Tanzanian-Kenyan Co-Production ‘The Ones With the Tempered Flowers’ and Uganda’s ‘A Vineyard for A Lobster’ Among Projects Selected for Locarno Open Doors 2026

The Tanzanian-Kenyan collaboration The Ones With the Tempered Flowers and Uganda’s A Vineyard for A Lobster are among the projects selected for Locarno Open Doors 2026.

Part of the Locarno Film Festival, Open Doors is the festival’s co-production and development programme that supports filmmakers from underrepresented regions. In 2024, Open Doors announced a four-year cycle focused on 42 African countries, which launched in 2025 and will run until 2028. Now entering its second year, the initiative returns with its Projects, Producers and Directors programmes, bringing together filmmakers whose work spans fiction, documentary and animation across more than ten African countries.

From 5 to 10 August, the programme will offer hands-on training, mentoring and networking, alongside public screenings and events during the 79th Locarno Film Festival and its industry arm Locarno Pro.

“With this new iteration of Open Doors’ African focus, we’re looking to affirm the richness of storytelling across the continent, with artistic voices and creative entrepreneurs strongly dedicated to meet their audiences at home, within their diasporas and internationally,” said Yanis Gaye, Head of Studies at Open Doors. “…African film eco-systems and their practitioners are a chance for the industry, to globally redesign some of the ways we think of our co-production practices, our audience building strategies, and the economics of cinema as a whole.”

The Ones With the Tempered Flowers and A Vineyard for A Lobster are part of Open Doors Projects, which includes six first and second features in development drawn from ten countries.

Directed by Tanzanian filmmaker Neema Ngelime and produced by Kenya’s Ivy Kiru through AQ Pictures, The Ones With the Tempered Flowers is an experimental documentary exploring themes of womanhood and motherhood. Meanwhile, the Ugandan fiction project A Vineyard for A Lobster, directed by Talemwa Pius and produced by Gashumba Emmanuel (Gripmagic Uganda Limited), explores the enduring shadows of colonialism.

Also representing East Africa is the Somalia-Djibouti fiction project Accept My Plea for Burial (Baryo Aas Iga Gudoon), from director Mohammed Sheikh and producer Kadir Harbi Hassan (Aleel Films), which probes the tensions between tradition and justice in a rural community.

Other selected projects include Too Much (Ghana), a documentary portrait of Ghanaian keyboard prodigy Kiki Gyan directed and produced by Aseye Fiagbe; Chapa 100 (Mozambique, South Africa), an urban surrealist love story directed by Ique Langa and produced by Lara Sousa (Kulunga Filmes); and I Live in V.I (Nigeria), a social satire about urban space and gentrification from director Ugochukwu Azuya and producer Olubunmi Ogunsola of Ensemble.

The Open Doors Producers selected six participants from six countries:

• Mamounata Nikiema (Burkina Faso, Pilumpiku Production), a veteran of the film industry, knighted at FESPACO 2021 for her contributions to cinema.
• Natasha Craveiro (Cabo Verde, Korikaxoru Films), producer of Omi Nobu, which screened as part of the Open Doors Screenings at Locarno 2025.
• Adja Mariam Mahre Soro (Ivory Coast), founder of Studio Kä, an animation studio in Abidjan. 
• David Ikeata (Nigeria, Vox Cinematic Films) has worked across borders, co-producing Kazakh-Nigerian fiction film Adam Bol (2024) and is currently developing a new project with an Egyptian director.
• Rua Osman (Sudan, Helomur Picture) brings a résumé that includes You Will Die at Twenty (Venice, 2019) and Goodbye Julia (Cannes, 2023).
• Tapiwa Chipfupa (Zimbabwe, Ambidextrous Pictures), an EAVE alumna who has recently launched the mentorship programme Audiovisual Entrepreneurs Laboratory (AVEL).

The Open Doors Directors include:

• Fagamou Fama Ndiaye (Senegal)
• Rediet Haddis Yalew (Ethiopia)
• Pocas Pascoal (Angola)
• Judy Kibinge (Kenya)
• Ariel Añez (Mozambique)

Their short films will be part of the Open Doors Screenings, an official section of the festival featuring both short and feature films. The full selection will be announced on 1 July 2026.

Speaking on the 2026 selection, Zsuzsi Bánkuti, Head of Open Doors said: “We are reaffirming something we deeply believe in: that the future of cinema depends on who gets to make it, and how. One of my hopes for this edition, and for Open Doors more broadly, is to keep amplifying female voices, both behind the camera and in the producer’s chair. Gender parity in our industry isn’t just a goal for the screen; it has to be lived in the way we work and who we support.”

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