AWARDED FILMS TRICKY WOMEN TRICKY REALITIES 2026
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
Maria Lassnig Golden Film Reel
worth 10,000 €, sponsored by the Maria Lassnig Foundation
WATER GIRL (FR/NL/PT 2025) by Sandra Desmazières
Water Girl
© Sandra Desmazières
This film is a visually stunning and intricate portrait of a woman's life. A multi-layered narrative gently pulls us through the stages of her life, from youth to old age, as memories of love and the sea intertwine. In this world, nature and a strong community of women become not only sources of consolation, but also of resilience. — Marta Pajek, Lea Vidaković & Vina Yun (International Competition Jury)
Tricky Women Tricky Realities Award
worth 4,000 €, sponsored by VdFS (Collecting Society of Audiovisual Authors)
WINTER IN MARCH (AM/BE/EE/FR 2025) by Natalia Mirzoyan
A psychologically nuanced and authentic story of a journey that becomes a study of helplessness, guilt, and fear. Using thread and textile, this animated documentary creates a world that gradually falls apart alongside its spiritually broken characters. This anti-war film reveals the enduring consequences of authoritarian politics. — Marta Pajek, Lea Vidaković & Vina Yun (International Competition Jury)
MQ Artist-in-Residence Award
2,600 € stipend to live and work at MQ under the Artist-in-Residence program,
sponsored by MQ
MOTHER’S CHILD (NL 2024) by Naomi Noir
Mother's Child
© Naomi Noir
Care work is largely feminized labor — though essential to society, it remains undervalued and largely invisible. Through distinctive, unsettling imagery and absurd dialogue, the film highlights the urgency of the issue and exposes the structural violence of bureaucratic hurdles. In doing so, the film reveals how inadequate care systems devalue women’s labor and place those who rely on care at risk of harm and discrimination. — Marta Pajek, Lea Vidaković & Vina Yun (International Competition Jury)
The Grand Post Award
a post production voucher, worth 2,000 €, sponsored by The Grand Post – Audio & Picture Post Production
MIS-ANGEL (UK 2025) by Wyatt Carson
A raw yet tender portrait of a fleeting relationship that explores questions of love and identity. Using an expressive, seemingly naïve visual style, the film reflects on how we can learn to love ourselves when the most personal aspects of life become politically and socially contested. — Marta Pajek, Lea Vidaković & Vina Yun (International Competition Jury)
Jury Special Mention / International Competition
DOG ALONE (PT 2025) by Marta Reis Andrade
Brilliant design reflects the overlap of the inner and outer worlds in this atmospheric tale of solitude and reconnection. The paths of a woman and a stray dog begin to mirror one another, their shared solitude unfolding into a yearning sense of companionship. The film explores unexpected ways closeness can take shape. — Marta Pajek, Lea Vidaković & Vina Yun (International Competition Jury)
Sabine & Nicolai Sawczynski Audience Award
in International Competition worth 1,000 €
PARADAÏZ (CA 2025) by Matea Radic
Paradaïz
© Matea Radic
UP & COMING COMPETITION
Up and Coming Tricky Women Tricky Realities Award
worth 1,000 €, sponsored by Sabine & Nicolai Sawczynski
BALCONADA (BG/FR 2025) by Iva Tokmakchieva
This film choreographs time, space, and characters within its setting to tell the story. The striking colours and design are captivating. — Ani Antonova, Mary Martins & Jayne Pilling (Up & Coming Competition Jury)
Jury Special Mention / Up & Coming
PEBBLE TO PEBBLE (FR 2025) by Charlotte Annereau
The special mention goes to Charlotte Annereau for PEBBLE TO PEBBLE, for an original and intriguing idea that conveys the drama with humour, emotion, and continuously surprises us. — Ani Antonova, Mary Martins & Jayne Pilling (Up & Coming Competition Jury)
Up and Coming Audience Award
LIQUOR (DE 2025) by Yi-Chen Huang
AUSTRIAN PANORAMA
Austrian Panorama Award
worth 1,000 €, sponsored by VAM
MEETING POINT WALL – WE HAVE NOTHING TO SAY TO EACH OTHER (AT 2025) by Regine Kafeder
Tricky women navigate virtual realities at Regine Kafeder’s MEETING POINT WALL - WE HAVE NOTHING TO SAY TO EACH OTHER. The very Viennese film harnesses animations’ expressive potential to reveal a kaleidoscopic, over-saturated, and over-stimulated zeitgeist reverberating across generations. Figures appear weighed down by forms of domination that are not always visible or tangible, which Kafeder’s animation playfully renders perceptible without the familiar doom and gloom. The film captures a tricky world mediated by images. Without shaming women, it critiques technocratic interventions in our relationships with ourselves and each other. MEETING POINT WALL is hectic, filled with diverse expressions of identity without claiming the characters' subjectivity. Accelerating rhythm and layered superimposition evoke the algorithm's gamified, gravitational pull into the absurd. The title suggests we have nothing to say to each other, but Kafeder has a lot to say to us. — Amanda Barbour, Mara Chavez & Madi Piller (Austrian Panorama Jury)
Austrian Panorama Jury Special Mention
YARN OVER (AT/UK 2024) by Veronika Wielach
We would like to award a special mention to Veronika Wielach’s YARN OVER. Here, the medium is the message. Textiles tell a tender story about a lonely, elderly man joining a local knitting group. In equal parts elegant and affective, the journey from isolation to community reveals how feminist care and solidarity benefits everyone. — Amanda Barbour, Mara Chavez & Madi Piller (Austrian Panorama Jury)
Austrian Panorama Audience Award
CHALLENGES OF A SOLITARY MIND (AT 2025) by Astrid Rothaug
Hubert-Sielecki-Award
for an Austrian Animation worth 500 €
MEETING POINT WALL – WE HAVE NOTHING TO SAY TO EACH OTHER (AT 2025) by Regine Kafeder
On a gray wall, figures move like those we know from hieroglyphs on ancient walls—only colorful, with cell phones, in vibrant hues, appearing to me as a dance with hip swings and joyful collective activity! Known and unknown artists perform in a fascinating sequence of controlled movements set to powerful music. — Hubert Sielecki
VIRTUAL REALITY COMPETITION
Lumine Award for Best VR Work
worth 500 €, sponsored by Lumine Projections
THE WORLD CAME FLOODING IN (AU 2025) by Isobel Knowles und Van Sowerwine
This experience oscillates between abstraction and a concrete confrontation with loss. Personal objects such as furniture, photos, LPs, etc are transformed, through photogrammetry—which can only ever create an incomplete representation of reality—into symbols of the memories that are all that remain of the former home. In this way, the team of Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine uses virtual reality in a compelling manner to make the lost objects visible. Both the aesthetics and the narration make people’s experiences of loss tangible in an emphatic way. The story remains very close to the actual stories of the people and is poignant without dramatizing. Alongside moving stories, there are contemplative moments in which viewers can go on their own search for clues. In this way, the narrative leaves room for personal reflection, bridging the gap between the personal level and global contexts. — Gerda Leopold, Sonja Prlić & Janine Scheer-Erb (Virtual Reality Competition Jury)