Locarno Unveils Participants For 2023 Edition Of Open Doors Industry Sidebar Focused On Latin America & Caribbean

Locarno Unveils Participants For 2023 Edition Of Open Doors Industry Sidebar Focused On Latin America & Caribbean

The Locarno Film Festival has announced the line-up for the 21st edition of its Open Doors program, which will focus on filmmakers from underrepresented countries in Latin America and the Caribbean for the second year running.

The program runs online in July and onsite during the festival’s Locarno Pro Days industry sidebar, running from August 3 to 9.

The eight films in development selected for its Project Hub coproduction platform include Milky Way (Vía láctea) from Costa Rican director Paz Fábrega, whose Cold Water of the Sea won the Tiger Award in Rotterdam in 2010.

Further projects include exiled Nicaraguan director Gloria Carrión’s animated hybrid work Pantasma; Jamaican director Gibrey Allens Raised by Goats; first-time Venezuelan filmmaker Carlos Zerpa’s LOA. Kill Your Masters (LOA. Mata a tus amos) as well as vampire western Last of the Kings by Peruvian director Victor Checa. His first feature The Shape of Things to Come (Tiempos futuros) was presented at Tallinn Black Nights.

Other countries represented in the Hub are Bolivia, Dominican Republic and El Salvador.

The projects will be in running the $55,000 Open Doors Grant, the $8,500 (€8,000) CNC prize and the $6,400 (€6,000) Arte prize as well as a number of in-kind awards.

The eight producers selected for the Producers Lab include Guatemala’s Joaquín Ruano, executive producer on César Díaz’s Cannes 2019 Caméra d’Or winner Our Mothers (Nuestras madres) and Honduras’s Ana Isabel Martins Palacios, whose credits include Mario Ramos’ La Condesa.

Alongside its long-running Projects’ Hub and Producers’ Lab, Open Doors is launching a third strand bannered the Directors’ Club this year.

The talent-focused program is aimed at directors with short or feature-length films selected for the Open Doors Screenings, a sidebar within Locarno’s official selection.

The participants and their films will be announced together with the official selection of the Locarno Film Festival on 5 July 2023.

 “In the last few years, we have seen the directors of the Open Doors Screenings naturally connect within the festival. To encourage this and provide the attending filmmakers with even more opportunities to make the most out of their festival experience, we have decided to create a special talent hub for them, the Directors’ Club,” said Zsuzsi Bánkuti, Head of Open Doors.

The full list of Open Doors Project and Producers

Projects’ Hub 
Desidia
Director: Leandro Grillo 
Producer: Alejandra Antequera, Trisomia Cine 
Bolivia

El ultimo rey (Last of Kings)
Director: Victor Checa 
Producer: Jimena Hospina, Pierrot Films 
Peru, Germany, Mexico

Libertinas (Libertines
Director: Leslie Ortiz 
Producer: Adriana Morán, Relativo Films 
El Salvador 

LOA. Mata a tus amos (LOA. Kill Your Masters
Director: Carlos Zerpa 
Producer: Carlos Zerpa, Mecha 
Venezuela

Pantasma 
Director: Gloria Carrión 
Producer: Leonor Zúniga 
Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras 

Raised by Goats 
Director: Gibrey Allen 
Producer: Nadean Rawlins, Raw Management Agency 
Jamaica 

Tres balas (Three Bullets
Director: Génesis Valenzuela 
Producer:Wendy Espinal, Colectivo Cinematográfico 81 
Dominican Republic 

Vía láctea (Milky Way
Director: Paz Fábrega 
Producer: Federico Moreira, La Mayor Cine 
Costa Rica, Uruguay 

Producers’ Lab  

Veronica Haro 
Abril films, Ecuador 

Ana Isabel Martins Palacios 
Fosforito Films, Honduras 

Daniela Muñoz 
Estudio ST, Cuba 

Carlos Ormeño Palma 
La Fiebre Films, Peru 

Gregorio Rodríguez  
Casa Latina Films, Dominican Republic 

Joaquín Ruano 
Producciones Concepción, Guatemala  

Samuel Suffren 
Kitfilms, Haiti 

Ivana Urízar 
Cine Mío, Paraguay