Open Doors, the Locarno Film Festival‘s co-production platform and talent development program for filmmakers from equity-seeking communities and regions where artistic expression is at risk, is gearing up for its second edition with a focus on African cinema, unveiling on Monday its selection of projects and producers for 2026.
Organizers promise “a bold and diverse slate of voices from across the African continent” in an edition that brings together filmmakers whose work spans fiction, documentary and animation across more than 10 countries. Running Aug. 5-10, the Open Doors program offers hands-on training, mentoring and networking, alongside public screenings and events during the Locarno Film Festival and its industry arm Locarno Pro.
The 2026 Open Doors Projects showcase features six first and second features in development — from portraits of music and memory to explorations of womanhood, urban life and the long shadows of colonialism.
The Open Doors Producers program, which supports producers in building sustainable careers and cross-border networks, also assembles six participants. Finally, the Open Doors Directors selection brings together five directors for a program of talks, workshops and industry networking. Their short films will be part of this year’s Open Doors Screenings.
“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,” said Yanis Gaye, head of studies at Open Doors. “Our program is set to allow those synergies — within our cohort; between them and Open Doors alumni from other regions; and through the encounters they will have in Locarno — to take hold through concrete and actionable interactions. African film eco-systems and their practitioners are a chance for the industry to globally redesign some of the ways we think of our co-production practices, our audience building strategies, and the economics of cinema as a whole.”
Added Zsuzsi Bánkuti, head of Open Doors: “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.”
And her team is also keeping an eye on more. “What excites me most about this year’s selection is how many of these filmmakers understand that cinema is never a solo act. A film is always made by many hands, many minds, many stories. The more we build our industry on that truth — on horizontal collaboration, on genuine equality within our creative communities, on more diversity — the richer and more honest our cinema will be.”
On Monday, Aug. 10, a jury of industry professionals will award financial and in-kind prizes to winning projects. New this year, professional training organization EAVE, together with the Luxembourg Film Fund, will offer a scholarship for the EAVE Marketing Workshop worth 4,000 euros ($). Plus, African Film Press (AFP), a cross-regional publishing alliance covering the African film, TV, and digital media space, joins as an award partner to present the AFP Critics Prize, a $500 cash award, a certificate and ongoing editorial coverage of the recipient and their future work across AFP’s three founding publications, namely Akoroko, Sinema Focus, and What Kept Me Up.
Check out a first look at the Open Doors 2026 selected projects, producers and directors below.
2026 Open Doors Projects
Aseye Fiagbe from Ghana directs and produces Too Much Music, a documentary portrait of Ghanaian keyboard prodigy Kiki Gyan.
Mozambique and South Africa come together in Chapa 100, “an urban, surrealist love story directed by Ique Langa, whose feature O profeta screened in the Tiger Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam this year. The project is produced by Lara Sousa of Kulunga Filmes.
Nigerian director Ugochukwu Azuya and producer Olubunmi Ogunsola of Ensemble present I Live in V.I, “a sharp social satire about urban space and gentrification.”
From Somalia and Djibouti, filmmaker Mohammed Sheikh and producer Kadir Harbi Hassan of Aleel Films bring the fiction project Accept My Plea for Burial (Baryo Aas Iga Gudoon) to Locarno. It probes the tensions between tradition and justice in a rural community.
Also featured in Switzerland will be a Tanzania–Kenya collaboration, The Ones With the Tempered Flowers, 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 program at the Cannes Film Festival with the project Strong Wind.
Last but not least, Locarno will host the Ugandan fiction project A Vineyard for A Lobster, directed by Talemwa Pius and produced by Gashumba Emmanuel of Gripmagic Uganda Limited. The film uses a snow-covered landscape as an allegory for the enduring shadows of colonialism.
Open Doors Producers
Mamounata Nikiema of Pilumpiku Production is from Burkina Faso and a veteran of the continent’s film industry, knighted at the 2021 edition of FESPACO, the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, Africa’s largest and oldest film fest, for her contributions to cinema.
Natasha Craveiro from Cabo Verde has, with her company Korikaxoru Films, produced Omi Nobu, which featured in the Open Doors Screenings at Locarno 2025.
Adja Mariam Mahre Soro from the Ivory Coast leads Studio Kä, an animation studio she founded in Abidjan.
Nigerian producer David Ikeata of Vox Cinematic Films has worked across borders, co-producing Kazakh-Nigerian fiction film Adam Bol (2024), and is currently developing a new project with an Egyptian director.
Rua Osman from Sudan and her Helomur Picture have accumulated extensive production experience, with her resumé including such festival favorites as You Will Die at Twenty (Venice, 2019) and Goodbye Julia (Cannes, 2023).
Zimbabwe is represented by Tapiwa Chipfupa of Ambidextrous Pictures. The EAVE alumn recently launched the international training and mentorship program Audiovisual Entrepreneurs Laboratory (AVEL).
Open Doors Directors
Fagamou Fama Ndiaye (Senegal)
Rediet Haddis Yalew (Ethiopia)
Pocas Pascoal (Angola)
Judith Nini Kibinge (Kenya)
Ariel Añez (Mozambique)
Read the full article here
