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About us

TRICKY WOMEN/TRICKY REALITIES since 2001

The Festival

Since 2001 TRICKY WOMEN/TRICKY REALITIES takes place every year in March around the date of the International Women’s Day. TRICKY WOMEN/TRICKY REALITIES focuses on animated films made by women and/or genderqueer artists and therefore fills a unique position within the international festival landscape. Besides the competition the festival shows themed programs and retrospectives to present an exciting overview of the animated cinematic art of female artists from around the world and Austrian filmmakers as well. Historical curiosities and contemporary productions are part of TRICKY WOMEN/TRICKY REALITIES’ programming.

Animated Documentaries, works of students of international film schools and academies, and the cinematographic reflection on the complex work/society were established as festival anchors. Exhibitions, workshops and Best Practice-afternoons provide an insight into the creative work of filmmakers and offer the opportunity to get in touch with each other. TRICKY WOMEN/TRICKY REALITIES’ declared aim is to confront the audience with the unlimited aesthetics of animation films made by women and/or genderqueer artists. 

 

MISSION STATEMENT

WHAT IS TRICKY WOMEN/TRICKY REALITIES?

Tricky Women/Tricky Realities is a statement:

Tricky Women/Tricky Realities is the world’s first and only festival of animated film dedicated specifically to animation by women and/or genderqueer artists.

From gender equality to digitalization, from human rights to the working world to social, economic and ecological questions – for twenty years, Tricky Women/Tricky Realities has been exploring social and political issues from a feminist and artistic perspective and offering new ways of highlighting social inequalities.

Taking place around International Women’s Day, it has become a staple on the festival calendar for many as both a safe space and a place of exchange and networking.

We support women and genderqueer filmmakers and artists and offer a platform of presentation, inter/national exchange and knowhow transfer.

 

WHY ANIMATION?

“The strong suit of animation film practice(s) is that in being freed from the bounds of the material world, we can open a space for the possible in lieu of the physical and remind audiences that there are alternative ways to engage and articulate tricky realities.”[1]

Animation combines and condenses the mundane and the surreal and enables us to present even the most difficult issues in a compact and comprehensible way. Animation can speak the unspeakable.

The images we consume shape our ideas and ideals, our notions of who and how we want to be: EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE in animation.

Animation can break up existing structures and reconstruct them in new ways, it can open up discursive realms of possibility, create new options and spheres of action, and provide different perspectives:

Animation expands (not only) our visual vocabulary.

 

EMPOWERMENT WITH AND THROUGH ANIMATION

Let us change the narrative(s)!

We want to see stories of and by women and genderqueer artists.

We want to challenge conventional roles and concepts and create unusual visions and role models.

We want gender equality in front of and behind the screen.

We want equal pay and a 50:50 distribution of public funds and resources.

We want presence instead of re-presentation, we want diverse voices –

 

­– and in the end we will all benefit.

 

[1] Amanda Barbour, “Animation as a Tool to Destroy the Patriarchy”; lecture at TRICKY WOMEN/TRICKY REALITIES 2020

 

Tricky Women - International Animation Filmfestival Vienna