‘In Brussels, animation and the queer community have been linked since the beginning’: Dominique Seutin, co-director of Anima

Anima, the Brussels International Animation Festival (20 February–1 March), celebrates its 45th edition this year at its home base at Flagey, one of the Belgian capital’s most important cultural venues. The event is an Oscars- and BAFTA-qualifying film festival also known for celebrating queer animation as part of its programme through highlighted film blocks, evenings, and talks. In 2026, the festival hosts a unique Queer Reading event in addition to two sessions of its annual Queer Stories block, with the first featuring performances by artists from Brussels’ own Cabaret Mademoiselle. 

After the first weekend of Anima, Purple Hour had the chance to speak with Dominique Seutin, who is the co-director, the artistic director, and a programmer for Anima Brussels. In our discussion, we examine how queer narratives fit into the festival’s landscape and Brussels’ own connection between animation and the queer community.

Purple Hour: From my understanding, the Queer Stories block is a very popular annual occurrence.

Dominique Seutin: It’s occurred for five years now.

This year, the block includes eight short films. How did it come about, and how has it evolved over time?

We have nearly 2000 films to select from. We have more and more LGBT films in the selection—themes of genre and about identity, and we want to celebrate them. We put some of these films in competition, in the student films section, and even in the sections for children. There are really a lot of these films. We wanted to make a celebration with live performances, with people onscreen and onstage to celebrate the LGBT community.

As you said, these stories are not confined to this block. From a curation standpoint, do you begin by selecting individual films, or do you look at the programme and curate for a particular strand?

We have eight pre-selectors, people that we hired because they are really specialists of animation. We have a database [where every film is referenced], and we use tags—for example, we have a “queer stories” tag. When the pre-selection team is done, we have a selection team [that meets for one week], and we do all the programmes together and select in that moment. With this, we make like 25 different programs of shorts, and then we select the features, too.

Are there any recent trends you’ve seen when it comes to animation?

There are trends, and it’s the same as when you discuss with your friends about topics that you are interested in. The animation community is really connected to the world around. There are some topics that really come up, like ecological themes, feminist themes, and LGBT themes that are also very much in society too. That’s why we want—it’s so important. Of course, it’s also political, because if we decide to [include these themes], it means something.

Cinema fans often grow to love animation because of how expressive it can be. What do you see as the intersection between animation and queer narratives?

I think so, but I don’t know how to explain it. I’ve written some books about that. For example, in Brussels, animation and the queer community have really been very linked since the beginning. There is really a connection between animation, the series of the ‘80s—all the stuff we had on television when we were really young, which is connected to the queer community. There is a book about that which talks about the Brussels queer community, the parties and the meetings were sometimes linked with animation.

There are a lot of young adults at the festival. Do you know what the audiences look like for the Queer Stories programme?

We don’t have statistics about that, but [from what I’ve observed], it’s half big fans of animation, and the rest of the queer Brussels community that never usually comes to the festival, but they want to celebrate queer stories when it’s possible. Studio 4 here at Flagey is a really classic place of established culture, and it’s really nice to have a queer celebration at this kind of place.

How do you account for diversity of story, genre, and style when it comes to this block of films?

Everything is taken into account, like the representation, but also the techniques, the countries—light stories and dark stories. We try to mix everything to make a nice experience for the spectator. I have the opinion that everything is well-balanced between the performances, the discussions with filmmakers, and the films. The three things are really connected, and it’s really important because a mix of the three makes something like a meta-language of queerness. They talk about how to be recognised as a queer person, how to deal with your identity, what you like, what you want, who you are, and everything else.

Is there anything in the next days that you’re looking forward to in this edition of Anima?

We’ve made the Queer Stories block for five years now, and this year, for the first time, we have a special programme of horror films. We don’t know if the people will enjoy it, but it’s a genre that’s in more and more animation, and the programme is really “horrible”!