The awards for the 2011 Open
Doors co-production lab, that is organised with the support of the Swiss Agency
for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Federal Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) and the support of the City of Bellinzona, were announced on
Tuesday August 9.

Open Doors Awards cerermony, from left: Alka Raghuram, Shanker Raman, Signe Byrge Sorensen, Sourav Sarangi, Anup Singh, Johannes Rexin

The 2011 session was devoted to cinema from India. 12 projects, selected out of over 200 applications in 18 different languages from 30 regions in India, participated in the Open Doors co-production lab, organised with the collaboration of the Festival Industry Office. The objective of the 4-day workshop that took place during the Festival, was to assist the selected directors and producers to find co-production partners and to complete their films.
The jury, composed by Martina Malacrida and Nathalie Soldini for the Festival del film Locarno, by Walter Ruggle and Martial Knaebel representing the Swiss support fund for production "visions sud est", by André de Margerie and Remi Burah for ARTE, by Jacqueline Ada and Ramdane Saâd for CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée) decided upon the following grants, awarded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC):
 
Grant Open Doors 30.000 CHF
• THE TRAPPER’S SNARE by Shanker Raman produced by Rucha Pathak
 
Grant Open Doors 20.000 CHF
• BURQA BOXERS directed and produced by Alka Raghuram
 
Grant for development CNC (Centre National du cinéma et de l’image animée) 7.000 Euros
• LASYA (The Gentle Dance) by Anup Singh produced by Johannes Rexin
 
Grant for development ARTE 6.000 Euros
• CHAR… THE ISLAND WITHIN directed and produced by Sourav Sarangi,
co-produced by Stefano Tealdi and Signe Byrge Sørensen

Aside from the workshop, the Open Doors Screenings, aimed at both festival goers and professional delegates, will run until the end of the Festival. The 2011 programme presents a selection of 13 key films made in recent years in India and a Retrospective dedicated to Indian Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
In addition, the 64th Locarno Festival proudly presents three films whose projects took part in Open Doors co-production lab past editions:
in the Concorso internazionale TANATHUR (Last Days in Jerusalem) by Tawfik Abu Wael (Israel/Palestine/France/Germany), winner of the 2007 Open Doors co-production lab; in the Concorso Cineasti del presente SOLNETCHNIYE DNI (Sunny Days) by Nariman Turebayev (Kazakistan), winner in 2010, and HELLO! SHU XIAN SHENG (Mr. Tree) by Jie Han (China), part of Open Doors 2009.