We join forces once more with Kaboom for a program filled with queer animation!
Queer Film Festival Utrecht and Kaboom are back at it again, turning up the volume on queer animation. Get ready to experience a full range of emotions as we showcase a new collection of animated shorts that contemplate what it means to be queer, to represent, and to simply exist.
Hey dad — WeiFan Wang (Taiwan/United Kingdom, 6 mins.)
How do you come out to your father? The protagonist has been practising for twenty years now, but maybe being candid isn’t the best idea. He decides to stop, resets the countdown—beginning another twenty-year cycle. Maybe by then it will be the right time. A moving student film that understands the difficulty of showing your true self to those around you.
Dragfox — Lisa Ott (United Kingdom, 8 mins.)
A singing drag-dressing fox voiced by Sir Ian McKellen and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Divina De Campo? Oh, how we love animation! In Dragfox, Sam’s search for identity gets interrupted by a mysterious neighbourhood fox. Together, they embark on a magical journey to discover the surprising things they might have in common and how to celebrate the ways in which they differ. A joyful and musical stop-motion expression of identity.
Carrotica — Daniel Sterling-Altman (Germany, 13 mins.)
16-year-old Nadav is writing an explicit gay erotica in secret in his bedroom. Meanwhile, his mother Shari, a middle-aged single woman, is busy working and falling in love with a sexy carrot. Winner of the Cristal for a Graduation Film at the 2024 Annecy Festival, Carrotica is a horny, queer tale about the longing for intimacy.
Dear Dating Diary — Floor van der Doelen (The Netherlands, 2 mins.)
Who doesn’t like a mystery? A sweet student film that takes the form of a poem about dating where love is a riddle to solve.
Airborne — Nigel Lievaart (The Netherlands/Belgium, 10 mins.)
Jason has been secretly in love with his best friend Niels for ten years. He knows it will never work out, but Jason still can’t give up on his dream. However, it is time for Jason to let go of his unrequited feelings when Niels wants to confess something to him.
Luz Diabla — Gerva Canda / Paula Boffo / Patricio Plaza (France, 11 mins.)
Martín, a flamboyant urban raver, is involved in an accident on his way to a party in the middle of the Argentine Pampas. Finding refuge in a mysterious country grocery store, sheltered by two strange locals, Martín’s paranoia begins to take over. As the hours progress, his perception begins to distort, unleashing disturbing visions that force him to confront the supernatural forces hiding in the night. A neon-coloured, stylised fever dream/nightmare.
Gardening — Sarah Beeby (United Kingdom, 14 mins.)
A cinematic journey ten years in the making, Gardening grew into a tale about director Sarah Beeby’s personal quest for healing following an experience of sexual assault. In this surreal, fantastical animation, a woman who has been sexually assaulted retreats into the garden of her mind. Searching for answers and struggling to do ‘the right thing’, she realises that she must regain her voice and find new paths to healing, before she and her garden are destroyed completely.
Two Black Boys in Paradise — Baz Sells (United Kingdom, 9 mins.)
Two Black boys embark on a journey of self-acceptance. Their love for each other and their refusal to hide it lands them in a paradise free of shame and judgement. Based on Dean Atta’s poem, Baz Sells’ stop-motion short is a reflection on human love, acceptance, and how racism and homophobia doesn’t belong in paradise.
