Dika Ofoma is adding another title to his growing collection of short films, with his latest project, Tooth, selected for the inaugural Final Cut: New African Shorts, a joint initiative by the Locarno Film Festival’s Open Doors and Switzerland’s Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur.
Produced by Nkali Films and Idunoba Entertainment, Tooth is one of four African short film projects selected for the programme, which will take place during the 30th Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, from November 3 to 8.
The film follows a five-year-old boy who gets injured while attempting to reverse a superstition surrounding his fallen tooth. His mother’s reaction to the incident exposes the unfair burden placed on the teenage girl responsible for raising him.
Ofoma revealed that the idea for Tooth came unexpectedly during a flight to Lagos in April 2025. “I wrote Tooth because I was bored on my flight back to Lagos in April of last year. I didn’t quite know what I was writing until the story gathered before me, fully formed,” he shared in an Instagram announcement.
The filmmaker added that his attachment to the story and its characters grew as he continued developing the screenplay. With the film still in post-production, he also acknowledged the contributions of the cast and crew, singling out the young actor leading the film as a particularly memorable part of the filmmaking experience.
Idunoba Entertainment, one of the production companies behind Tooth, has previously produced Ofoma’s documentary An Enugu Homecoming, released earlier this year, and Ifeoma Chukwuogo’s romantic short film Dear Dija.
Ofoma is no stranger to either festival. His short film A Quiet Monday screened at Winterthur in 2023 as part of its Nigerian New Wave spotlight, while his in-development feature project, Kachifo, produced by Blessing Uzzi, won three awards at Open Doors in 2025.
Joining Tooth in the inaugural Final Cut selection are The Chair That Listens, a documentary by Ethiopia’s Tesfa Maryam Dargai Molla; Mia, a fiction short by Madagascar’s Morgane Razafinony; and Suka Naayo, a Mauritanian-Senegalese fiction project by Jam Abdoulaye Sall.
Organised under the theme “Most Anticipated African Shorts for 2027,” the new initiative aims to provide African short films nearing completion with international industry exposure and opportunities to connect with festival programmers and other film professionals.
The four selected filmmakers will present their works-in-progress on November 5 in Winterthur. One project will be chosen to participate in the Short Film Corner Rendez-vous Industry at the 2027 Cannes Film Festival, with the recipient to be announced during Winterthur’s Industry Awards Ceremony on November 7.
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