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 ready for its 2026 edition. It is its second that is putting a spotlight on African cinema.
The Open Doors Producers program supports producers in their efforts to build sustainable careers and cross-border networks, bringing to the Swiss city six participants. They are Tapiwa Chipfupa of Ambidextrous Pictures in Zimbabwe, an EAVE alumn who recently launched the international training and mentorship program Audiovisual Entrepreneurs Laboratory (AVEL); Adja Mariam Mahre Soro from the Ivory Coast, or Côte d’Ivoire, who leads Studio Kä, an animation studio she founded in Abidjan; Natasha Craveiro from Cabo Verde, whose company Korikaxoru Films produced Omi Nobu, which featured in the Open Doors Screenings at Locarno 2025; veteran Mamounata Nikiema of Pilumpiku Production in Burkina Faso; Nigerian producer David Ikeata of Vox Cinematic Films; and Rua Osman from Sudan, whose Helomur Picture has been behind such festival favorites as Goodbye Julia (Cannes, 2023).
Yanis Gaye, a French-Senegalese creative producer, co-founder of the boutique production houses Goree Cinema in Senegal and Strange Fruit Production House in France, also co-founded Yetu (Un)Limited, a multi-venture African film studio. At Locarno, he serves as head of studies at Open Doors. And he connected THR with some of the producers attending this year’s edition.
