Slava Tsukerman, the director best known for creating the cult New York new-wave science-fiction film Liquid Sky, died March 2, 2026, in the United States. He was 86.
Tsukerman began making films young, completing his debut, I Believe in Spring, at 21. The film won a top prize at a Moscow amateur film festival and received an award at a festival in Montreal. It was later released nationally after its festival recognition.
His defining work remained Liquid Sky, which he made as director, writer and producer. Set in New York’s downtown club scene, the film blended fashion, music and science fiction into a sharply stylized independent vision.
In a 2013 interview, Tsukerman said the film emerged after a larger science-fiction project, Sweet 16, fell apart when financing did not come through. He responded by writing a script that could be produced with limited resources, an approach he described as a practical pivot that ultimately became Liquid Sky.
Tsukerman’s official biography credits him with directing 43 films internationally and receiving 13 festival awards, and it says his Israeli television documentary Once Upon a Time There Were Russians in Jerusalem won first prize at a TV-film festival in Hollywood. Still, he was most closely identified with Liquid Sky and its enduring imprint on downtown, new-wave independent cinema.