CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
(70th edition, May 17 – 28, 2017, France)

Interview with Katarína Krnáčová

Meet Katarína Krnáčová (*1979), film producer, founder of production company SILVERART and EAVE 2015 graduate. Katarínahad worked on such films as Mátyás Prikler’s short Thanks, Fine and feature debut Fine, Thanks (2013), as well as Mira Fornay’s award-winning My Dog Killer (2013) and the omnibus film Slovakia 2.0 (2014) before setting up her own company Silverart in 2014. She was the delegate producer for Iveta Grófová’s Crystal Bear-winning Little Harbour (2017), and is now developing Martina Saková’s children’s comedy Summer With Bernard, Juraj Bohuš’s road movie Stand Up, and a TV drama series 1989.

"Film, in the end, is a result of team work with every team member having her or his role and scope of tasks, but without mutual cooperation, any positioning loses its meaning."

What does being part of Producers on the Move mean to you?
It is for one an opportunity to meet new people, as well as improve knowledge and create a ground for both, friendships and professional contacts that might very well be a beginning of interesting things in the future. In the same time, Festival de Cannes is a fascinating place and I am happy to be here once again and to get to know it from a new vantage point of the Producers on the Move platform.

Little Harbour is the first film produced by you as a delegate producer. Yet, you already have experienced how it feels to be a producer with a nice number of films (eg. Afghan Women Behind the Wheel (d. Sahraa Karimi, Fine, Thanks, My Dog Killer, Slovakia 2.0). How have these projects prepared you for the production of Little Harbour?
Afghan Women Behind the Wheel is a documentary project that made me learn things by doing. It also helped me to realize that I actually prefer making fiction films. With the other films I worked on different posts, starting as head of production, executive producer, line producer. I worked on development and pre-production of My Dog Killer, and later as consulting producer, as at the time my second child was born. Each project was different and I think it was a very good lesson that I had the opportunity to work my way up through various posts and roles of film production.

Little Harbour is the first project I worked on as a delegate producer. I consider it a good fortune that simultaneously with the film's pre-production and production I took part in the EAVE Producers Workshop, that really helped me to gain international contacts, and thus helped to put Little Harbour into international waters. It only made me happier that this endeavour was crowned with the Crystal Bear at this year´s edition of Berlinale.

Who sailed to whom: you to Little Harbour or Little Harbour to you? And how did it all happen?
We, Iveta Grófová and I, had worked together on Slovakia 2.0, and shortly after finishing on that one, Iveta approached me with Little Harbour and words that she is looking for a producer. The film was already in the phase of advanced development under the aegis of her own production company Hulapa film, so I was happy to just jump on board and sail on.

What should be a producer's input to a project and where should (s)he draw a line?
I wouldn't call it drawing a line; I prefer to speak of intersection of working fields. I prefer to look for ways of rather interconnecting things than to make clean cut divisions. That is why cooperation, respect and a common goal should be something cherished by every member of the crew. As for the producer, this should provide a coating for all the work streams while understanding the needs of each one of them. Depending on the state of the project, I become a businesswoman, lawyer, accountant, but also a personal therapist or babysitter, designer or spokesperson. Plus, projects differ one from another and demand a different approach. For this communication and trust are the keywords.

Can you shed some light on your current projects?
At the moment I am in pre-production stage with a film about a childhood summer adventure Summer with Bernard, a Slovak-German-Czech coproduction directed by first time director Martina Saková. Then there is a road movie Stand Up directed by Juraj Bohuš in development. And last but not least, I have found myself attracted to the world of high-end TV series and so I am also developing a history drama miniseries.

Little Harbour and Summer with Bernard, your current project, both tell stories of children face to face with problematic adults. Is this a coincidence or an intentional personal-professional preference?
Reason number one is, I am a mother of two children, so stories of and about kids are very relevant to me. At the same time, I feel there is a gap in the cinemas now, when it comes to films that are able to communicate with children and young adults. They are, naturally, capable to find relevant audiovisual content elsewhere – internet being one such source, yet I think it is important to have films produced locally, that depict reality and life of this country, not let's say some US high school. But I cannot say it is me who searches for these topics, it is more like they find me.

How would you spend a summer with Bernard?
Outside, by the water, with friends, children and family. We would play games, pretend being Indians, sleep in a tepee and break a rule or two on our way to adventure. Actually, a summer quite similar to that of Jonas from Summer with Bernard.

Personal Quote: Life is a process of continuous learning, principally about oneself...
Favourite word: ľala!
Film you could watch a million times: Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino, 2003 & 2004)
Favourite meal: Everything I spot; the more, the better.

Related AIC Articles:
Producer on the Move: Katarína Krnáčová

published:
updated: 15.05.2017