Paz Encina and Ernesto Bautista Win Big at Locarno’s Open Doors Awards as Showcase Prepares for 2025-28 Africa Focus

At this year’s Locarno Open Doors, a prize has been shared among four talented directors, including Paraguay’s Paz Encina, known for “Eami,” and three debut fiction feature filmmakers: El Salvador’s Enrique Bautista, Cuba’s Rosa María Rodríguez Pupo, and Peru’s Fernando Mendoza. Encina and Bautista each received a substantial portion of the CHF50,000 ($58,000) cash award, sponsored by Visions Sud Est and the City of Bellinzona.

The winners were announced on Tuesday as the festival concluded its three-year focus on emerging markets in Latin America and the Caribbean. Looking ahead, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Open Doors’ main partner, will shift its focus to underserved communities in Africa for the next four years.

The winning films highlight the growing trend of genre-blending social-issue cinema in Latin America. Bautista’s “Salvation,” a thriller with a found-footage horror element, explores the unsettling discovery of a nurse realizing her elderly patient is the man who assaulted her during El Salvador’s Civil War. Mendoza’s “Return of the Last Mochica Warrior” is dubbed Peru’s first gamer film, while Ecuadorian film “UFOs in the Tropics” blends queer science fiction elements.

Encina’s “The Unique Time,” which also garnered the ArteKino International and Sørfond awards, portrays a family’s wait for news about their missing son. Rodríguez’s “Her Lightness” follows a terminally ill woman confronting her life’s constraints and deciding her own end. Mendoza’s “Return” combines ancestral storytelling with modern video game culture.

In addition to these recognitions, Luis Flores Alvarenga will receive a residency from the Tabakalera-San Sebastian Film Festival for “The Lost Boys,” which centers on indigenous children in an orphanage.

Yamila Morrero, a prominent Cuban documentary producer, was honored with the Rotterdam Lab Award. The OIF-ACP-EU Award was won by Ivan De Lara’s “A Farewell to Lola,” a Dominican Republic film exploring the challenges of friendship and success.