The Hungarian Romanian writer, Cristina Grosan and Slovenian-Rélisée writer, Omerzu, launched the Karlovy industry section on Sunday Vary Vary Film Festival industry with a vast discussion exploring how they sailed the complex path of the first feature film for the creation of a lasting career.
“Do not doubt you,” said Grosan, whose second feature Ordinary failures was created at Venice Film Festival in 2022. “It is important to doubt yourself and work hard and do the things you want to do as soon as possible in your career.”
Grosan spoke of working on his first two feature films almost in parallel due to the pandemic that blocks his first feature film Things that are worth waiting. The Hungarian drama of maturity, which ultimately traveled in more than 25 international films festivals (including the Sarajevo International Film Festival), spoke of a young woman who discovers a corpse while leaving her student apartment.
“We pulled it in 2019, but 2020 came and we all know what happened,” she said. “So we were stuck with this finished film and not knowing what was going to happen with that. People at the time were also afraid to go to the movies, but I was so proud, and I still love him very much. Ordinary failures – Which is something existentialist… I channeled this anger in a film on the end of the world. »»
Omerzu, whose first film A night too young created in Berlinale and whose second project Family film He also had a strong festival organization, underlined that the directors of the center of Eastern Europe work largely on European co -productions, which generally take a long time to finance due to the complex financing structures between several nations and this, according to him, can have a significant impact on young directors.
“The greatest frustration we have is to wait for funding, which can end up taking a year, two years or even more,” he said. “And it is very difficult to have equipment which is still correct and important for you after waiting so long to set up the money. This is a real problem.
Omerzu also called on producers to be more transparent about the production financing strategy. “For me personally, I would like to have more realistic conversations with producers on the film’s budget and how they finance it.”
He continued: “If a shoot is supposed to be 35 days, then the producers get a green light and tell us that we must do it, say 28 days, if there was no more dialogue before that, it would give me a chance to rewrite the scenario in a way that can accommodate a shorter shoot and a stronger budget.”
Grosan also discussed his recent work on Daughter of a nationA vintage mini-series that she co-directed for Canal +. This project, which marked the first original production of the French platform in the Czech Republic, was a “very advanced” experience for the director.
“It was a great experience, and I don’t think I have learned as much as I did during all my years of cinema as on this mini-series,” she said. “Although we have the money for the project thanks to Canal +, your problems become very different and you must be 1000%, so it makes sense, if you decide to explore this format, which you choose a subject to which you are linked and a team where you trust because there is a huge level of pressure.”
