The children’s feature film is a story of a magical Christmas adventure that brings together a seven-year-old boy who has nothing and a girl who seems to have everything. Erik, an eight-year-old boy living in a youth home, who wears a cap (a beanie) at all times, longs to spend Christmas with his alcoholic parents, but instead is sent to the privileged home of six-year-old Mina, who dreams of having a puppy and a sister. They meet a fake Santa (a thief in disguise) on Christmas Eve, and through a series of unexpected events, are able to make the journey to Erik’s home. In the end, both children realise their dreams, but not as they imagined.

Weiss told the audience at Zlin that the project is especially important because Slovenia hasn’t produced a film for young children for many years.

The film received 30,000 EUR in development funding from Creative Europe MEDIA. The project was selected for the six-month script training workshop Cinekid Script LAB and also participated in a Slovenian script writing programme. It received co-development funding from RE-ACT and development funding from the Slovenian Film Center. The budget is projected at 1.5 m EUR. The producers expect most of the funding to come from Slovenia, with 300,000 - 400,000 EUR needed from coproduction partners. The producers are looking for a fourth coproduction country to come onboard the project, as well as sales agents and distributors.

The Beanie is produced by Weiss’s company Senca Studio and is planned as a coproduction with Croatia and Sweden. The film is targeted at young audiences, ages 4+ and is planned to be shot in the winter of 2020 and released in December 2021.

Production information:

Producer:
Senca Studio (Slovenia)

Coproducers:
Studio Dim (Croatia)
Way Creative Film (Sweden)

Supported by the Slovenian Film Center, RE-ACT, Creative Europe MEDIA

Credits:
Director: Slobodan Maksimovic
Writer: Sasa Erzen