Locarno’s Open Doors: Paz Encina, Ernesto Bautista Triumph at Awards Ceremony as Showcase Preps 2025-28 Focus on Africa

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 ($58,000) cash prize.

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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.

Some Open Doors 2024 winners are a testament to the rise of genre blending social-issue cinema in Latin America. El Salvador’s “Salvation,” which also scored a BR Lab Award, is “a thriller with a found-footage horror spirit,” says Bautista, as a hospital nurse realizes that an aged dying patient is the same man who raped her in El Salvador’s Civil War. Mendoza calls “Return” the first gamer film in Peru. Rob Mendoza’s “UFOs in the Tropics,” which won a CNC a development grant and Moulin d’Andé-CECI Award, weighs in as Ecuadorian queer science fiction.

The legacy of the past weighs through the winners. A triple winner, also collecting ArteKino International and Sørfond awards, “The Unique Time,” for example, pictures a family – Lorenza (70), Pedro (73) and their children – settled in Argentina, just across the river from Paraguay, awaiting news of Paraguay and Máximo, their youngest son, 22 when he disappeared.

Rodríguez’s “Her Lightness” has Nora, suffering terminal cancer and battling outmoded patriarchy as she decides, not having been able to control her life, at least to determine how she dies.

“Mixing ancestral storytelling with a video game culture,” says Mendoza, in “Return”, a gamer robs his ancestors’ tombs to pay playing in cybercafes until he’s contacted by the spirit of an ancient Peruvian warrior.

The nurse in “Salvation” lives part in the present, part in the past, trapped by trauma, allowing Bautista to shuttle between both time periods.

Above all, the winners underscore their directors’ ability to channel heartfelt sentiment into highly personal but resonant drama.

“This intimate project is a love letter to my homeland’s unacknowledged pain,” says Bautista.

“Being Paraguayan and a woman, having lived a childhood and adolescence during a dictatorship with a father in the opposition, who was imprisoned, exiled and controlled for many years are facts that have deeply marked my life,” Encina tells Variety.

“Her Lightness” is the story of my family genes, my women and my dead. I want to portray imperfection, the inherited disease, the right to die the way we choose, and the scars,” says Rodríguez.

“Write what you know,” the saying goes. It might be better to say: “Write what you feel.”

In further recognitions, the Tabakalera-San Sebastian Film Festival will offer a residency at the Tabakalera, one of Spain’s top development programs, to Luis Flores Alvarenga, at Open Doors with “The Lost Boys,” about three children from Garifuna, Lenca and Tolupán indigenous groups who meet at an orphanage.

Yamila Morrero (“Azul Pandora,” “El Proyecto,” “Villa Rosa”) a doyenne of Cuba’s doc producers, scored a Rotterdam Lab Award.

The winner of the significant OIF-ACP-EU Award was “A Farewell to Lola,” from the Dominican Republic’s Ivan De Lara, a friendship tale between a jaded trumpet professor and  his successful and privileged musician friend “deconstructing the idea of success,” says Lara.

Open Doors Africa, 2025-28

Open Doors’ upcoming focus on Africa is an exciting prospect. The Marrakech Atlas Workshops rated last year as one of the highest-quality development and co-production hubs in the world, driven in large part by talent from the Maghreb and sub-Sahara countries. Open Doors can add breath to the continent’s build of a cinema of high artistic ambitions and often searing political point.

“Arts and culture are engines for social change and creativity and contribute to social cohesion and peace. Hence, they are indispensable for societal progress,” said Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Director General Patrizia Danzi at Locarno’s Piazza Grande on Monday night.

“This transition is not just about changing our focus, but about expanding our work,” said Zsuzsi Bánkuti, head of Open Doors.

“We plan to foster strong collaborations between Latin American, the Caribbean and the African continent, ensuring that the connections of the previous years continue while forming new ones. Building on this year’s focus on collaborative efforts, our goal is to create a connected and thriving network that benefits all regions,” she added.

