The 15th StopTrik International Film Festival is here to laugh in the face of disaster. This year’s theme throws a spotlight on humor – not the soft, feel-good kind, but the sharp, messy, sometimes brutal laughter that kicks back when the world feels unlivable. Wars drag on, politics rot, the planet burns, so why not use clay, puppets, and every other kind of stop motion trickery to flip it all upside down? Our research for this year’s programme revealed that stop-motion thrives where absurdity reigns. Programmers and curators tried their best to offer some cheerful tones, but the artists and medium made it clear – arthouse animation is not some Disney fluff. If it’s humor – it’s with teeth.

The festival welcomes you to the thematic programme that celebrates laughter that is wild, collective, and subversive, or – carnivalesque, in the Bakhtinian sense. Carnival’s liberating potential tears down hierarchies, pokes fun at authorities, finds pleasure in laughing through tears. We’ll start gently by presenting at the opening Stepan Koval’s Tram No. 9 Goes, a Ukrainian masterpiece of clay animation and a brilliant example of socio-cultural mockery.

The retrospective programme Satire, Blasphemy, Carnival traverses through hilariously gloomy, bitter satires on the world’s malfunctions and gruesome, blasphemous “midnight movies” thrills, to feminist carnivalesque works. This year’s curation was an experimental endeavour. Duets were invited to engage in a dialogue (negotiation?) and to reveal in this process the many faces of animated comedy.

In the Opening Night programme, the selection What A Wonderful World is curated by Chris Robinson (OIAF, Canada) and Anastasiya Verlinska(LINOLEUM, Ukraine), who push hard the limits of the surreal and the pitifulness of pathos, as if they were rendering the well-known aphorism of uncertain authorship: “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you”. Unexpected juxtapositions of the films (made, for example, by Maciek Szczerbowski, Chris Lavis, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Becky & Joe) make you laugh in a very disturbing way, in the words of the curators: Not just an exhausted laugh teetering on the edge of tears, but a cynical, borderline bitter laugh – one that mocks, scorns, and shreds the hypocrisy, stupidity, and absurdity of the surrounding menace.

Piotr Kardas (O!PLA, Poland) and Maciej Misztal (Lublin Film Festival, Poland) go into hardcore mode. Inspired by The Muppet Show’s Statler and Waldorf, they welcome you to stay at the screening titled That's Somethin’.. Two Middle-Aged Guys Standing On The Balcony and Reflecting on Existence.

Along with the masterpieces of raw animation (Phil Mulloy’s Cowboys: That’s Nothin’ or Piotr Dumała’s Little Black Riding Hood), we’ll also entertain the idea of trash animation (e.g., Tor Fruergaard’s ZombieWestern). Before you run away from the screening, consider the curators’ statement: Our programme is an expression of self-reflection. We’re two middle-aged guys from a generation that was the first to seriously work toward changing the traditional model of masculinity, and we both like to think of ourselves as having contributed something to that change. If not, let’s take this screening as self-parody

Humor and Feminism

Eventually, in the programme that mixes stop motion with other animation techniques, Kate Jessop (Brighton IAF, UK) and Olga Bobrowska (StopTrik IFF Festival Director) asked themselves Can Feminism Be Funny?, and decided that: “yes – but…” one needs to embrace disruptions, self- and social criticism, and never miss an opportunity to spit on patriarchy. The films presented use humor to approach, artistically, the themes of harassment and the exploration of one's autonomous self within the continuum of sexual pleasure and desire. We also highlight the grand trio of women animators – Michaela Pavlátová, Joanna Quinn, and Signe Baumane – who were among the first to depict sexuality in animation as a deeply creative, immensely pleasurable, and joyful act of self-expression, regardless of gender identity. Kate Jessop is coming to Maribor with another programme Life’s a Carnival, showcasing her choice of humorous animation from the BIAF Festival, presented to the invited audience of high school students.

Tram by Michaela Pavlatova

At the Imagining the Author in-depth Q&A and JOKO Exhibition, we will take a closer look at the works of Izabela Plucińska, a worthy heiress of Roland Topor’s obsessions and black humor. We take pride in the fact that Izabela Plucińska is also a mentor for the stop-motion animation phase within Workshot 2.0. This workshop of critical literacy (mentored by Urška Breznik, Kaja Fiedler, Slovenia), script writing (Pedro Rivero, Spain), and stop motion animation offers a unique, creative experience for the students of 8 art schools from across Europe (Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Portugal, Spain).

Joko by Izabela Plucinska

Animation as a medium has never been politically neutral, but has always participated in the creation of discourses, both propagandistic and rebellious. The panel Laughter Strikes Back: Subversive Humor in Turbulent Times invites the filmmakers, curators, and visual artists to examine how satire, parody, and irony function in democracies under strain, war-torn societies, and censored states – revealing humor’s dual role as a critique of power and a covert resistance tactic. But don’t worry – we also promise you some fun, just don’t miss Animated Battle: Masters and Jesters, during which Petrit Gora (Anibar/REX, Kosovo/Sweden) and Sébastien Sperer (Goeblins, France) will clash in an electrifying exchange of the most bizarre short films, experimental works, and all kinds of audiovisual extravaganza.

Humor and the Contemporary

StopTrik IFF finds its integrity in supporting the oppressed, providing spaces for the visibility of voices and creations that are silenced by the imperialist and colonizing powers. The festival supports the initiative Palestine Animated, presenting the programme of Palestinian animation specially curated by Samira Badran, Mats Grorud, and Angeles Cabria.

At the festival’s venues, screens, and ephemeral materials, you will find guidelines on how to financially support animators who currently remain in Gaza and the West Bank. Each festival’s screening will commence with a short video made by the supporters of the AniJam “To Gaza With Love” action that was called in the summer of 2025 by AC4Pal (Animation Community for Palestine) – hundreds ofartists all around the world animated their protest against genocide and letters of support and solidarity with the people of Gaza, who are trapped and starving under the brutal Israeli occupation.

StopTrik International Film Festival takes place from 24 to 28 September 2025 in Maribor, Slovenia.

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