Welcome to MergingArts Productions

MergingArts Productions produces cultural events and radio programming related to music and visual arts, reaching out to communities both locally and globally.

Women ... Animation ... Womanimation!

Womanimation! is the premier showcase in the US of international women’s animation, a special one-day film festival event presenting animated short film stories created by women around the world.

Womanimation! 2024

The fourteenth edition of Womanimation! took place at
Best Video Film & Cultural Center in Hamden, Connecticut, USA, on Saturday 29th June.

It's a Wrap!

Thanks to all our enthusiastic audiences, everyone at Best Video Film & Cultural Center (especially Julie and Rai), and of course our participating filmmakers for making the festival a great success!

A special thanks to Mariana Masetto for her gracious contribution of a unique musical performance just for the festival.

Click here to view her performance in case you missed it.

You can follow us on Facebook or Instagram for more updates on the festival and beyond, or read more details on this year's festival here.

Awards

We have counted and recounted the ballots, and the Audience Award winner for 2024 is Becarias (Interns), directed by Marina Donderis, Núria Poveda, Marina Cortón, from Spain. The film also came in second in our Jury voting.

Speaking of which, for the second time this year, we assembled a special jury consisting of eleven women musicians who have topped one of the MergingArts Global Radio weekly charts.

The jury reviewed and rated the films, with the consensus winner being Les oiseaux (The Birds), from Christel Hortz from Belgium.

Click here to see the list of our jury members, hailing from Europe, Asia, and South America.

Honorable mentions go to Chicken from German animator Anna Benner, and Felina from Spanish animator María Lorenzo, both of which did well in audience and jury voting.

Award winners will be receiving custom awards created by previous award winners, Fernanda Caicedo (Ecuador/Germany) and Olga Titova (Russia).

Festival Films

We sought out talented women animators from around the world to highlight their work in our festival, as always with no submission fee.

From hundreds of quality submissions from dozens of countries, we selected fourteen final films, from twelve nations.

Click here for a detailed listing of the Womanimation! 2024 films.

More on the Films

Europe, Asia, and the Americas were represented, with styles from stop-motion to traditional hand-drawn to several varieties of 2D/computer hybrids.

Two were East Coast Premieres, with the remainder being US, International, or World Premieres.

With running times between two and twelve minutes, the films emphasized well-developed narratives as well as visual daring.

From a variety of female perspectives, they explored themes including family bonds, dysfunctional relationships, body image, gender roles, and the fragility of life.

Music Charting

World Music

Toni (aka DJ Madame B) is a global music genre director showcasing sounds from around the world. She hosts Pacifica affiliate syndicated and regional world music shows.

She submits MergingArts Global Radio weekly charts to NACC (North American College & Community Chart) and RMR (Roots Music Report).

She is an active panelist of international charting organizations, TWMC (Transglobal World Music Chart), BWMC (Balkan World Music Chart), and RWMC (Russian World Music Chart), representing MergingArts.

Click here to view weekly and monthly world music charts and adds.

Radio Syndication

World Music

Donne del Mondo showcases global music by women, celebrating musical women of the world. Available Saturday afternoons, it is distributed via the Pacifica Radio Network on select affiliates throughout North America.

Transworld Airwaves features a cross-cultural musical journey united in voices and rhythms. As well as syndicating on Pacifica, it broadcasts every other Sunday evening from 7:00 to 8:00 pm (US Eastern time) on WZBC 90.3 FM from Boston College in Newton/Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

You can hear more international sounds every Sunday from 8:00 am to 11:00 am Eastern, by tuning in to World Wide Waves, with rotating hosts. It can be heard on 90.3 FM WRIU, non-commercial radio broadcasting from the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, RI.

Spoiler Alert Radio

Featuring conversations on the craft of filmmaking, Spoiler Alert Radio continues to syndicate weekly on selected Pacifica affiliates.

You can find out more about the show, including syndication information, by clicking here, or visit our podcast and archive page by clicking here.

Short Short Story Film Festival

The Short Short Story Film Festival is a competitive international festival of films that tell a story in under six minutes, celebrating brevity in filmmaking with films from across the globe, both live-action and animated.

The 16th edition of the festival took place at Cinestudio on Saturday, 25th November.

Festival Awards

Each of the two programs awards both an audience and jury award. Award winners receive commissioned custom art objects created by past festival participants.

For the jury awards, a panel of film industry professionals, previously interviewed on Spoiler Alert Radio, reviewed the films in each program. For a complete list of jury members, click here.

Audience awards are voted on by those in attendance, who select their three favorite films in each program to determine award winners.

Click here to see detail on the award winners and the unique art object creations.

Film Selections

From several hundred submissions representing over fifty countries, we selelcted 35 films, from more than twenty countries on six continents, including 23 US premieres and seven world premieres.

Two programs, Heartstrings and Headtrip, both showcased dozens of films tightly sequenced in under ninety minutes, each with a distinctive tone yet wide-ranging styles and topics.

Click here to see a list of festival films.

More On The Festival

To learn more about the festival concept and history, click here.

For requirements to submit to future editions, click here.

There is no fee to submit your film to the festival.