Women ... Animation ... Womanimation!
What is Womanimation!? As the name implies, it's a competitive international film 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.
Womanimation! 2026
On Saturday April 25th, the fifteenth edition of Womanimation! comes to Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston.
The festival takes place at 3:00 pm at the Design and Media Center (DMC) Lecture Hall, on 621 Huntington Avenue in Boston.
Submissions Closed
We have been seeking talented women animators from around the world to highlight their work in our 2026 festival.
Submissions are now closed. The deadline was Sunday, 15th March.
Final film selections will be announced shortly.
Submission guidelines are below. As always, there is no fee to submit your film.
Festival Awards
Audiences at each screening 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 the previous year's festival.
A special jury, consisting of selected women musicians who have topped one of the MergingArts Global Radio weekly charts, review and rate the films.
The Jury Grand Prize Award winner also receives a commissioned custom art object award created by a previous Womanimation! Film Festival winner.
Festival Herstory
The inaugural festival was held in conjunction with the second international SWAN Day (Support Women Artists Now), an event designed to highlight the contributions of women artists for Women’s History Month in March.
Since then, it has played around New England in Spring or early Summer, as one of the premiere showcases of women's animated shorts in North America.
To find out more about previous editions of the festival, touch here.
Submission Guidelines
Festival films must be animated, directed by a woman, and narrative in structure (no music videos, trailers, non-narrative experimental pieces, and so forth.)
Films must have been completed no earlier than 2023.
There is no fee to submit a film for consideration.
Note that as we don't charge submission fees, we are also unable to pay screening fees for any film.
Technical Guidelines
Resolution/Dimensions: 1080p, 2K, or 4K.
Codec: H.264/AVC or H.265/HEVC preferred. ProRes acceptable (file will be converted before screening)
Frame rate: 24 or 25 fps
Bit Rate: Between 5 Mbps and 20 Mbps, depending on resulting file size, preferably less than 100MB/minute
Subtitles: Embedded preferred but can accept .srt files or similar
As of January 2023, we are not accepting DCP submissions.
Other Recommendations
None of the following criteria disqualify a film but may count against films in consideration for acceptance:
- Films shorter than 2:00 or longer than 20:00
- Films from 2023
- Films available publicly online
- Films that have played extensively in the US (especially northeastern US)
- Films using non-trivial amounts of AI in their creation
- Subtitle problems (too small, poor contrast, excessive grammar/spelling errors)
Sending Film Files
To submit a file, you can send the film file to our WeTransfer page directly.
Otherwise, use a service such WeTransfer, DropBox, or Google Drive. Share with email address mergingartsfilmMergingArts@MergingArtsgmailMergingArts.MergingArtscom.
Filmmakers accepted into the festival are strongly encouraged to provide a photo of the filmmaker, along with film stills and any other promotional material.