Locarno Open Doors Winners 2024

Open Doors Grant

A total of CHF 50,000 ($54,500) sponsored by Visions Sud Est, (with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation), the City of Bellinzona and Open Doors.

“Salvation,” (Ernesto Bautista, El Salvador, Mexico)

A CHF20,000 ($23,200) grant

Lead produced by Melissa Guevara (Burn and Die Films)

Jury statement: “For a proposal that portrays often overlooked post-war processes, with a very strong artistic approach, a non-chronological storytelling and with a poetic and intimate vision that renews the idea of genre.”

“The Unique Time,” (Paz Encina, Paraguay, Mexico, Germany)

A CHF20,000 ($23,200) grant

Produced by Gabriela Sabaté (Sabaté Films) and Julio Chavezmontes (Piano)

Jury statement: “For a very convincing project and a filmmaker with a clear voice and dedication we would like to give an award to a film that delicately explores themes of exile and the longing for the return of the disappeared.”

“Her Lightness,” (Rosa María Rodriguez, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia)

A CHF 5,000 ($5,800) grant

Produced by Armando Capó Ramos (GatoRosafilms), Martha Orozco (Martfilms) and Cristina Gallego (Ciudad Lunar)

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Jury statement: “For a sensitive, intimate approach to the question of freedom of choice in the face of life and death, from a woman’s point of view, in a raw, realistic film.”

“The Return of the Last Mochica Warrior,” (Fernando Mendoza, Peru)

A CHF 5,000 ($5,800) grant

Jury statement: “This film particularly convinced the Jury for its innovative blend of cultural heritage, history and modern video games, set in a region often overlooked within the country.”

CNC Development Grant

“UFOs in the Tropics,” (Rob Mendoza, Ecuador)

€ 8,000 ($9,505) for development provided by France’s CNC state film agency

Produced by Isabel Carrasco at Ecuador’s Cinema Verano

ArteKino International Award

€ 6,000 ($6,540) for development provided by the online ArteKino Festival, backed by Arte France Cinema

“The Unique Time”

PARTNER AWARDS

Sørfond Award

Participation of the project, including travel and accommodation, in a November pitching event of Sørfond, a  fund operated by the Norwegian Film Institute, offering grants to productions from less privileged countries.

“The Unique Time”

Tabakalera-San Sebastian Film Festival Residency Award

A residency at San Sebastian’s Tabakalera and taking part in the industry activities of the San Sebastian Festival, given in collaboration with the International Culture Center Tabakalera and San Sebastian Festival.

Luis Flores Alvarenga , Honduras, a participant at Open Doors Producers Lab

Open Doors BR Lab Award

Participation at project development workshop BR Lab in São Paulo this October, with travel and accommodation covered by BR Lab.

“Salvation”

Open Doors Moulin d’Andé-CECI Award

A writing residency for the director of a first or second feature film project in development, with accommodation covered and a contribution to travel costs, provided by Normandy-located culture center Moulin d’Andé, international org CECI, supporting sustainable and inclusive development, and the Locarno Film Festival.

Rob Mendoza, (“UFOs in the Tropics,”Ecuador)

Rotterdam Lab Award

Participation at the next Rotterdam Film Festival Lab, including accommodation covered by the Festival and a contribution to the travel’s costs by the Locarno Film Festival.

Yamila Marrero , Crisálida Producciones, Cuba

Open Doors World Cinema Fund Audience Strategy Award

The Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund offers a specific program tailored and geared to closely follow the development of an audience engagement strategy.

“The Return of the Last Mochica Warrior”

Open Doors OIF-ACP-EU Award

Consultancy for up to 18 months, regarding script/treatment analysis, story editing and polishing of the film dossier based on the specific needs of the awarded project. Provided by the Francophonie International Organization (OIF) for French-speakers.

“A Farewell to Lola, ” ( Ivan De Lara, Dominican Republic)

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