Cabo Verde Looks Beyond the World Cup, Ivory Coast Gets Animated, Zimbabwe Has Ambition: A Chat With Locarno Open Doors Film Producers
The Locarno Film Festival's Open Doors programme, which supports filmmakers from equity-seeking communities and regions where artistic expression is at risk, returns for its 2026 edition with a focus on African cinema for the second consecutive year. The Open Doors Producers strand brings six participants to Locarno from 5–10 August, offering hands-on training, mentoring and networking alongside public screenings, as part of a wider effort to help African producers build sustainable careers and cross-border industry connections.
The six producers are Tapiwa Chipfupa (Zimbabwe, Ambidextrous Pictures), Adja Mariam Mahre Soro (Ivory Coast, animation studio Studio Kä), Natasha Craveiro (Cabo Verde, Korikaxoru Films), Mamounata Nikiema (Burkina Faso, Pilumpiku Production), David Ikeata (Nigeria, Vox Cinematic Films) and Rua Osman (Sudan, Helomur Picture, behind Cannes title Goodbye Julia). Yanis Gaye, head of studies at Open Doors and co-founder of several African and French production houses, described African producers as operating like entrepreneurs who must innovate to build their own industry ecosystems, often working across multiple ventures simultaneously given the infrastructure challenges in their home territories.
- Locarno's Open Doors 2026 spotlights African film producers for second year running.
- Six producers from Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Cabo Verde, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Sudan attend.
- Programme (5–10 August) offers training, mentoring and networking in Switzerland.
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Cabo Verde's football team made history in 2024 by qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, becoming one of the smallest nations ever to do so. Locarno, a major Swiss film festival, runs a strand called Open Doors each year to support film producers from parts of the world where the industry lacks funding or infrastructure, or where free expression is under pressure.
For 2026, Open Doors is focusing on Africa for a second year running, bringing six producers to the festival from 5 to 10 August for training, mentoring and networking. The participants come from Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Cabo Verde, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Sudan, each representing their own production company and working across genres from animation to feature drama.
The programme reflects a wider push to help African film producers build lasting careers and connect with international industry contacts, given that many operate with limited local infrastructure and often run several projects or companies at once out of necessity.