Locarno opens entrance doors to Africa

ROME -- The Locarno Film Festival's Open Entrance doors co-production mart will focus on French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa this year. The prominent Swiss fest has employed African cinema specialist Alex Moussa Sawadogo, who's director of Berlin's AfriKamera film festival, as consultant in selecting twelve participating projects being introduced in May 2012. Open Entrance doors this year can be obtained to distribution from: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Djbouti, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Niger, Central African Republic, Republic in the Congo, Democratic Republic in the Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles and Togo. Reason behind the mart/workshop, which will run August. 4-7, is always to help selected projects connect to co-production partners, especially European producers. Open Entrance doors also assigns a prize worth 50.000 Swiss Francs ($58,000), together with various other compact cash nods supplied by Gaul's CNC and broadcaster ARTE. Previous types of Open Entrance doors have dedicated to Central Asia, Greater China and, a year ago, India. Locarno, that's dedicated to indie photos and cutting-edge fare, might have its 65th edition August. 1-11. Contact Nick Vivarelli at nvivarelli@gmail.com