Locarno moves film spotlight to Latin America

Open Doors, a project of the Locarno Film Festival that “shines a light on emerging filmmaking countries and helps them grow”, is moving its three-year focus from Southeast Asia and Mongolia to Latin America and the Caribbean.

The 2022-2024 period will be devoted to all South American, Central American and Caribbean countries except Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Colombia, which already have structured film industries, the festival said on Wednesday. The project will therefore take place in Spanish-, English- and French-speaking communities.

The first appointment is already scheduled for this autumn, when Open Doors will make its first official visit to South America.

On Tuesday the winners were announced for the international co-production platform Open Doors Hub and the producer training workshop Open Doors Lab. The Production Support, worth CHF35,000 ($38,000), went to A Useful Ghost by Thai filmmaker Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke.

Open Doors is celebrating its 19th anniversary this year. Created in partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), its mission is to nurture talent and promote local and regional independent filmmaking.