Locarno Open Doors has announced its 2026 award winners, dividing its main CHF 50,000 production grant among three projects from Uganda, Somalia, Djibouti and Ghana.
The awards mark the second year of Open Doors’ four-edition cycle focusing on filmmakers, projects and producers from 42 African countries. Open Doors is Locarno Pro’s co-production, training and talent-development initiative for filmmakers from underrepresented communities and countries where cinema and artistic expression face structural or political risks.
Launched in 2003 in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the programme aims to foster sustainable film-production environments while connecting participants with international co-producers, financiers, sales agents, distributors and festivals.
The 2026 edition also introduced Open Doors Connect, designed to bring producers from different regions into contact with new collaborators and financing models, with a particular emphasis on South-South exchange and equitable international partnerships. Six projects were selected for this year’s Open Doors Projects platform and competed for the main cash and development awards. The CHF 50,000 Open Doors Grant, sponsored by visions sud est with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the City of Bellinzona and Open Doors, was divided among three projects.
Talemwa Pius’ A Vineyard for a Lobster, produced by Emmanuel Gashumba through Gripmagic Uganda Limited, received CHF 20,000. The Ugandan fiction feature unfolds in drought-stricken Rukumba, where an inexplicable blanket of snow brings together a failed jacket trader, a disgraced preacher and a timid local chairman. British envoys arrive offering independence in exchange for access to the phenomenon, transforming the unusual weather into an allegory for colonialism and the exploitation of natural resources.
Budgeted at approximately €1.34 million, the project is seeking development and production financing, international co-producers, distributors and technical partners. Principal photography is provisionally planned for March 2029.
A further CHF 20,000 went to Mohammed Sheikh’s Accept My Plea for Burial, produced by Kadir Harbi for Aleel Films. Set in a remote Somali pastoral community, the social thriller follows two 12-year-old boys whose playful rivalry ends with one falling to his death. With no reliable witness, grief gives way to accusation. The dead boy’s mother refuses to permit his burial until justice is delivered, forcing customary law, religious counsel and a divided community towards an impossible decision.
The Somalia-Djibouti-Qatar project is budgeted at €440,000, with €154,000 secured. The team is looking for an African, Arab or European co-producer, additional financing and international-circulation partners ahead of a planned March 2027 shoot.
Ghanaian filmmaker Aseye Fiagbe received CHF 10,000 for Too Much Music, which she is producing through Aseye Fiagbe Creative Studio. The 75-minute documentary revisits the life and legacy of Kiki Gyan, the Ghanaian keyboard prodigy who joined Afro-rock group Osibisa as a teenager before helping shape African disco and funk in London, Lagos and New York. Combining archives with testimony from Gyan’s family and collaborators, the film aims to look beyond the musician’s addiction and early death to recover his wider creative importance.
The €648,000 project has secured €88,000 and is seeking co-producers, financiers, broadcasters, distributors and archival-research partners. Principal photography is planned for February 2027.
Ique Langa’s Chapa 100 received the €8,000 CNC Development Grant. Produced by Lara Sousa of Kulunga Filmes, the Mozambique-Portugal project is an urban, surrealist romance about an elderly Maputo flower seller whose spirit becomes attached to the minibus that killed him. From there, traces of his love continue to reach the woman he left behind. The jury highlighted the project’s sensitive depiction of romance between two older characters, as well as the team’s commitment to developing an international distribution strategy.
The €1.1 million project is preparing to shoot during the Mozambican winter and is seeking additional financing, co-production and international partners.
Neema Ngelime’s The Ones with the Tempered Flowers collected two prizes: the €6,000 ARTEKino International Award and an invitation to the Sørfond Pitching Forum in Norway in November. Produced by Ivy Kiru through LBx Africa and AQ Pictures, the Tanzania-Kenya project is a participatory, performative documentary in which Ngelime examines her own experience of fibroids, fertility, religion and the expectations placed upon women’s bodies.
