Mother Tongue: Australian Women in Animation

Although animation generally receives much less attention than what we broadly term “live-action” cinema, the century-long history of Australian animation has seen women make an indelible impact.

In the years before animation courses and degrees were available domestically, many of these artists came to animation through more indirect pathways. Australia’s first woman animator, Anne Jolliffe (1933–2021), began her career working at the CSIRO Film Unit before moving to the UK, working on films such as Yellow Submarine (1968) and on Oscar-winning films with British animator Bob Godfrey. She then returned to Australia to set up her own studio, Jollification. Others came to animation from other areas of filmmaking; Lee Whitmore began her career as a graphic artist and production designer, before receiving support from the Women’s Film Fund to make Ned Wethered in 1983.

As Australia’s animation industry grew and courses and degrees became more commonplace, opportunities have emerged with increasing numbers of women seeing their films screened internationally and awarded at festivals. The films selected for this program span a 30-year period from the 1980s to the mid-2010s and present a snapshot of a range of different styles and approaches including 2D cel animation, sand and salt, charcoal and pastel, and mixed media approaches. They also deal with a range of themes and subject matter, from memory and family, grief, loss and anger to music and poetry.

This program, co-curated by RMIT University lecturer Dr Ruth Richards, highlights the work of key figures in the field like Whitmore, Jolliffe, Antoinette Starkiewicz, Marieka Walsh, Sarah Watt and Sabrina Schmid.