Open Doors, the Locarno Film Festival’s co-production platform and talent development programme, has unveiled the projects, producers and directors for its 24th edition, which is focused on the African continent.
The Open Doors programme, which runs during the festival’s industry strand Locarno Pro from August 5-10, is in the second year of a four year cycle dedicated to 42 countries in Africa.
This year’s Open Doors Projects showcases six selected first and second features in development.
From Ghana, Aseye Fiagbe directs and produces Too Much Music, a documentary portrait of Ghanaian keyboard prodigy Kiki Gyan.
Ique Langa, whose previous feature O Profeta screened in the Tiger Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier this year, brings Mozambique and South Africa collaboration Chapa 100, an urban, surrealist love story produced by Lara Sousa of Kulunga Filmes.
Nigerian director Ugochukwu Azuya and producer Olubunmi Ogunsola of Ensemble will present I Live in V.I, a social satire about urban space and gentrification.
From Somalia and Djibouti, Mohammed Sheikh and producer Kadir Harbi Hassan of Aleel Films bring fiction project Accept My Plea For Burial (Baryo Aas Iga Gudoon), which probes the tensions between tradition and justice in a rural community.
A Tanzania–Kenya collaboration, The Ones With The Tempered Flowers is an experimental documentary weaving together themes of womanhood and motherhood, directed by Neema Ngelime and produced by Ivy Kiru of AQ Pictures (LBx Africa), who also participated in the 2026 La Fabrique Cinéma programme at the Cannes Film Festival with the project Strong Wind.
Rounding out the selection, Ugandan fiction project A Vineyard for A Lobster, directed by Talemwa Pius and produced by Gashumba Emmanuel of Gripmagic Uganda, uses a snow-covered landscape as an allegory for the enduring shadows of colonialism.
A jury of industry professionals will award financial and in-kind prizes to selected winning projects. New prizes this year include a scholarship for the EAVE Marketing Workshop worth €4,000 from professional training organisation EAVE, together with the Luxembourg Film Fund. African Film Press (AFP) also joins as an award partner.
Meanwhile, the Open Doors Producers has selected six participants: Mamounata Nikiema (Burkina Faso’s Pilumpiku Production); Natasha Craveiro (Cabo Verde’s Korikaxoru Films); Adja Mariam Mahre Soro (Ivory Coast’s Studio Kä); David Ikeata (Nigeria’s Vox Cinematic Films; Sudan’s Rua Osman and Tapiwa Chipfupa (Zimbabwe’s Ambidextrous Pictures).
Five directors have been selected for Open Doors Directors, a programme of talks, workshops and industry networking: Fagamou Fama Ndiaye (Senegal), Rediet Haddis Yalew (Ethiopia), Pocas Pascoal (Angola), Judith Nini Kibinge (Kenya), and Ariel Añez (Mozambique). Their short films will be part of the Open Doors Screenings.
Yanis Gaye, head of studies at Open Doors, said: “With this new iteration of Open Doors’ African focus, we’re looking to affirm the richness of storytelling across the continent, with artistic voices and creative entrepreneurs strongly dedicated to meet their audiences at home, within their diasporas and internationally.”
Zsuzsi Bánkuti, Head of Open Doors, added: “With this selection, we are reaffirming something we deeply believe in: that the future of cinema depends on who gets to make it, and how. One of my hopes for this edition, and for Open Doors more broadly, is to keep amplifying female voices, both behind the camera and in the producer’s chair. Gender parity in our industry isn’t just a goal for the screen; it has to be lived in the way we work and who we support.”
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