Editor

The winners of the three prizes in the Open Doors section were announced: two Indonesian projects (The Photograph by Nan Achnas and Jermal by Ravi Bharwani) and one from Malaysia (Living Quietly by Tan Chui Mui).

Southeast Asia is the focus for this year's Open Doors. 11 projects were chosen from the 50 entered from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. During this fourth Open Doors workshop they were presented to potential producers and co-producers from around the world and from Europe in particular, in partnership with producers? associations EAVE and ACE.
?I am delighted ? said artistic director Frédéric Maire - that the Locarno Festival, with the support of the Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) can help the realisation of these new films from South-East Asia possible?.

Thanks to the support of the Swiss Foreign Ministry?s Agency for Development and Cooperation, it continues its ongoing commitment to raising the visibility of film projects from developing nations (in film terms), by creating networking opportunities for producers and directors to meet potential partners from other regions who may be able to assist in getting projects off the ground.

For the first time, thanks to further funding from the Agency for Development and Cooperation, at the close of the workshop two grants towards development and production, each worth 50,000 Swiss francs, were awarded. The decision as to which projects received the awards was made by the Festival in conjunction with the support of the Swiss fund Visions Sud Est.

Harry Sivec from SDC added ?We are very pleased that with our support the cinema of South-East Asia has been able to enjoy such a high profile at Locarno. We hope that within the next 2 or 3 years we will be watching the film produced as a result of the Open Doors initiative in one of the Locarno festival sections. Our support is intended to encourage professional networking that leads to the development of concrete projects. ?

?We were extremely impressed by the projects presented?, adds Walter Ruggle from the Visions Sud Est Fund, ?The stories, both existential and universal, promise first-class cinematic quality.?

THE WINNERS
The Photograph
Nan Achnas, director
Paquita Widjaja-Afief, producer
Indonesia

Jermal
Ravi Bharwani, director
Shanty Harmayn and Orlow Seunke, producers
Indonesia


A further contribution of 10,000 Euros was assigned to a project in the development phase, thanks to the participation of Open Doors in the French national cinema center CNC (Centre National de la Cinématographie):

Living Quietly
Tan Chui Mui, director
Joanna Lee, producer
Malaysia


OPEN DOORS - Perspective 2007:
Projects from the near and Middle East (Syria, the Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Iraq and the Palestinian territories)