Locarno Open Doors: Africa’s Next Gen Filmmakers 

Queer romance “Kachifo, Till The Morning Comes,” Johannesburg-set funeral farce “Death & Its Friends” and feel-good heist movie “The Color Yellow” (“Manjano”) look like potential standouts at Locarno’s 2025 Africa-focused Open Doors, unspooling on-site at Locarno Over Aug. 7-12.

Directed by Dika Ofoma, “Kachifo” marks the latest from Nigeria’s Blu House Studios, led by Blessing Uzzi, who wrote and produced “Freedom Way,” a hit at 2024’s Toronto Festival.

At Locarno with “Death & Its Friends” and behind Netflix series“Baddies Joburg,” which she created, producer Kudi Maradzika, calls the film “‘Parasite’ meets ‘Triangle of Sadness,’” “a darkly comic family drama about grief, inheritance, and the lies we tell to survive.”

Set up at Kenya’s Giza Visuals, headed by writer-director Oscar Hamza and producer-screenwriter June Wairegi, “The Color Yellow” (“Manjano”) is a turn-up for Africa’s books, weighing in as a feel-good romance-heist action movie. 

There’s also good word on “Princess Téné,” which scored the top development award at December’s Atlas Workshops, one of the projects being brought to Locarno by Burkina Faso producer Moustapha Sawadogo, and “The Bilokos,” an insider’s doc-feature portrait of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Katindo military camp – home to ex-combatants, children of soldiers, and forgotten souls. It traces the lives of five former FARDC soldiers there.

Given 13 of the 17 producers and directors at Open Doors are working on their first feature, multiple other Open Doors titles and talents may jump out to notice and prizes, to be announced at an Open Doors Award Ceremony on Aug. 12.

What Ways Is Next Gen African Cinema Trending?

Pretty much all Open Doors titles are grounded to larger or lesser extent in social realities. Open Doors project “Diary of a Goat Woman” is “my personal attempt to understand and question the models imposed on us, and the choices we must make as mothers, daughters, and women,” says director Azata Soro.

WGA’s “The Headstone” is “a coming-of-age story set during a period of major sociopolitical change,” says featured producer Leul Shoaferaw. 

What won’t be found at Open Doors, however, is wall-to-wall poverty porn. 

“Black Snake,” “Kachifo” and “Where My Memory Began” and “Jangu” of screened shorts tap into Africa’s rich culture and ancestral beliefs. 

Some titles, as at the second year of Open Doors Latin America in 2023, turn on issues of identity. “Blending grounded drama with magical realism, ‘Black Snake’ offers a bold, satirical, and deeply intimate portrait of a nation in search of itself, by unapologetically reminding us of who we are,” explains director Naishe Nyamubaya.

Projects can courageously push boundaries.“Kachifo, Till The Morning Comes,” fir example, faces possible censorship in Nigeria, where queer love is rejected, notes Blessing Uzzi.

Open Doors 2025 also suggests forcibly one thing Africa has certainly got going for it. “Africa is brimming with rich and profound stories, many of which remain unknown to the rest of the world,” “The Bilokos” producer Giresse Kassonga tells Variety. 

Other projects open a window onto unique, little explored worlds. Open Doors director Yasir Fair’s projected first feature “The Martyr’s Wedding,” for instance, is set during the Sudan-South Sudan Civil War.

Where the Dial Really Needs Moving

Traditionally, the huge challenge for Africa has been getting films financed. 

Possible solutions will be tabled will be panel at Locarno on Aug. 9.  A few fortunate producers at Open Doors can double up movie and TV production. One case in point: Jules Soulaymane Dieng’s Senegal-based Thiely Films, behind Open Doors project “Fighters,” has in development “Dakar Underground” and “Dakarama,” both TV series with Paris’ Logical Pictures, as well as “Rue 6,” by Djeydi Djigo, with Canal Plus.

Yet the number of OTT services operating in the market is relatively small, and operators such as Amazon Prime Video have effectively scaled back African content investment,” says Daoud Jackson, at analyst Omdia. “Compared to other areas of the globe, the lack of content is more commonly cited as an issue for African consumers, and to build that stable ecosystem you need multiple players,” he adds. 

The default option for African producers is of course international co-production. If clinched, they are determined productions will be made on their own terms. One challenge is that productions made with Europe often don’t resonate with local audiences, Waregi notes in an illuminating interview with Sinema Focus, made just before the on-site Open Doors.