The film will combine constructed archives, observational material, family performances, stop-motion and visual effects. It is in late development, with €90,000 of its €400,000 budget secured, and is seeking European broadcasters and auteur-focused co-producers ahead of a planned July 2027 shoot.
The new EAVE Award, presented with Film Fund Luxembourg, went to Burkina Faso producer Mamounata Nikiema of Pilumpiku Production. The prize provides a scholarship to the EAVE Marketing Workshop worth €4,000. Ivorian producer Adja Mariam Mahre Soro of Studio KÄ received the Rotterdam Lab Award.
The jury recognised her work as a producer and entrepreneur, including her efforts to strengthen the local film ecosystem through training and international collaboration. She will participate in IFFR Pro’s Rotterdam Lab in January 2027.
Ugochukwu Azuya’s Nigerian project I Live in V.I., produced by Olubunmi Ogunsola for Ensemble, won the Tabakalera–San Sebastian Film Festival Residency Award. The social satire follows Florence, who leaves Akwa Ibom for a hospitality job in Lagos. Faced with grief, an exhausting commute and insecure housing, she secretly moves into an abandoned government construction site near affluent Victoria Island while inventing a glamorous life for her colleagues.
The jury singled out the project’s ability to connect its specific Lagos setting with wider concerns surrounding displacement, class, housing and labour. The award gives Ogunsola a residency at Tabakalera and access to the San Sebastian Film Festival’s industry activities.
The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie awarded its consultancy prize to Pocas Pascoal’s Sarah. The Angolan project explores a moment in the life of revolutionary filmmaker Sarah Maldoror, one of the first Black women to direct films, and is envisioned as a multilingual co-production involving African and European countries.
The first AFP Critics Prize went to Submergido, directed by Ariel Añez and produced by Joseph Mata, with Añez co-producing through Mozambique’s Maochas Filmes. The award comprises $500, a certificate and continuing editorial coverage through African Film Press publications Akoroko, Sinema Focus and What Kept Me Up.
The AFP jury described the short as “sad and poignant yet ultimately hopeful,” praising its exploration of the human cost of war. The jury comprised Kelvin Kariuki, Vivian Nwajiaku and Jeffrey Ini-Abasi.
Open Doors Awards 2026
Open Doors Projects
Open Doors Grant - CHF 20,000
A Vineyard for a Lobster directed by Talemwa Pius; produced by Emmanuel Gashumba (Gripmagic Uganda Limited), Uganda.
Open Doors Grant - CHF 20,000
Accept My Plea for Burial directed by Mohammed Sheikh; produced by Kadir Harbi (Aleel Films), Somalia/Djibouti.
Open Doors Grant - CHF 10,000
Too Much Music directed and produced by Aseye Fiagbe (Aseye Fiagbe Creative Studio), Ghana.
CNC Development Grant - €8,000
Chapa 100 directed by Ique Langa; produced by Lara Sousa (Kulunga Filmes), Mozambique.
ARTEKino International Award - €6,000
The Ones with the Tempered Flowers directed by Neema Ngelime; produced by Ivy Kiru (LBx Africa), Tanzania/Kenya.
Sørfond Award
The Ones with the Tempered Flowers. Participation in the Sørfond Pitching Forum in Norway in November 2026.
Open Doors Producers and Partner Awards
EAVE Award
Mamounata Nikiema (Pilumpiku Production), Burkina Faso. EAVE Marketing Workshop scholarship worth €4,000.
Rotterdam Lab Award
Adja Mariam Mahre Soro (Studio KÄ), Ivory Coast. Participation in Rotterdam Lab in January 2027.
Tabakalera–San Sebastian Film Festival Residency Award
I Live in V.I. directed by Ugochukwu Azuya; produced by Olubunmi Ogunsola (Ensemble), Nigeria.
Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie Consultancy Award
Sarah directed by Pocas Pascoal, Angola.
AFP Critics Prize
Submergido directed by Ariel Añez; produced by Joseph Mata and co-produced by Añez (Maochas Filmes), MozambFilm
Image courtesy of Locarno Film Festival.