The aerial view of Locarno Film Festival. The festival offers Open Doors Consultancy that aims at assisting directors and producers from developing countries in the South and the East. — Photo Locarno Film Festival Festival

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese filmmakers and those from Mongolia, South Asia and Southeast Asian countries have the opportunity to get remote consultancy with an international expert through the Locarno Film Festival.

Open Doors Consultancy, a new addition to the Open Doors initiative of the Swiss film festival has been launched in collaboration with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation of the Federal Departments of Foreign Affairs.

It aims to contribute toward the growth and development of a local and regional filmmaking scene in regions of the south and the east of the world, where film production is particularly fragile.

It aims at assisting directors and producers by providing specific advice to selected film projects and creative teams.

The service is intended as a continuous activity taking place during the year, beyond the core days of the Locarno Film Festival.

Following a selective process, a few selected film projects and creative teams will benefit from online consultancy from a pool of international experts on maximum one of the following subjects: screenwriting; co-production and financing strategy; editing; international distribution; legal aspects and contracts.

About 12 projects per call will be selected to access an online consultancy with an international expert.

Professionals from these countries are invited to send their applications including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Việt Nam.

According to the organisers, two more calls for entries will be launched, the first of which will open from February 15 -21 and only the first 45 eligible applications will be considered.

The second and last consultancy call of 2021 will be announced around mid-May.

Guidelines and regulations for the submissions are available on the Locarno Film Festival website. Further questions can be sent to opendoors@locarnofestival.ch.

Founded in 1946, the Locarno Film Festival is one of the most renowned and longest-running independent film festivals in the world.

This year's festival will fall on August 4-14. — VNS