Ugandan Film 'A Vineyard for a Lobster' Wins Top Grant at Locarno's Open Doors 2026

A Ugandan film about a village struck by impossible snow during a drought has won one of the top grants at the Locarno Film Festival's Open Doors co-production platform, which focused on African cinema for its 2026 edition.

Director Talemwa Pius's "A Vineyard for a Lobster" was one of two main winners of the Open Doors Grant, receiving CHF 20,000 (roughly US$23,000) to support the project's completion (Locarno Film Festival press release). The film was presented as a works-in-progress project during the festival, which runs each August in Locarno, Switzerland.

The story unfolds in the Ugandan village of Rukumba, where an overnight snowfall — impossible in a drought-stricken equatorial region — sends the community into upheaval. Competing local interests and outside envoys descend on the village, each responding to what they see as a miracle. Pius has said the film explores how colonial structures continue to shape authority, belief and communal life in Uganda decades after independence (The Hollywood Reporter).

Pius, who previously directed the short films "Engaito," "Rations" and "Bitingu," is making his feature project with producer Emmanuel Gashumba of Gripmagic Uganda Limited, based in Kampala. The Open Doors platform — Locarno's talent development and co-production arm — connects film-makers from underrepresented regions with international producers, sales agents and financiers, acting as a marketplace where projects find the partners needed to reach screens.

Sharing the top grant was "Accept My Plea for a Burial," directed by Mohammed Sheikh and originating from Somalia, a country with virtually no formal film infrastructure (Deadline; Variety). Additional winners at the 2026 edition included Aseye Fiagbe's "Too Much Music" and "Chapa 100," both recognised within the Open Doors co-production platform (The Hollywood Reporter).

For Pius and Gashumba, the CHF 20,000 grant is modest in absolute terms but significant for an independent African production operating outside the studio financing system. The money, and far more importantly the festival's platform, give "A Vineyard for a Lobster" a route to international co-producers and festival circuit visibility that projects from Uganda rarely access. Every film that reaches a screen is the end of a long chain of decisions — who funds it, who champions it, where it finds its audience — and Open Doors exists to shorten that chain for film-makers working where the infrastructure is thinnest.