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TRICKY WOMEN TRICKY REALITIES 2025
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

Our full program will be released on 19th February

As the heart of the festival, the International Competition of Tricky Women Tricky Realities brings together trends and tendencies in independent animated filmmaking by women and/or genderqueer artists. It assembles visionary, daring animated films from the past two years from all over the globe. Prizes worth 21,000 euros will be awarded as part of the competition programs, including the Maria Lassnig Golden Film Reel, worth 10,000 euros.

Please note: You can watch our International Competition programs at the METRO Kinokulturhaus in Vienna or online at our festival platform starting on Thursday, 6 March. The detailed festival program with all the info where to get your tickets will be published on 19 February. Stay tuned!

CONFETTI

Amanda Bonaiuto, 2024, US, 4 minutes

Separation, fever dreaming, and a deflated celebration.

THE LOVERS

Carolina Sandvik, 2023, SE, 13 minutes

A man and a woman are having a candlelit dinner at a restaurant. All of a sudden the man's appearance begins to change. A stop motion relationship horror and unromantic comedy about a couple forced to deal with escalating bodily transformations.




SUPERSILLY

Veronica Martiradonna, 2024, FR, 9 minutes

A young woman in a bunny costume undertakes an inner journey in which she will understand the original drama that causes her suffering: the pain of not knowing how to be loved.

I AM HERE | IK BEN HIER

Cheyenne Goudswaard, 2023, NL, 5 minutes

Figures caught between solitude and the longing for connection, driven by the fear of oblivion. Their movements reflect a yearning to leave lasting traces, imprinted on the world, seeking intimacy and building a meaningful legacy.



EDITH AND THE TALL CHILD

Kohana Wilson, 2023, US, 7 minutes

A hand-drawn film about hair, dysphoria, and the growing pains of a repeating puberty. It follows the titular Tall Child as they outgrow their tiny apartment, their gender, and their hallucinatory giant ground sloth Edith.




THE GIRL WHO LIVED IN THE LOO

Subarna Dash, 2024, IN, 12 minutes

A ten-year-old girl finds refuge in loos. She spends most of her time in them, feeling calm and safe. As she grows up, her comfort zone starts to feel limited and she tries to make sense of its meaning while navigating her way through life.

WHEN IT COMES (IT WILL HAVE YOUR EYES) | ETORRIKO DA (ETA ZURE BEGIAK IZANGO DITU)

Izibene Oñederra, 2024, ES, 13 minutes

A small community enters a state of collapse due to an environmental crisis and is adapting as best it can to the new reality. The privileged residents live a hedonistic life based on carpe diem, while the others struggle to survive with no alternative.

AQUATIC | ABZI

Shiva Sadegh Asadi, 2023, IR, 5 minutes

A woman gives birth to marine creatures. Her body becomes a site of (re)production, transforms and is fragmented. Set in stark red, white, and black, the film uses aquatic symbolisms to comment on the commodification and violent exploitation of women’s bodies.

AND GRANNY WOULD DANCE

Maryam Mohajer, 2024, GB, 10 minutes

Marmar listens to the stories told by her grandmother’s friends as they play an illicit game of cards. Based on childhood memories and shared stories, AND GRANNY WOULD DANCE is a tale of love, grief and resilience. At its heart, it is a tribute to the solidarity of Iranian women.

MATTA AND MATTO

Bianca Caderas, Kerstin Zemp, 2023, CH, 10 minutes

In a dystopian world, physical contact between those living there is forbidden. To those who feel lonely and isolated, Matta and Matto offer a place of refuge. In the rooms of their hotel, the deepest longings for touch are fulfilled – at quite a price.

COCOON

Yiwei Chen, 2024, CN, 5 minutes

A girl wakes up alone in the dark and surreal night. Moths move through the lights and shadows of the room. Their eggs are already scattered around the flat. When gently touching their soft membranes the desire to care for and be taken care of awakens.

BUNNYHOOD

Mansi Maheshwari, 2024, GB, 9 minutes

Mum would never lie to me... would she? Innocent Bobby faces this unsettling question during an unexpected, last-minute trip to the hospital. A frenzied journey exploring the deep fears of dependency and the fragile trust we place in those we rely on most.

SUBOTOPIC

Nikki Schuster, 2023, AT, 7 minutes

Reality and utopia merge as we dive down into a mystical underwater world. Passing surreal plants and creatures, we descend into lightless depths, discovering parallel worlds. Here the boundaries blur between above and below, inside and outside.

IT SHOULDN'T RAIN TOMORROW | AMANHÃ NÃO DÃO CHUVA

Maria Trigo Teixeira, 2024, DE and PT, 12 minutes

Sensing that her mother may no longer be able to live independently, a woman returns to her childhood home as her mother slowly drifts away. The shifts in her mother’s life gradually intertwine with her own, reshaping the self-perception of the protagonist.

THE WILD-TEMPERED CLAVIER

Anna Samo, 2024, DE, 7 minutes

“Play” is both a verb and a noun. Amid a raging war, an artist insists on both. Playfully painted on toilet paper, the images confront the entanglements between art and violence while simultaneously honoring the tradition of camera-less animation.

