The Cosmonaut (El Cosmonauta) is a Spanish science-fiction film, directed by Nicolás Alcalá and produced by Carola Rodríguez and Bruno Teixidor.

The first feature-length project of Riot Cinema Collective is notable for its use of crowdfunding and Creative Commons license in its production.

Stas and Andrei will witness first-hand the political plots, the fights for power and the successes and failures of the Soviet Union in some of the greatest achievements of the 20th century.

The project's dossier[1] mentions specifically the names of Wong Kar-wai (and his main cinematographer, Christopher Doyle), Andrei Tarkovsky, José Luis Guerín, and Robert Bresson, among others.

These ties are more evident through a look in the collaborators’ list: among others, the names of Eduard Artemyev, and Marina Tarkovskaya (Tarkovky's sister).

[citation needed] Inspired by productions such as A Swarm of Angels and Artemis Eternal, The Cosmonaut is the first Spanish feature film that makes use of the crowdfunding financing method.

[citation needed] Between December 2009 and June 2010, the Riot Cinema team worked in modernizing the previous business model.

These developments increase the project approach and infrastructure, keeping its previous features, but, in general, taking them a step further.

According to Riot Cinema data, of the €860,000 the project will cost, it is expected that 6.5% be financed through crowdfunding and/or merchandising, 21% by private investment, 32% through sponsorship, and 40.5% through presales distribution (approximate figures).

Different particularities have been adopted for each release window, taking each mean into account, but making some changes in the traditional way of distribution.

It won't be necessary to watch them in order to understand the given facts, but it will provide some data and information about The Cosmonaut world that will complement each other.

[citation needed] Lánzanos, the Spanish crowdfunding platform that collaborated during the whole campaign, faced, together with The Cosmonaut's team, what they called "their most beautiful failure of design": the raising status bar exceeded 173%, going beyond the box it was embedded in.

Some examples of this include the digital version of El País,[6] the daily newspaper with the biggest print run in the country, or Microsiervos,[7] one of the most visited blogs in Spanish.

[9] It was organized as a mass event to promote the film; during two days (29 and 30 June), nine bands belonging to the indie scene of Madrid played in front of an audience that, according to the organization, reached 400 people between the two days, with the emerging filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo as the master of ceremonies.

The object of the event was to simulate a Moon landing in downtown Madrid, and it had a remarkable attendance, even some of the passers-by joined the performance.

The crowdfunding movie project The Cosmonaut has suffered a serious PR drawback[12][13] due to a public relationship problem related to the director and writer, Nicolás Alcalá.