Eleven projects from Southeast Asia have been selected for this year's Open Doorsworkshop to be presented to potential producers and co-producers during the Locarno International Film Festival in August.

Commenting on the selectionmade from 50 projects entered from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, Open Doors project manager VincenzoBugno explained that the line-up includes'projects by names both well-known and less familiar to people in theindustry, and to Western audiences in general. What all the projects had incommon was the desire to render in depth the reality of the countries in whichthe directors live. We are definitely very pleased with the resonance ourinitiative has achieved in Southeast Asia."

This year, Open Doors willdo more than just provide a networking platform for the projects. For the firsttime, thanks to further funding from the Swiss Foreign Ministry's Agency forDevelopment and Cooperation (DEZA), two grants - each worth $40,343 (50,000Swiss Francs) - will be awarded towards the development and production ofprojects at the close of the workshop. The decision as to which projects willreceive the awards will be made by the LocarnoFestival together with the Swiss-based fund Visions SudEst.

Moreover, another $12,617 (Euros10,000) will be awarded to a project in the development phase thanks to a newcooperation between Open Doors and France's CNC.

The projects selected forOpen Doors 2006 are:

Indonesia

3 Days to Forever, dir: Riri Riza,prod co: Miles Films

Jermal, dir: Ravi Bahrwani, prod co: Salto Films

The Photograph, dir: Nan Achnas, prod co: Triximages

Malaysia

The Dog Man Chronicle, dir: James Lee, prod co: Doghouse 73 Pictures

Jakun, dir: SawTeong Hin, prod co: RealFilms

Living Quietly,dir: Tan Chi Mui,prod co: Da Huang Pictures

Singapore

132, dir: Royston Tan, prod co: Zhao WeiFilms

Maid ToOrder, dir: Djinn,prod co: Vacantfilms

Thailand / Singapore

Pleasure Factory, dir: Ekachai Uekrongtham, prod co: Spice Apple Films

Armful, dir: Wisit Sasantieng, prod co: One Ton Cinema

Thailand

The Island Funeral,dir: Pimpaka Towira,prod co: Soapbox

This is the fourth year thatLocarno and the DEZA are staging the Open Doors platformafter previously spotlighting projects from Cuba (2003), the Mekong region (2004) and the Maghreb countries - Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco (2005).

Festival organisers saidthat Open Doors will turn its attention in 2007 to the near and Middle East (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Iraq and the Palestinian Territories) and in 2008 to English- and Portuguese-speaking southern Africa (including South Africa, Angola and Mozambique).