Curating Feminist Animation: 25 Years of Tricky Women Tricky Realities and the Transnational Politics of Visibility, Canon Formation and Circulation - Martina Tritthart

PANEL 3: CURATING ANIMATION Srijeda, 10. lipnja, 11:20-11:50

Curating Feminist Animation: 25 Years of Tricky Women Tricky Realities and the Transnational Politics of Visibility, Canon Formation and Circulation
Martina Tritthart (Institute for Cultural Analysis, University of Klagenfurt)

Film festivals can be understood as symbolic gateways to global cultural and social realities. Rather than merely exhibiting films, they actively frame debates, guide public attention, and participate in the construction of the public sphere. Crucially, they also function as transnational nodes that enable the circulation of films, aesthetics and discourses across borders, thereby shaping how cinema is historically understood and canonized (de Valck 2016, 9). This talk asks: How do feminist animation festivals function as transnational sites of canon formation, and how do their curatorial practices reshape regimes of visibility in global animation culture? It argues that the animation canon is not a neutral or purely historical construct, but one shaped by curatorial power, and that feminist festival practices can intervene in and reconfigure its underlying hierarchies in a transnational field. As sites of selection, framing, and circulation, festivals influence which works travel, which remain marginal, and how they are positioned within global aesthetic and political discourses. Their programming is shaped by institutional frameworks, curatorial strategies, and dispositifs that directly impact international visibility and cultural value (de Valck 2016; Krainhöfer and Kurz 2022, 74). In animation, festival practices increasingly extend beyond the cinema space to include exhibitions, installations and immersive formats such as VR and AR. These expanded forms not only challenge conventional viewing conditions, but also facilitate new modes of transnational exchange by connecting audiences, artists and institutions across diTerent spatial and cultural contexts. In this framework, Tricky Women Tricky Realities (founded in 2001) serves as a key case study. Dedicated to animated films by women and genderqueer creators, the festival has developed into an internationally networked platform that combines competitions, thematic programs and discursive formats with workshops and educational initiatives (Cicero 2011, 178). Its curatorial model fosters not only visibility but also sustained exchange between local and global animation communities. The festival’s practice constitutes a targeted intervention into historically gendered and geographically uneven regimes of visibility. While early cinema opened new spaces of participation for women, film culture has also been shaped by gendered structures of representation and spectatorship. Tricky Women Tricky Realities addresses these dynamics by foregrounding works that challenge dominant visual regimes and by amplifying voices often marginalized within global circulation networks. Beyond representation, the festival participates in processes of transnational canon formation. Through selective programming, thematic framing, and long-term discursive engagement, it repositions underrepresented works within broader global narratives of animation. Its retrospectives, collaborations, and recurring formats contribute to the circulation and consolidation of feminist animation practices across borders. The talk thus demonstrates how curating animation operates as a transnational epistemic intervention, showing that festivals are not neutral platforms, but active agents in shaping global visibility, circulation and the animation canon.

Martina Tritthart, PhD, studied architecture at Graz University of Technology and is a researcher specialising in spatial perception, light and media-enhanced architectures. She currently teaches and conducts research at the intersection of visual culture and artistic practice. She is the programme director of the Master's programme in Visual Culture and a postdoctoral research assistant at the Institute for Cultural Analysis at the University of Klagenfurt. She has previously taught and conducted research at Graz University of Technology, the University of Art and Design Linz, and FH Joanneum, among others. Her work as a visual artist and curator, particularly in film and media art, as well as her long-standing engagement with concepts of space, informs her perspective.