CineMart Catch-up: Leave the Door Open by Judita Gamulin
29 January 2023
The Eurimages Co-production Development Award is valued at €20,000 and is designed to support a CineMart project’s future trajectory as a European co-production. The 2022 winning film, Leave the Door Open by Judita Gamulin, is both intriguing and tailor-made for co-pro. What is more international than IKEA, the retail inspiration for what amounts to an intriguing psychological study of family life? As the synopsis states, the film examines the fascinating, often humorous, concept of how the stores that people visit to rearrange their living spaces often lead them to the very edge of disaster in their private lives.
“It is a creative and high concept film premise that will be a dark comedy with an original storyline and setting, along with a location that’s all too familiar to us all, no matter where in the world we live,” reminds producer Rea Rajčić a year on from her successful CineMart pitch in 2022. “All this is the basis of our belief that the Ex-Yu-Scandinavian co-production Leave the Door Open has a huge potential for going beyond domestic borders.
“A location that’s all too familiar to us all, no matter where in the world we live.”
“I think we were extremely lucky as IFFR Pro came at the right moment for our project,” she adds. “We were aiming to pitch at CineMart 2022 because that was the moment in which we were seeking partners from northern Europe. We wanted to have a strong creative and business impact from those territories. And that is exactly what happened.”
“Since Leave the Door Open is an ensemble film, set in an internationally recognisable furniture store like IKEA, we wanted to make an unusual co-production combination between Ex-Yu and Nordic countries. Even though the last edition of IFFR Pro was held online, we met and teamed-up with great partners from Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. Their creative and production impact is going to be crucial in the future development and realisation of our project,” Rajčić adds.
“It made the project more visible.”
What’s more, the award itself delivered a good deal of impact. “It made the project more visible during the last edition of Cannes Film Festival, where Judita was presenting the project at the CNC event as a final part of Cinéfondation Residency. We had a great number of very productive encounters and meetings with sales agents and distributors which I find unusual for a debut project from a small country like Croatia. So the Eurimages award from CineMart definitely made an impact.”
“Also, we did a joint application with our partners for the MEDIA co-development call last September, and finally we have recently received the production grant from Croatia. We are excited about the next steps that are ahead of us,” Rajčić underlines.
CineMart 2023
Details of our co-production market CineMart in 2023.
CineMart 2022
Details of our co-production market CineMart in 2022.
