02/07/2026 - We chatted with the Slovenian filmmaker about his short animated film, which has become a hit on the festival circuit

(© Andrej Firm / Animateka)

Slovenian filmmaker Leo Černic’s first professional film, Cosmonauts, is an animated sci-fi comedy about an intergalactic singles cruise where lonely passengers search for love, connection… and sex. Lots of sex. Following its premiere in the Berlinale Shorts Competition, the film screened in Animafest’s Grand Competition – Short Film. We chatted with the director about the making of Cosmonauts, finding the balance between comedy and emotion, his visual style and the universal search for connection. 

Cineuropa: What inspired you to become an animator in the first place?
Leo Černic: The joy of moving images. I discovered it pretty late in my life. It started with film, live action and documentary, but then somehow I was writing stories that were a bit too ambitious to make them as live action. And then at the same time, I was just starting to draw, and it just went hand in hand. 

How long did it take you and your team to make the film, and how did this idea come to you?
From the initial concept, it took us about three and a half years. I’m just obsessive and personally in love with love and all these love mechanisms. That's why I started with this film, and I was asking myself a lot if love is a consequence of loneliness or if loneliness is a consequence of love. 

Can you tell us more about your technique and the editing process?
It was made through 2D computer animation, so it’s still hand-drawn, but not on paper. The editing process was quite interesting because it was my first time working with an editor. Usually, I work horizontally. That’s why we started editing the film already in the animatic phase, which is really, really the first draft of the film. Then it was nice because we had more rounds of editing later in the production.

We noticed that the colouring of the film feels rich, but the shadowing also adds to it. How did you decide on that approach?
It's my style, I guess. I'm so much inspired by underground comics and Italian contemporary authors like Gipi or Zuzu. In general, I just really like this more underground-ish art and what it brings. But I also think this dirtiness is somehow connected with the theme of the film; I thought that the visual form of the film had to be dirty too.

Your story takes place in space. How did you decide on that? Are you into Star Wars or something like that?
No, I’m not at all into Star Wars. I’m much more into Italo Calvino and his Cosmicomics. I think this obsession with space started from him. I really like space because of its inner melancholy. Setting the film in space also poses a question to the audience: are we really free if we only express ourselves and our desires when hidden from everyone in the middle of the universe? 

Sound is very important in your film because there’s not a lot of dialogue in it, and there is one Italian song that stands out. Can you tell me more about it?
I'm super happy with the song because it gives some additional layers to the film. It’s an original song, made just for the film. I really wanted this kind of a nostalgic Sanremo-like ballad that we all know in this region where I come from. So that’s why I chose an Italian song, and also because maybe we have some archetypes in mind with Italian female singers from the 60s. I really like the idea of swapping this archetype with a cosmic drag queen version. 

Cosmonauts is obviously a queer film. What do you think about the portrayal of queerness in cinema? 
I have the feeling that queerness in the mainstream, even though it is more and more present, is accepted only when it’s somehow polished out and presented within some specific contexts; you know, all this “love is love” rhetoric. Which is OK, it’s true. Love is love, but queerness can be much more than that when you speak about pleasure, desires, bodies. This is something that is still not accepted even in queer mainstream films. I think we have to work on that.

Who would be the target audience for your film? Do you think that queer characters and topics have a place in children’s animation?
I think the target audience is mainly young adults and adults leaning towards the independent scene. But I’m quite happy when the film is screened outside of this context, to people who are not that used to it, because it’s nice to get our stories out of our bubbles. I’d be honestly curious to see how this film would be perceived in more conservative contexts.

About the children’s animation, of course. It's a delicate thing, sometimes too delicate if you ask me, but children have much fewer prejudices than us adults, and nowadays they can find way more extreme content on the Internet than queer love stories.  

Thank you, that’s a great answer. We have one more question before we wrap it up. What are you working on right now? Do you already have ideas for another project, or are you already working on something?
Let’s say that I finished the film not that long ago, and I need a little break right now. I was teaching a bit in the last few months in Turin, mainly in the animation school where I studied. I did some workshops over there. Hopefully I will start developing something new soon. I have some things in mind but I’m more focused on promoting the film right now.