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Locarno, Switzerland — Paraguay’s Paz Encina (“Eami”) and three first time fiction feature directors – El Salvador’s Enrique Bautista, Cuba’s Rosa María Rodríguez Pupo, Peru’s Fernando Mendoza – split the big prize on offer at this year’s Locarno Open Doors with Encina and Bautista taking the lion’s share of a CHF50,000 cash prize.

The grant was sponsored by Visions Sud Est and the City of Bellinzona. Its winners – Encina’s “The Unique Time,” Bautista’s “Salvation,” Rodriguez’s “Her Lightness” and Mendoza’s “The Return of the Last Mochica Warrior” – were announced Tuesday at the Swiss Festival as Open Doors’ arresting three-year focus on smaller markets in Latin America and the Caribbean came to a close.

Open Doors main partner, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (Sdc), announced Monday that the co-production and talent development program will now throw its focus for the next four years on underrepresented communities in Africa.

Focused on projects, producers and pics from smaller territories in Latin America, Locarno’s 2023 Open Doors showcase suggested a revolution is working through Latin America filmmaking. This year’s titles explore other facets of this next generation makeover. Four takes on the 2024 line-up:

The Genre Revolution

Many younger Latin American filmmakers are embracing genre. But they’re not turning out standard shlockfests. Some are genre blending. At Open Doors Projects Lab, “Fiebre Caribe, for instance” is “a multi-genre travelog: a Latin-American vampire drama splashed with culture-shock comedic relief moments, a lost romance investigation, a body horror tale, and for a moment, an archive-historical reimagining,” says director Diego Andrés Murillo. Others are genre bending. “The project’s voice – a queer, gen-z, female auteur – has reimagined a somewhat familiar horror narrative with tropical heat and cool,” producer Rob Maylor, at Mental Telepathy Pictures, says of “The Periphery,” another Hub title.

The Rise...

Andrew Tate has always been one of those celebrity figures who have ensured to be in the limelight every now and then, and he has struck once again. This time, just by his words and statements on the already raging controversy around the 54-year-old popular singer Diddy, he is going viral on the internet once again.

Andrew Tate (@Cobratate | X)

Taking to his X (formerly Twitter) handle, Andrew Tate reposted one of his old tweets with a new one highlighting the s-xual assault controversy that Diddy is currently under and proving his point about famous people. Tate has once again taken the internet by storm.

Suggested“Putin was soft”: Andrew Tate Gets Brutally Honest About Tucker Carlson’s Controversial Interview With Vladimir Putin

Andrew Tate’s Recent Statement Takes the Internet by Storm

Andrew Tate (@Cobratate | X)

Andrew Tate is inevitably one of the most brutal celebrities of all time,...

Eight projects and nine producers to receive showcase.

TIFF award-winning filmmaker Yanillys Pérez and up-and-coming Ecuadorian director Ana Cristina Barragán are among those set to present projects at this year’s edition of the Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors programme.

The initiative, aimed at supporting independent cinema from the global south and east, is entering the first of a three-year cycle focused on Latin America and the Caribbean.

It will present eight projects in its co-production hub and a further nine participants will join its producer lab. Countries represented in this first year include the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Paraguay,...

Two members of the Russian punk band will appear in court on March 18.

International film and TV professionals including actors Gillian Anderson, Martin Sheen and members of the European Film Academy (Efa) have called on the Russian government to drop all charges against two members of punk band Pussy Riot, as the pair’s trial begins tomorrow (March 18).

Masha Alekhina and Lucy Shtein will appear in court in Moscow, accused of calling for a rally in support of political prisoners. They face up to two years in prison; the pair have been under house arrest for two months already, with...