Entertainment Desk :On April 28, the Film Festival Locarno’s Open Doors has unveiled its selection of projects from South Asia which will make the trek to Switzerland in order to present in front of potential European and international partners.At this year’s festival, Open Doors, a co-production initiative, supports eight projects and eight emerging producers from South Asia.Five Bangladeshi filmmakers and producers have made the selection in two different sections, namely the Open Doors Hub and the Open Doors Lab.Ishtiaque Zico’s Cinema, City and Cats and Kamar Ahmad Simon’s Day After Tomorrow have been selected for the Open Doors Hub which is set to take place from August 4 to 9. These two film projects will compete for the Open Doors prize worth $49,000, mostly financed by the Swiss production fund Visions Sud Est, and also some smaller grants.Three Bangladeshi directors-producers, including Aadnan Imtiaz Ahmed of Kino-Eye Films, Abu Shahed Emon of Batayan Productions and Rubaiyat Hossain of Khona Talkies, have been selected to take part in the Open Doors Lab which brings over a group of producers and directors for training and personalised support.The Open Doors of Film Festival Locarno will run from August 3 to 13 in a lakeside town located in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.From 2016 to 2018, the Open Doors initiative will start discovering the diverse cinematographic landscape of South Asia and its promising talents. During the three years, the project will cover Afghanistan, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and Nepal; the latter four countries shall be focused on within the Open Doors events this year.
