The awards for the 2010 Open Doors Factory, the Festival’s co-production lab that is organised with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), were announced on Tuesday August 10.


The 2010 session was devoted to cinema from Central Asia. 12 projects, selected out of 114 applications from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, participated in the Open Doors Factory, organised with the collaboration of the Festival Industry Office. The objective of the 4-day workshop that took place during the Festival, was to assist the selected directors and producers to find co-production partners and to complete their films.

The jury, composed by Martina Malacrida and Joël Chapron for the Festival del film Locarno, by Walter Ruggle and Martial Knaebel representing the Swiss support fund for production "visions sud est", and by Annamaria Lodato and Remi Burah for ARTE decided upon the following grants, awarded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC):

Grant for production Open Doors 50.000 CHF
- SUNNY DAYS by Nariman Turebayev produced by Limara Zheksembayeva (Kazakhstan)

Grant for development CNC (Centre National du cinéma et de l’image animée) 7.000 Euros
- ARAL by Ella Vakkasova (Uzbekistan)

Grant for development ARTE 6.000 Euros
- BARZAGH by Saodat Ismailova (Uzbekistan)

Aside from the workshop, the Open Doors Screenings, aimed at both festival goers and professional delegates, will run until the end of the Festival. The 2010 programme presents a selection of 12 key films made in recent years in Central Asia.