemed too much for 1920s America. Directors chopped it up, cut it down and released Varieté as the film Jealousy when it was released 90 years ago. The original film has laid dormant ever since.

Until now.

Berklee professor of film scoring Sheldon Mirowitz explained that the film was restored only recently.

“It has been the talk of the silent film world for the past two years,” he said.

Each year, starting six years ago, Mr. Mirowitz leads a 15-week course, for which he chooses five to seven of Berklee’s top composers to compose a film score for a silent film. Each student writes one reel, which is 12 to 17 minutes of music, that combines to make the full film score. He chooses the themes for the score, but after that the students are off and running.

“This process is very similar to what happens in the real thing,” Mr. Mirowitz said during a break from setting up for the big night. “It would be as if I was the lead composer and all these guys are working for me. But I give them much more freedom.”

In addition to the five composers for Varieté, 12 musicians of the Berklee Silent Film Orchestra will be onstage tonight playing the score live as the film screens.

“They are the best student players on their instruments in the Boston area, which means they’re the best student players in the world,” Mr. Mirowitz said proudly.

Berklee College of Music is the only place in the world where a student can get a degree in film scoring.

Varieté was screened in the U.S. for the first time in May at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Then it was brought it to the Cabot Theater, and now to Vineyard Haven. The film is 93 minutes long, and Berklee’s Silent Film Orchestra will play through its entirety.

“This is the neatest experience you will have all summer,” Mr. Mirowitz said.

For a full list of films this weekend, visit mvfilmsociety.com.