Editorial 2026
Since its inception in 2001, collaboration has been the guiding principle of Tricky Women Tricky Realities. Therefore, we would like to start celebrating 25 years of working with, thinking about and connecting through animation with a heartfelt thank you: to all the filmmakers, collaborators, supporters, team members, guiding forces, visitors, cooperation and conversation partners, and to the fellow believers in the transformative potential of feminist storytelling!
Founded at the beginning of a new millennium by Culture2Culture, an organization dedicated to organizing festivals in the tradition of women’s film festivals since 1992, “Tricky Women” started out as the world’s first animation film festival committed to presenting works by female and/or genderqueer artists. Shifting the focus to the world-making possibilities of animated works was as much the organizers’ aim as re-writing a film history that typically privileges the contributions of men.
As animation has gained more recognition and left the fringes of the film industry, Tricky Women Tricky Realities has evolved with these developments, as well as with the changing modes of presenting, sharing and consuming the art of the moving image: It has been remolded into a hybrid film festival, explored new modes of virtual storytelling and changed its name to Tricky Women Tricky Realities to further emphasize its feminist understanding of animation as a means of connecting with the lived experiences of female and/or genderqueer people.
In the 25 years of its existence, the festival – just like animation itself – has been in constant motion, proving to be a boundary-breaking shapeshifter. During this time, it has presented 3,450 films that uncompromisingly spoke to the urgencies of their moment, while imagining new languages for collective engagement as well as alternatives to the world as it exists today.
This year’s edition wants to acknowledge the festival’s history from a standpoint of visionary engagement rather than through the lens of nostalgia! To carry this rich history into the future, Tricky Women Tricky Realities 2026 invites various generations of animators to Vienna to interact with what has been the festival’s focus since the beginning: joyfully delving into and fostering a diverse, exciting and innovative film canon, reflecting on the potential of animation to rearrange familiar structures of storytelling, and shaping moments that hold space for community building.
Above all, Tricky Women Tricky Realities 2026 wants to loudly celebrate with both its long-time and our new companions! Keeping a feminist project alive is never a small undertaking: Even after 25 years, its existence requires constant collaborative rethinking, the re-negotiation of demands and visions, and most of all the continuous re-activation of exchange, discourse, connections, networks, and relationships as well as history.
Celebrating the passage of time gives way to broader reflections: What were the visions 25 years ago and how to approach them from today’s angle? How would we perceive our present situation from 25 years ago? And, last but not least: How to imagine a world 25 years from now?
Thinking about the future at a time marked by intensifying feminist backlash, anti-queer and racist violence, and brutal state and border regimes, demands abundant creative strategies and energy. Yet democracy lives exactly through that: envisioning a shared future we strive to work towards! We celebrate and stand with everyone who shares these visions, who speaks out, and who tells stories worth creating a feminist platform for.
We warmly invite you to join us in engaging with them!
Your Tricky Women Tricky Realities Team