The future comes through here. There is nothing nicer than telling stories that succeed, that are written as they were conceived. These stories are the essence of the Locarno Film Festival, focusing on the future of cinema and on the most fragile forms of filmmaking.
It was recently reported that once again the outlook and window provided by Open Doors left its mark. The Atelier of the Cinéfondation, the platform through which the Cannes Film Festival promotes the cinema of the future has chosen for its 2019 edition (scheduled during the 72nd Festival, in May) three Asian projects that took their first steps at Locarno71, last year. Open Doors took a chance on these three projects, helping them grow and find the visibility needed to become films: The Women, by The Maw Naing, from Burma; and Wakhri, by Iram Parveen Bilal, from Pakistan. Also featured is Kangling, directed by Fidel Devkoto and produced by Min Bahadur Bham, who took part in Open Doors 2016 with his production company and returned to the Open Doors Hub in 2018 with a feature project. The 15 Atelier picks also include New Dawn Fades by Turkish director Gürcan Keltek, who competed in Locarno in Cineasti del presente in 2017 with Meteorlar. And that's not all: remaining in Cannes territory, La Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institut français ha also announced its ten selected projects, including the Bangladeshi film Sand City by Mahde Hasan, produced by Rubaiyat Hossain, another star of Open Doors 2018.
This is the new Asian cinema, one of the best tomorrows imaginable for auteur filmmaking and the best significance of a Festival, be it Locarno or Cannes.
