Projects from Uganda, Somalia and Ghana shared the main award at Locarno Pro’s co-production and talent development programme Open Doors, which is currently focused on 42 countries in Africa.
The Open Doors Grant, worth CHF50,000 (€54,000), was divided between A Vineyard For A Lobster by Ugandan screenwriter and director Talemwa Pius (CHF20,000), Accept My Plea for Burial by Somali-American filmmaker Mohammed Sheikh, (CHF20,000) and Too Much Music by Ghanaian filmmaker and photographer Aseye Fiagbe (CHF10,000).
A Vineyard For A Lobster is Pius’s debut feature and is produced by Kampala-based Gashumba Emmanuel’s Gripmagic. The film is set in the equatorial village of Rukumba, where, after months of drought, snow falls overnight, sparking tension and debate among the villagers.
Accept My Plea For Burial is the second feature by Mohammed Sheikh following Barni, which debuted in competition at the Red Sea International Film Festival in 2025. The new feature is set in a Somali village and is the story of two 12-year-old boys. When one dies in disputed circumstances, his mother refuses to bury her son without justice, believing burial without accountability would erase his death. Sheikh has reunited with producer Kadir Harbi of Minneapolis and Mogadishu-based Aleel Films, who also produced Barni.
Too Much Music is Fiabe’s debut documentary feature and details the story of Kiki Gyan, a Ghanaian keyboard prodigy who rose to international fame as a teenager with Afro-rock pioneers Osibisa. Fiagbe founded Aseye Fiagbe Creative Studio in Accra in 2022 to produce commercials and documentaries.
The Open Doors Grant is sponsored by visions sud est (supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and CooperationSDC) and the City of Bellinzona.
Meanwhile, Chapa 100 by Mozambican writer and director Ique Langa and produced by Lara Sousa of Kulunga Filmes scooped the CNC Development Grant endowed with €8,000. Langa’s debut feature O Profeta screened in competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam earlier this year. Chapa 100 is set in Maputo, among the city’s ‘chapas’, the local minibuses that carry thousands of people every day. It details the story of an 80-year-old flower vendor who meets a vegetable seller, sparking a gentle romance.
The Ones With The Tempered Flowers by Tanzanian documentary photographer and filmmaker Neema Ngelime, produced by Ivy Kiru of LBxAfrica, won two awards: the ARTEKino International Award, worth €6,000, and the Sørfond Award, allowing the project to participate in the Sørfond pitching event in November. The Ones With The Tempered Flowers is Ngelime’s feature debut and spans Neema’s 1990s childhood through adulthood and the contradictions of contemporary Tanzania.
Additionally, the Open Doors partners - IFFR Pro, the International Culture Center Tabakalera and San Sebastian Film Festival, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), and Sørfond - provided awards to participants across the three program strands, Open Doors Projects, Open Doors Producers and Open Doors Directors. New this year are awards by EAVE, together with the Film Fund Luxembourg, and African Film Press (AFP) LLC.
Open Doors 2026 winners
Open Doors Grant
Vineyard For A Lobster (Uganda)
Dir. Talemwa Pius, prod. Emmanuel Gashumba (Gripmagic Uganda Limited)
Accept My Plea for Burial (Somalia-Djibouti)
Dir. Mohammed Sheikh, prod. Kadir Harbi (Aleel Films)
Too Much Music (Ghana)
Dir. Aseye Fiagbe, prod. Aseye Fiagbe (Aseye Fiagbe Creative Studio)
CNC Development Grant
Chapa 100 (Mozambique)
Dir. Ique Langa, prod. Lara Sousa (Kulunga Filmes)
ARTEKino International Award
The Ones with the Tempered Flowers (Tanzania-Kenya)
Dir. Neema Ngelime, prod. Ivy Kiru (LBx Africa)
Sørfond Award
The Ones with the Tempered Flowers (Tanzania-Kenya)
Dir. Neema Ngelime, prod. Ivy Kiru (LBx Africa)
EAVE Award
Mamounata Nikiema (Pilumpiku Production), Burkina Faso
Tabakalera-San Sebastian Film Festival Residency Award
I Live in V.I. (Nigeria)
Dir. Ugochukwu Azuya, prod. Olubunmi Ogunsola (Ensemble)
Rotterdam Lab Award
Adja Mariam Mahre Soro (Studio KÄ), Ivory Coast
Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)
Sarah (Angola)
Dir. Pocas Pascoal
AFP Critics Prize
Submergido (Mozambique)
Dir. Ariel Añez, prod. Joseph Mata, co-prod. Ariel Añez (Maochas Filmes)
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