Kerekes had planned to present another project, Things (Veci).

"At the pitching forum I was among the last ones and I did not want to cloy tired listeners with some numbers and percentage, so I started telling jokes about cosmonauts," he told FNE. He woke up the audience, and suddenly Cosmonauts, which was to be mentioned at the end of his presentation about Things, became topic number one.

Kerekes latest film Cooking History won second prize at Hot Doc in Toronto and honourable mention at the Planete Doc Review in Warsaw. "We experienced coming in second - and it is similar to being the second one in the selection for a cosmonaut," Kerekes said, describing the source of the idea that led to the new project. The film will explore th human stories of second-place cosmonauts from the USA, former USSR, Israel, and post-communist countries.

Even though he felt like a "nobody" going to Cannes, he found it extremely helpful to meet all of these people "who think similarly as me." His new project drew interest from two territories: Hungary (either Gábor Sipos, Laokoon Filmgroup www.laokoonfilm.com or Inforg Studio www.inforgstudio.hu) and Irish producer Andrew Freedman, Venom Film (www.venom.ie).

Cosmonauts is in currently development. The treatment is due by September 2009, with a script by autumn 2010, and shooting in 2011.

Contact info:
Address: Vištuk 277, 900 85, Slovak Republic
Identification number: 35436158
Established: 27. 4. 2005
Contact: tel.: +421-905-255 698, fax: +421-33-6446 409, e-mail: kerekes nextra.sk, Peter Kerekes