Sometime, somewhere in the endless cosmos, a lost astronaut and a cosmic princess collide. His hope: to return home. Hers: to escape her destiny of becoming a star. Fascinated by his tales of “Earth,” she helps him find his way back, hoping to find refuge herself.
It’s this unlikely pact that is at the heart of Cosmo Princess, Quentin Rigaux’s debut feature, brought to Cartoon Movie by Academy Award-winning Flow producer Ron Dyens (Sacrebleu), one of the highlights of this 2026 edition. A duo now embarking, much like their characters, on the epic yet perilous journey of crafting this ambitious 2D, 90-minute sci-fi animated family feature. Ahead of the pitch, Cartoon Brew spoke with Dyens about this odyssey about to lift off.
A Gobelins alum, Quentin Rigaux started his professional career in 2019 at Wizz, a French boutique studio also present at Cartoon Movie with the intriguing Flick. Seven years later, Rigaux has worked with Skydance, The Mill, Titmouse, and other internationally acclaimed studios and is now an established director at Passion Pictures Paris.
As many aspiring directors do, he crafted the one-minute teaser for Cosmo Princess during his free time, which was released on YouTube back in June and now boasts more than 500k views. Dyens, who discovered Rigaux’s project on LinkedIn by chance, was blown away by the 1980s anime-inspired aesthetics and reached out to the artist.
“What I really love about this feature is the philosophical tales that surround its mythology, which remind me of Jules Verne’s adventures as much as the poetics of The Little Prince,” shared Dyens. “Adventure as a way to tell a story has been, in my opinion, completely perverted by the search for profit. There’s nothing exciting about Musk’s mission to Mars. It’s only about finding another planet to exploit, and that’s dark. What has always appealed to me, from my first feature Long Way North to the animals’ journey in Flow, has always been adventure in its truest form and the feeling of discovery that goes with it.”
For the acclaimed producer of Sirocco and the Kingdom of the Winds and Marona’s Fantastic Tale, adventure is not only about seeking new horizons. It’s also about taking off your armor, accepting the unknown, and transforming oneself through the journey. Concepts that are at the core of Cosmo Princess, and that connected the two.
Beyond adventure, Rigaux’s space opera also brings a deeper reflection on what it means to be human (or not, in the case of the film’s main characters, Selene, a star in the making, and Albert V, a space monkey thrown into the void of space). “Those two characters are connected by the search for their true place in the universe. What makes them unique? What are their responsibilities toward their own destinies, and what does that say about us as human beings? All these levels of text and subtext are deeply interesting to me.” In Cosmo Princess, much like Dyens’ other projects, bad guys are never truly bad guys, and everything is not always what it seems, making the film even more appealing.
As he grew up with those shows that were just beginning to be exported worldwide, Dyens was also deeply influenced by the anime space operas of the late 1970s and the 1980s. But when he met Quentin, he quickly realized he had met his master. “This 28-year-old artist knew the tropes and codes of these shows better than I did. What’s very interesting to me is that Quentin and a younger generation of French animators have a certain kind of nostalgia for these shows, but at the same time, they’re infusing them with classic French animation, such as Paul Grimault or René Laloux’s Les Maitres du Temps, creating a new form of art. To me, it’s a great way of appealing both to a younger audience and to adults and young adults.”
A very ambitious project, Cosmo Princess is in the early stages of development, a place that Dyens enjoys. “When we’re writing, I try to keep my mind as open as possible, without putting too many barriers or limits on what we can or will achieve. With Sacrebleu’s pedigree and the appeal of this gorgeous, lovable, and sincere story, I’m convinced that we will find trustworthy partners and a wide audience.”
Asked about how Flow’s incredible journey had changed his career, Dyens shared both happiness and thankfulness, but also a bit of fatigue. “It has been a wonderful experience, and I’m truly happy we won the Academy Award for Flow, especially since it was me who reached out to Gints [Zilbalodis] at the very beginning. But when you have a project such as Flow that becomes a bigger-than-life odyssey, people get the feeling that your other projects diminish in a sense, which is, of course, not true.”
Dyens, who puts the same energy into each and every project Sacrebleu boards, emphasized that he defends them all equally. “But you cannot rule out the fact that people are going to compare them with Flow’s success, and that’s not a very good thing to experience. To be honest, I went through a difficult time coping with that, but I’m in a better place now, and I’m fully invested in all the stories Sacrebleu carries today.”
At Cartoon Movie, the beating heart of European feature animation, Sacrebleu is sharing this project for the first time. It’s a great place to discuss its potential and meet friends and partners before Dyens heads to Los Angeles next week, taking Quentin Rigaux’s mind-bending visuals and heartfelt story with him.
“We’re going to take our time refining this story, as we want people to have a true cinematic experience with Cosmo Princess. The film also holds deeper philosophical questions that can appeal to audiences, and its messages of acceptance and benevolence can go beyond the screen. I think it can be good for people right now.”