This means bucking a picture of hopeless plight. In “The Bilokos,” the ex-FARDC combatants portraits will “be the film’s thread, opening a window onto the war’s legacy, but the soul of the film lies in their individual fates and invisible wounds,” says director Rickey Bahati. 

Yet “I reject any portrayal of them as mere victims; I want to show their strength, imagination, solidarity, and humor in the face of adversity,” he adds. 

“Too often, African stories are filtered through hardship –   poverty, war, trauma. With ‘The Color Yellow,’ we’re challenging that by making a feel-good film that celebrates young African love and paints a vibrant vision of the continent rarely seen on the world cinema stage,” says Hamza.

“Princess Téné” is described by Variety as an “Ouagadougou-set Western of sorts. Patience Nitumwesiga, an Open Doors director, is developing “How To Forget Your Name,” an Afrofuturist fiction about a Ugandan genius who travels to the future to find a cure for her dad but finds that black people are illegal there.  

As the international distribution market at large diversifies from classic straight-arrow arthouse to social-issue auteur genre, Africa also has a lot to say.   

Open Doors 2025 Selection

Open Doors 2025 is focused on projects, produces and directors from outside the northern Maghreb and Egypt and South Africa. 

Projects Hub, Open Doors’ Co-Production Platform 

“The Bilokos,” (“Les Bilokos,” Erickey Bahati, Democratic Republic of Congo)

Assumani, a former soldier and amputee, tries to rebuild his life by recycling worn-out banknotes with the help of two young protégés. Steadily accruing development support, produced by Giresse Kassonga at Kinshasa-based Gikas Films, which co-produced “AWA” (Canal+) and “Coloré” (TV5, RTI, NCI), and Florent Coulon at France’s VraiVrai Films.

“Black Snake,” (Naishe Nyamubaya, Zimbabwe)

Janet, her mother Gogo and family move into a remote rural village, hiding their identities, but are followed by a mysterious tree. Winner of the 2023 Red Sea Lodge Jury prize, and helmed by  Nyamubaya, a Cannes Atelier alum. Set up at 263 Reels Productions, recently launched by Zimbabwean-American producer Sue-Ellen Chitunya to champion African stories with pan-African collaboration at their core.  

“Diary of a Goat Woman,” (“Journal Intime d’une Femme Chevre,” Azata Soro, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso) 

In a doc feature, Azata returns to Burkina Faso with her daughter for her baptism and is forced to confront traumatic events from her past. “Through a narrative that weaves together live-action and animation, I want to create a dialogue between present and memory, body and mind, visible wounds and invisible scars,” says Soro. Produced by Les Studios Indigo, launched this year by Nameïta Touré.  

“Fighters,” (“Lutteurs,” Alassane Sy, Senegal, France)

Wrestling, Senegal’s biggest national sport, dominates the Ndiaye family life. Then an accident rips the family apart, forcing his wife and youngest brother to fight for the life they want. “‘Fighters’ is the portrait of a combative youth, determined to rise to the challenge of finding its place in the world, and finding in its culture the inspiration to build its own reality,” says director Sy. 

“The Fortunate,” (Habtamu Gebrehiwot, Ethiopia)

Mateyos, a Baptist pastor and covert alcoholic, launches a bold anti-alcohol campaign to regain respect – again challenged when he wins a car in a brewery’s reward program. An early short-based feature from Addis Ababa’s MTF Multimedia, founded in 2022 by Nahu Dereje and “committed to telling bold, authentic Ethiopian stories that resonate with global audiences,” say Gebrehiwot and Dereje.

“Kachifo, Till the Morning Comes,” (Dika Ofoma, Nigeria)

In a pre-colonial Igbo society, the already betrothed warrior chief Obidike and young maiden Ekemma share a deep but impossible love. Following Igbo belief, they are reincarnated – in modern-day Nigeria, where same sex relations are taboo – as two men, one a Catholic priest-to-be. “The story, about a

love that transcends time, religion, and culture, felt radical and necessary, especially in Nigeria,” says producer Blessing Uzzi.  

Creative Producers

Kamy Lara, Uika Filmes, Angola, “Vanda”

From Luanda-based Uika Filmes, founded by Lara in 2023 and dedicated to “bold, socially relevant cinema that blends aesthetics, innovation and political engagement,” she tells Variety. Her Locarno slate is led by “Vanda,” about a 55-year-old psychologist moving through a city fractured by extreme inequality. As someone used to caring for others, she begins to quietly unravel. Lara herself directs. 

