Women in the animation industry in Spain: the oeuvre of female filmmakers of feature films

Abstract

In the Spanish film industry, only three women have directed animated feature films. Their work, concentrated in the last three decades, represents seven percent of the total production in over one hundred years of the medium’s history. This article analyzes the oeuvre of Maite Ruiz de Austri —a pioneer in the area—, Virginia Curiá, and Agurtzane Intxaurraga, in order to identify the points of convergence in the eight feature films which constitute the corpus. Firstly, there is a tendency towards a young audience, with a clear educational aspect. Likewise, it has been possible to observe the emergence of common characteristics around topics such as maternity, professional life, co-responsibility or the condition of women. This article aims to make the work of Spanish female filmmakers visible and to explore the influence of gender on content.

Keywords

• animation
• gender
• spain
• feature film
• female filmmakers