Cosmonauts

“The longing and sincerity of outsiders is a theme that has always been very close to my heart. I am deeply moved by how strongly we strive to love, and by everything we are willing to do to make that happen. Cosmonauts, my first professional film, is a film about belonging, sex, and loneliness, but above all it is a film about love—about the kind of love that reveals our vulnerabilities and sets the universe in motion.

Through a collective narrative, I wanted to open up the concept of sexuality and love, making it as multilayered and inclusive as possible, while confronting the stigma imposed on non-conventional practices or people. As a member of the LGBT+ community, I strongly feel the lack of queer content that distances itself from a heteronormative approach to the world. It seems that queer topics can exist in mainstream discourse only when they mock traditional concepts of family, gender, and relationships, excluding a vast portion of people who do not see themselves represented in the media and are left feeling inherently wrong.

I hope that the ironic tone I have used can make this process lighter and more approachable for those who may be easily intimidated by it. At the same time, I hope that the fragility and dreams of all the characters involved can resonate with a broader audience, reminding us that the ‘normal’ they insist on defining has never truly existed for any of us – them included.”
Leo Černic

Since making independent animated films takes so long, it becomes crucial to be surrounded by professionals you trust, who can bring fresh perspectives to your project. Iva Kraljević, the film’s editor, played a key role in shaping a space to establish the right dynamics for the various storylines featured in the film, all the while keeping the film as a whole in mind. In this process, the line between editing and writing gradually blurred, and the role of the editor magically transformed into a wonderful co-writing collaboration.

On the sound side, we are  lucky to have Studio 001 in Slovenia, one of the most active sound studios in the region. Collaborating with the sound designer Samo Jurca and sound mixer Julij Zornik was both natural and inspiring. Since the film is set in space—which is inherently silent—we faced the challenge of inventing its sounds and establishing the rules of this new sonic universe that has no real reference.

The musicians Amos Cappuccio and Andrea Marazzi further amplified these concepts by composing original music, maintaining a color consistency throughout the film. The choice to combine electronic sounds with deliberately raw, “dirty” elements felt like the perfect match to tell an underground space opera as we wanted —a fusion of technological and cosmic elements with human, hedonistic, and carnal impulses.

Cosmonauts is a film entirely made in 2D hand-drawn computer animation. Its style is rough and grotesque, close to the aesthetic of underground comics, which have been a major source of inspiration for me. I am particularly driven by portraying moments of tenderness in characters who, at least visually, are not typically perceived as tender. The film’s theme, which is far from being “clean,” naturally evokes a visceral and organic sensation that I aimed to capture through a dirty and rough look. This goal required a big amount of hand-crafted work in coloring, shading, and texturing, patiently done by the film’s colorists.
With the fundamental help of Sara Moschini, we developed a Color Script that reflects every area of the spaceship where the film takes place, linking every space to the character’s emotional states. It was a big challenge to move between the ship’s different rooms while maintaining a consistent visual thread – a process in which collaboration with the film’s DI colorist Teo Rižnar, later became essential.