I DIED IN IRPIN

Anastasiia Falileieva, 2024, CZ, 11 minutes

On February 24, 2022 Anastasia and her boyfriend fled from Kyiv to Irpin. Together with his parents they spend 10 days in the blockaded and war-ridden city, where Anastasia’s need for safety is suppressed by the individual fears of those around her.

SWIFTS

Ada Napiórkowski, 2024, EE, 5 minutes

Like every year, the swifts are coming back to their homes in the sleeping districts. This time they don't find any humans. But the deserted space is not defined by emptiness – it is filled with spirits of a somewhat human nature. Like memories…

THE CAR THAT CAME BACK FROM THE SEA

Jadwiga Kowalska, 2023, CH, 11 minutes

In 1981, six friends drove to the Polish Baltic coast and back in a small, dented car - full of exuberance and frivolousness. As they get further, their car and their country increasingly fall apart. Nevertheless, life goes on.

THE PAINTING | LE TABLEAU

Michèle Lemieux, 2024, CA, 12 minutes

Animated with incredible mastery on the pinscreen, THE PAINTING revisits the tragic fate of Queen Mariana of Austria and her 1652 portrait by Velázquez. Playing with shadow and light, the image continuously dissolves, just to reappear, slowly uncovering the brutality of institutionalised patriarchy.

SOCIETY OF CLOTHES | LES GENS DANS L'ARMOIRE

Dahee Jeong, 2024, CA, FR, and KR, 15 minutes

When morning arrives in SOCIETY OF CLOTHES, a shirt and a pair of pants step outside the closet, transforming into a human figure. In this world, everyone exists only as clothes. They wander into the streets, bodiless and faceless, performing absurd daily tasks.

PERCEBES

Alexandra Ramires, Laura Gonçalves, 2024, FR and PT, 11 minutes

Set in the Algarve, PERCEBES follows the life cycle of the resilient goose barnacle, from its formation to its place on the dinner plate. Weaving together the voices of locals, offering insights into their daily lives and working realities, a story about the region's customs, its complex relationship to tourism and the pressures of modernity unf...

BUTTERFLY | PAPILLION

Florence Miailhe, 2024, FR, 15 minutes

In the sea, a man swims. As he does, memories come to the surface. From his early childhood to his life as a man, all his memories are linked to water - from the waters of childhood pools to those of swimming pools. Some are happy, some glorious, some traumatic. This story will be that of his last swim.

MATER BENEFACTA

Marc Riba, Anna Solanas, 2024, ES, 12 minutes

In a convent in Spain during the dictatorship, nuns provide shelter to young girls in need. Yet what at first seems like a place of refuge, turns into a dark scene of conspiracy between the Catholic Church and Franco’s regime.

CIRCLE

Yumi Joung, 2024, KR, 7 minutes

The girl draws a circle on the ground. Passersby step into it, one by one. Soon the circle is full of people, struggling to stay within. Once the girl returns and erases the circle, people start heading their way.

GINA KAMENTSKY’S PINOCCHIO IN 70MM

Gina Kamentsky, 2024, US, 3 minutes

Familiar figures emerge in a frantic rhythm - a whale, a donkey, and a figure with an ever-growing nose. Deep within, Pinocchio felt a yearning. One day, he would become a real girl and live a life beyond the confines of make-believe.

ASHEN SUN | SOLEIL GRIS

Camille Monnier, 2024, FR, 13 minutes

Under a scorching sun, Charlie is bored out of her mind and dreams of going to the seaside. But she’s forced to guard a deserted motel with her cousin Jess. While the teenagers hang out at the empty pool, the monotone voice on the radio predicts the imminent end of the world.

INKWO FOR WHEN THE STARVING RETURN

Amanda Strong, 2024, CA, 18 minutes

Two lifetimes from now, the world teeters on the edge. Dove, a young, enigmatic, gender-shifting warrior, must harness the power of their Inkwo (medicine) to battle ferocious monsters. A story about the demand for healing and a powerful call to resist the haunting ghosts of exploitation.

ON WEARY WINGS GO BY | LINNUD LÄINUD

Anu-Laura Tuttelberg, 2024, EE and LT, 10 minutes

The sun moves low and the days get shorter. Bodies covered in snow; porcelain skin touched by crisp air. The birds are flying south, as animals and insects hide from the freezing wind. Only a small girl wanders the abandoned land. A wintry poem about the simultaneity of void and plenty.

DOLORES

Cecilia Andalón Delgadillo, 2024, MX, 9 minutes

A tale of girls, skulls, and cornfields: While Doris and her friends are playing in a forbidden part of the fields, threatening clouds are gathering. Left alone, Dolores accidentally falls into a grave, where she encounters figures from childhood nightmares—and a protective armadillo.

THE GARDEN OF ELECTRIC DELIGHTS

Billy Roisz, 2024, AT, 12 minutes

The title The Garden of Electric Delights references Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights. Unlike a sterile, manicured garden, this "electric pleasure garden" teems with buzzing, rustling, and vibrant colors—a cybernetic forest alive with magnetic, tripping energy.