It's a festival showcasing acclaimed animated film stories created by women from around the world.

From satire to drama, from the everyday to the surreal - in styles from traditional 2-D to stop-motion to computer animation - the festival showcases wide-ranging visual styles.

The fourteenth edition of Womanimation! will be taking place at Best Video Film & Cultural Center.

Awards and Audience Participation

Audiences at each screening will vote for their favorite three films of the program, with the top overall vote-getter receiving a custom art object award, created by a winner from a previous edition of the festival.

Continuing a newer twist from last year's event, a special jury has been assembled consisting of women musicians who have topped one of the MergingArts Global Radio weekly charts. The jury will review and rate the films, with the winner also receiving a custom art award from a previous winner

Music and More

Each screening is preceded by a slide show with music introducing the filmmakers, and DJ Madame B will weave soundscapes created by women across the globe between screenings.

There will be special remote concert performance by Mariana Masetto as well. The Best Video Coffee Bar will be open for beer, wine, drinks, and snacks, and from 12-9 pm, Vittles Food truck brings their Southern Comfort Food to the festival.

Total run time: 85 minutes

Schedule of Events

Touch
Dir. Anastasiia Martyniuk (Mariupol, Ukraine)
International Premiere
A short tale of unprecedented bravery in forging close connections with another person
1 min, 2D, Procreate Dreams

Becarias (Interns)
Dir. Marina Donderis, Núria Poveda, Marina Cortón (Valencia, Spain)
East Coast Premiere
Three young friends face the challenge of paying rent for their shared apartment each month
10 min, Stop Motion - Dragonframe

3:12 pm Wednesday
Dir. Jin Woo (Korea/Poland)
US Premiere
Wednesday at 3:12 pm, I sit in my room, look out the window, and daydream. Am I a bird? Am I a fish? Or are they me? The dream of my existence begins.
5 min, 2D, Procreate, TVPaint, After Effects

Les oiseaux (The Birds)
Dir. Christel Hortz (Marcinelle, Belgium)
US Premiere
My mother is a storyteller whose words both rocked and pierced me. A prolific storyteller, sad and enigmatic, whose birds gradually peck the memory…
4 min, 2D animation with objects

Camping
Dir. Sacha Michaud (Calgary, Canada)
US Premiere
Shawna, a young woman living in an urban encampment, attempts to find housing. This was a community project, written by people with the lived experience of being unhoused.
7 min, 3D Stop Motion with puppets

Daughter in the Family Portrait
Dir. Peng Yu-Wen (Hsinchu County, Taiwan)
World Premiere
A memory of taking a family portrait reveals the delicate relationship between the family. The daughter felt helpless when she saw her parents quarreling. The collapse of the Buddha statue symbolizes the collapse of the daughter's mind. Adapted from the director's personal experience, she transformed the suffering she endured from her parents into animation.
3 min, 2D Computer, TVPaint, Photoshop, Premiere

Goodbye, People
Dir. Anna Klimanova (Moscow, Russia)
International Premiere
The story of a boy, who is looking for ways out of big problems in his little world
4 min, 2D

Nuits blanches (Sleepless Nights)
Dir. Janis Aussel (Rennes, France)
US Premiere
Sleepless nights. Sensations, emotions that we don't understand. Those who suffer from sleep disorders confide in us their questioning and their fatigue, the relentlessness to understand, sometimes in vain, this body that does not sleep. The search for meaning, the hope of a rest that does not come.
11 min, Paper cut-out, Painting

Ice Lolly
Dir. Vaishnavi Laddha (Pune, India)
US Premiere
A heartfelt reminder to savor life's simple pleasures and not postpone our dreams for the future. This film celebrates the beauty of living in the moment, urging us all to treasure life's sweetest moments as they come.
3 min, 2D Computer, Callipeg, Photoshop, Procreate, After Effects

Oxide
Dir. Emma Daelman (Brussels, Belgium)
US Premiere
Two traumatised creatures, seeking closeness within an abandoned bus shelter, grapple with the blurred lines between connection and separation.
6 min, Stop Motion - Dragonframe, Nuke and Houdini for VFX

Chicken
Dir. Anna Benner (Berlin, Germany)
US Premiere
What do we burn when our world is already on fire? A woman running from a terrible relationship finds herself eye to eye with a chicken. They share a moment, a cigarette and a desire to burn down everything around them to soothe their respective wounds. A painted flight of fancy about the elation that comes with breaking out of a cycle of pain.
8 min, Digital hand-drawn rotoscope

Porous
Dir. Cecilia Reeve (London, England)
US Premiere
In a dreamlike narrative, a woman takes a bath and reflects upon her past experiences; submerged in the water she enters a space out of time. An existentialist film questioning the boundaries the between body and the outside world, between water and skin.
4 min, Paint on glass, Digital 2D, Gouache on paper

Felina
Dir. María Lorenzo (Alicante, Spain)
East Coast Premiere
Felina is a woman who can turn into a panther, or maybe a panther who can turn into a woman. She is in love with a blind pianist to whom she does not want to reveal her nature. However, one day she receives unexpected news: she is pregnant with cubs.
12 min, 2D - Blender

Bar La Matanza
Dir. Bela Tagliabue (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
International Premiere
The story of Suyana, a person who became what others think of them. In order to change their destiny, they must rebel against their own image.
5 min, Stop Motion

Date: June 29, 2024

Time: 1:30pm, 4:30pm, 7:30pm

Location:
Best Video Film And Cultural Center,
1842 Whitney Avenue,
Hamden, CT 06517.

Buy Tickets

Click here for more information