The awards for the 2008 session of the "Open Doors Factory", the Locarno International Film Festival’s co-production lab that is organised with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) were announced on Wednesday August 13.
The 2008 session was devoted to Latin American cinema. 12 projects, selected from 332 submissions, participated in the workshop that took place during the Festival, whose objective is to assist their directors and producers to find co-production partners and the scope to complete their films.
The interest of potential co-producers was overwhelming: Approx. 550 meetings have been organized during the 4-day workshop "Open Doors Factory".
"Open Doors 2008 confirms the potential of Latin American cinema. The 12 selected projects got an enthusiastic response and we are very much looking forward to seeing the completed films", comments Festival Director Frederic Maire.


THE AWARD-WINNING PROJECTS

Awards offered by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
The two grants for development and production offered by the SDC and jointly allocated by the Festival and visions sud est, the Swiss fund for production support, go to:

"Sentados frente al fuego" (Chile) by Alejandro Fernández Almendras, produced by El Remanso/Eduardo Villalobos Pino. 50,000 Swiss francs.

"Jean Gentil" (Dominican Republic/Mexico) by Laura Amelia Guzmán y Israel Cárdenas Ramírez, produced by Canana Films/Pablo Cruz and Aurora Films/Peyi Guzman. 50,000 Swiss francs.

Award offered by the Centre National de la Cinématographie (France).
As part of the partnership between the Locarno International Film Festival and the Centre National de la Cinématographie, the development grant for a project presented at the Open Doors workshop goes to:

"Fe" (Guatemala), by Alejo Crisóstomo, produced by Casa Comal/Elias Jiménez This grant of 7,000 Euros is made directly by the CNC to either the director or producer.

Open Doors project manager Vincenzo Bugno comments "Filmmaking in the Latin American continent is making a remarkable contribution to world cinema. Rich in themes and cinematic styles, the selected projects of the "Open Doors Factory" were the basis of a very productive workshop. Furthermore, the admission figures for the public screenings of Open Doors films proved the audience appeal of Latin American cinema".

The Open Doors Screenings 2008 programme, aimed at both festival goers and professional delegates, screens thirty important films made in Latin America in recent years. The selection includes both films made by directors participating in Open Doors Factory, thus facilitating dialogue with the audience, and work by other filmmakers from the region. Open Doors Screenings 2008 have, to date, attracted a very large audience.