African Movie Press (AFP), an inter-regional coalition of the inaugural publications Akoroko, Cinema Focus and What Saved Me Up, has joined Locarno’s Open Doorways as an awards accomplice for the 2026 version, awarding one of many chosen initiatives with the AFP Critics Award. Prizes embrace a $500 money prize, a certificates, and continued editorial protection of the winners and their upcoming actions throughout the AFP community.
AFP introduced the award for the primary time on the fifth S16 Movie Pageant held in Lagos on December 5, 2025, with the inaugural award going to Nigerian filmmaker Dika Ofoma’s quick movie ‘Obi is a Boy’. Ofoma himself was a first-year participant with Open Doorways Africa. His full-length venture Kachifo (Until the Morning Comes) was chosen for the 2025 Open Doorways Initiatives lineup and gained three awards in that version.
The 2026 version is the second 12 months of Open Doorways’ four-edition cycle masking 42 African international locations, with participation eligibility set based mostly on tips from the Swiss Company for Improvement and Cooperation. This system will run from August fifth to tenth in the course of the Locarno Movie Pageant and its business arm, Locarno Professional, and can embrace coaching, mentoring and networking alongside public screenings.
AFP is considered one of two companions added to this 12 months’s award roster, together with an EAVE and Luxembourg Movie Fund scholarship price €4,000 for the EAVE Advertising and marketing Workshop.
The jury will current the awards on August tenth. Established awards embrace an Open Door grant of fifty,000 Swiss francs from visions sud est and the Metropolis of Bellinzona, a CNC Improvement Award of 8,000 euros, an Arte Kino Worldwide Award of 6,000 euros, in addition to awards from IFFR Professional, Tabacalera Worldwide Cultural Middle, San Sebastian Movie Pageant, Worldwide Kurzfilmtage Winterthur and Worldwide Organizations. Francophonie and solphone.
