Femme Grotesquerie: Experimental Animated Cinema Explores Unruly Expressions of Femininity
Los Angeles Filmforum presents Femme Grotesquerie, a curated program of contemporary experimental animation that challenges and expands conventional representations of femininity through bold visual language and material experimentation. The screening takes place Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 7:30 p.m. at 2220 Arts + Archives (2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles), and will feature a post-screening discussion with filmmaker Jenny Nirgends and curator Sam Gurry.
“Desires that curdle. Ambitions that molt. Girlhood morphed into menace, myth, and power.” The program brings together ten short animated works spanning direct animation, stop-motion and digital techniques. Across the selections, artists embrace the grotesque, the excessive and the unruly, depicting worlds “lived, imagined, subverted, or reclaimed.” The films juxtapose humor, discomfort, tenderness and volatility to foreground voices and visions often overlooked in mainstream animation.
Slug Life (Dir. Sophie Koko Gate)
From the glitter-bombed 16mm of Moon Cycle to the animated porcelain puppets of On Weary Wings Go By, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, and the visceral imagery of The Gnawer of Rocks (Mangittatuarjuk), recently screened at the Sundance Film Festival, the works in this program stage feminine aesthetics and narratives “to be wielded, distorted, reclaimed, and reimagined on the animators’ own terms,” said Gurry.
Featured filmmakers include Justine Lai, Alice Bloomfield, Anu-Laura Tuttelberg, Amy Lockhart, Victoria Vincent, Sofia Carillo, Sophie Koko Gate, Jenny Jokela, Louise Flaherty and Jenny Nirgends.
Tickets are $15 general admission, $10 for students and seniors, and free for Filmforum members.
For additional information and advance tickets, visit lafilmforum.org