The 71st Locarno Festival will open at the beginning of August. The SDC supports the festival's Open Doors section, now known as Locarno Pro. The section aims to promote film-makers from the South and East and help them produce and distribute independent feature films.
Each year, the section focuses on a different region in the world where opportunities for making films and promoting culture are very limited. This 16th edition will take place from 1 to 7 August. Eight South Asian countries are the focus of the 2016–18 period: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Open Doors has three parallel events at the festival: Open Doors Hub, Open Doors Lab and Open Doors Screenings.
This year, eight projects from South Asia have been selected for Open Doors Hub. This August, the film-makers and producers will have the opportunity to take part in professional workshops and showcase their work to European and international partners.
This year's Open Doors Lab has invited a number of promising young producers and film-makers who want to work in an international environment. They will have the opportunity to take part in a training programme to learn about the international film market and what it has to offer, and to develop their professional skills.
Open Doors Screenings will showcase a selection of films that represent cinematography from the region and epitomise the audiovisual works of the participating countries.
A variety of awards
The Open Doors jury will make different awards for the projects featuring in this section of the festival. The CHF 50,000 Open Doors Grant will be awarded together with the City of Bellinzona and the Swiss fund visions sud est, which is also supported by the SDC. The Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) will award a prize worth EUR 8,000. ARTE will also present an award worth EUR 6,000. Prizes for performance will also be awarded to some of the Open Doors Hub and Open Doors Lab participants in partnership with various European institutions and programmes.