Kudi Maradzika, Lincoln Green Media, Zimbabwe, ‘Death & Its Friends’

A former senior producer at Paramount Africa, now based at LGM, which she moved in 2022 to Johannesburg, focused on both art house films and television projects, such as Netflix series “Baddies Joburg.” Maradzika will bring to Locarno, ‘Death & Its Friends,’ in which Moira, a broke Zimbabwean single mother, learns she’s inherited a fortune in Johannesburg. Project is “a darkly comic family drama,” Maradzika says.

Leul Shoferaw, WAG Entertainment, Ethiopia, ‘The Headstone’

Founder in 2019 of WAG Entertainment, a production house now moving into distribution and post-production. One of its notable releases is “Addis Love,” an anthology limited series that aired on South Africa’s pay-TV platform M-Net and Multichoice Ethiopia. Shoferaw’s Open Doors flagship project is Henok Legesse Birhanu’s “The Headstone,” “rooted in Henok’s own memories of growing up in post-war Ethiopia and his complicated relationship with his father,” Shoferaw tells Variety. 

Yannick Mizero Kabano, Imitana Productions, Rwanda, “Mado” 

A producer- distributor and even exhibitor, running Kagali’s Cine Mayaka. Known for 2018’s “Imfura,” a Berlinale Silver Bear winner, Imitana Productions is dedicated to producing bold works by a new Rwanda generation, Mizero Cabano notes. At Locarno with “Mado,” an action-thriller about a woman who, after her husband’s suspicious death, battles for truth and justice.

Moustapha Sawadogo, Future Films, Burkina Faso, ‘Princesse Tené’

The producer behind “Princess Téné,” about a horse-trainer turned underworld queenpin” which won top development honors at December’s Atlas Workshops. With a strong editorial vision and focus on first and second features, the company positions itself as a hub for innovation and excellence in African cinema, Sawadogo has said.  

June Wairegi, Giza Visuals, Kenya, “The Color Yellow”

A producer-screenwriter, whose romcom “Sayari” hit cinemas in Kenya with a planned East African release. Based at Giza Visuals, behind four micro-budget genre films, but now looking to develop more ambitious projects via international co-production, such as “Manjano,” from Oscar Hamza where Rama, fresh out of high school, puts together a team of misfits to pull off a heist.

Open Doors’ Featured Directors

All five will screen their most recent short in Open Doors Screenings on Aug. 12 and 13, while talking up their feature debuts at Locarno.    

Abdoulaye Sall, Mauritania

Currently developing his first feature, “Ndikiramcor Where Is My Father,” about a wife’s relentless search for her husband, after his arrest and disappearance. That picks up themes from his short, “The Last Voyage,” which he will screen at Locarno, the portrait of “a family torn between disillusionment and the longing for elsewhere” and a Jury Prize winner at the 2023 Oujda Film Festival. 

Yasir Faiz, Sudan

The Sudanese filmmaker and cultural manager – based in Kenya but raised in Iraq, returning to Sudan at 20 – set up Deep Visions in 2016 and is now developing feature projects. At Open Doors, he will present short feature “Bougainvillea,” charting the radical change of six women’s lives during Sudan’s popular revolution of 2018, depicting “the transformative power of determination,” Faiz tells Variety.

Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda, Sierra Leone

Screening at Open Doors “Where My Memory Began,”  a doc-short about the 230-foot old Cotton Tree in Freetown, which collapsed in a 2023 storm. Inspired by it, dancers, children and elder Ballu reconnect with the past. The latest from Congolese Iranian Kounkou Hoveyda, based at Freetown’s House of Salone which tells ”bold and unfiltered stories,” she says.

Amina Abdoulaye Mamani, Niger

Daughter of great Nigerien novelist, poet and activist Mamani Abdoulaye, whom she profiles in medium feature “Sur les Traces de Mamani Abdoulaye,” multi-prized throughout her career from her 2013 Fespaco Best School Documentary winner, “The Hawan Idi” through to her notable first fiction short “The Envoy of God,” about a recalcitrant 12 year-old suicide bomber, who just wants to be with her mother. 

Patience Nitumwesiga, Uganda

A filmmaker and theater director at the all-female founded Shagika in Kampala, dedicated to “decolonised stories across the continent and beyond.” Screening “Jangu,” in which two sisters going back home late, stumble on a witch’s parlor. The short “re-capture elements of African lore that have been erased from African films in the mainstream media such as genderless witches and non material realities,” Nitumwesiga tells Variety.