"Different Shades of the Same Person": Leo Černic on the Berlin-Premiering Animation Short 'Cosmonauts'

Slovenian/Italian animation filmmaker Leo Černic captured the festival world with his student film 'Pentola' (Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia Animazione, Turin), a 7-minute 2D animation queer bending of the traditional superhero myth (our review here).

He now returns with his first professional animation short 'Cosmonauts', world-premiering at the prestigious Berlinale Shorts (12-22 February 2026). The 15-minute film, a co-production between Finta Film (Slovenia),  Staragara I.T (Italy), and RTV (Slovenia),  follows three characters: Delfino, Zenf, and Rita ride on the Pompelmo Express, a phallic intergalactic cruise for singles, seeking sex and pleasure. Things will move in various directions.

'Cosmonauts' is also among the seven short films competing for the 40th Teddy Award, a landmark award for queer films worldwide, at the 76th Berlin Festival.

We talked to Leo Černic on the occasion of the film's world premiere. 

From 'Pentola' to the 15-minute 'Cosmonauts': Three Stories in One Animation Film

Leo Černic: The topic is always love, sexuality, loneliness, and this desire that really inspires me. But the 'Cosmonauts' can be considered an upgrade, so both films are connected.

I really liked this quorum of characters. The main difficulty I had story-wise was to put it in a short form, because usually it's something that fits more in the long format; you have more time there. So, I had to sacrifice some narrative to explore each story. But when you speak about these kinds of topics, sexuality or love, I really wanted to have more points of views also to point out the non-unique way of doing it or feeling.

I received fundamental help from the editor, Iva Kraljević, who helped me develop all these stories and gave each its proper time. We spent one year writing, drawing, and creating animatics. I brought her the first version of the animatic, which was actually a mockumentary from the very beginning. During the process, we started from scratch, re-framing the narrative into its final version, in parallel with the animatic, the actual animation, coloring, and sound editing.

A Queer /Fluid Creative Process of Animating: Character Design

My creative process starts from an idea, of course, or a context, and then I start drawing little illustrations that can be in this world with those characters that I built. After that, I try to arrange all these illustrations side by side to imagine a story. And then when I do the animatic, I write the dialogues, and I also do them vocally, like I am the actor during the animatic, in this case, and also in the final version of the film. It doesn't really have the classical steps of writing, storyboarding, and animatic.

I really enjoy character design, and it was a pure joy to invent characters from shot to shot. When I'm in front of a piece of paper, it's difficult for me not to draw characters. This was the most amazing part process-wise (in contrast, I suffer more doing backgrounds).

The Characters: 

Delphino, the BDSM Shy Character

I really like the contrast he creates. From the outside, the way he presents himself, you expect something strictly sexual and strictly stigmatized. And that's why I really wanted to add a layer to non-standard sexual practices, because they are often sexualized and they give no space to romantic feelings. So, I really wanted to have in the same character this appearance and maybe what he likes doing in bed, and that he feels he really wants to love someone - and it doesn't really matter how he makes love with this someone. The little flower was the perfect connotation of this genuine childish love.

The Scientist and the Cleaning Worker 

The idea of a scientist falling in love with the comet was an old one. I asked myself what the limit is and how to protect yourself from your passion, from love, and how big a sacrifice you can make when you are in love, and how crazy you can be. For the cleaning worker, the starting point was belonging, being part of something, or being excluded. From the first point, I was charmed by her age and by how love can change over the years. 

Color Palette

I had a huge help from Sara Moschini, a color script and background painter.  I took care of the background layouts that she later painted, after defining the color script and palettes for the whole film. I made the first version, and she made it much better. Later, in postproduction, I worked with digital color intermediatist like a color correction person. It's not common to have a color correction part in 2D computer animation because, of course, you can choose all the colors beforehand; however, since the colors vary so much in those stories, it was nice to balance them.

Sound and Voice Acting

I worked with Samo Jurca, a sound editor who had also worked on previous projects. We really like exploring a big contrast in sound. So just to point out that something is happening at the same time, and the crew is big, and it's a whole house - the sound of the universe.

It was interesting to make some differences between the ship and the universe, not just on the sound design-wise, but also mix-wise, because the sound in the universe is much drier than inside the ship, where you have more carnal, visceral sounds and the reverb, etc. Regarding the music, I worked with Amos Cappuccio and Andrea Marazzi. I think they did brilliant work, also because it fits and really matches the color of the whole thing. 

In 'Pentola', my brother dubbed all the characters. But I made the voices for 'Pentola' during the animatic; since my English is really broken, I like how they fit the characters in 'Cosmonauts'. Especially in this movie, with so many different characters, I really liked that they all represent different shades of the same person, and that they can coexist in the same world.

Queer Sexuality and Its Understanding

Queer community, couples, and families in mainstream films or TV content don't have space just to represent their queerness. We can accept queer people only when they love each other; all this rhetoric of  'love is love' doesn't allow someone just to say, "I really like to have sex with whoever and however I want", something that is not really connected with this traditional concept of couples. I wanted to give some space to that kind of representation as well.  That's why in the film the characters have to go in the middle of the space to be themselves, and do whatever they like to do. The only place where they can really be free is out of everyone, -there is an inherent melancholy also in that; just in being hidden somehow.

Berlinale Premiere

I didn't expect it at all, but it happened, and I'm happy this kind of film can have such a premiere at the Berlinale. It's a context that, apart from the festival, I think Berlinale in general can fit into the whole world I tried to build. I really hope the audience will like it.

 I'm so fascinated by short animations, because they need so much time to be made, and they somehow represent an entire period of life you spent on it. So, I really see all those mistakes, all the people I met, all the help I had, all the travels I made, with these experiences.  There is a lot of passion and love behind this film, and those who see it hopefully recognize love as a precious thing we can have.

Watch the 'Cosmonauts' trailer:

CREDITS:
Cosmonauts, Leo Černic (2026)
Producers: Tina Smrekar (Finta Film, Slovenia), Jožko Rutar (Staragara I.T, Italy) David Cej (RTV, Slovenia)| | Color Script & Backgrounds: Sara Moschini | Color: Veronika Hozjan, Nika Karner, Karin Likar, Anja Paternoster, Ana Prebil, Bibi Erjavec  | Additional Animation: Nika Karner | Music: Amos Cappuccio, Andrea Marazzi | Editing: Iva Kraljević | Art Direction: Leo Černic

'Cosmonauts' premieres on Tuesday, 17 February, at the 76th Berlin Film Festival. Check the screening dates

'Cosmonauts', dir. Leo Černic 

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