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 is wide-ranging in both visuals and subject matter.
Womanimation! 2026
On Saturday April 25th, the fifteenth edition of Womanimation! came to Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston.
Awards and Audience Participation
The festival attendees voted for their favorite three films of the program, with the top overall vote-getter to receive a custom art object award, created by a winner from last year's festival.
The Audience Award winner for 2026 is Signal, directed by the French duo of
Emma Carré and Mathilde Parquet. The film was also well-received by our Jury voting, finishing third overall.
A special jury, consisting of selected women musicians who have topped one of the MergingArts Global Radio weekly charts, reviewed and rated the films.
Touch here to learn more about the judges.
The Jury Grand Prize Award winner was Rock Song, from UK-based Polish animator Jadwiga Ligęza, who will also be receiving a custom art award from a previous winner.
An honorable mention goes to La Bicyclette et le vélo (Cycle or Bicycle) from Parisian animator
Roxane Campoy, which finished second in both audience and jury voting.
Music and More
A slide show with music introduced the filmmakers, and DJ Madame B wove soundscapes created by women across the globe before and after screenings.
The festival was free and open to both MassArt students and the general public, and festival organizers were on hand to introduce the program.
Festival Film Selections
For a detailed listing of this year's festival films, touch here.
We sought 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 ten films, from eight nations on three continents.
With running times between three and seventeen minutes, the films emphasized well-developed narratives as well as visual daring.
From a variety of female perspectives, films explore both personal themes of family bonds, love and loss, to broader ideas on our relationship with nature, the environment, and the cosmos.
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.