All Eyes on Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation

by Megan Kirby

How can you pin down experimental animation?

It runs the gamut from claymation, stop-motion, computer graphics, hand-drawn images, and beyond—plus, it’s always evolving. For the last 15 years, the Eyeworks Festival of Experimental Animation has highlighted the diverse and evolving art form. The brainchild of alums Lilli Carré (BFA 2006) and Alexander Stewart (MFA 2005), the fest isn’t about definitions. It’s about celebration.

“We’re not trying to define anything, but really to shine a light on it,” said Carré.

Since its humble Chicago beginnings in 2010, the Eyeworks Festival has grown to include annual showings in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Working closely together, Carré and Stewart curate two 70-minute programs that mix new films and historical work.

Since the beginning, Eyeworks has attracted a cult following of animation fans who attend year after year. It’s a testament to the wide range of films the fest has showcased—and it’s also evidence of Carré and Stewart’s enduring creative partnership that began at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).

The two met in the mid-aughts, when Carré was an interdisciplinary undergrad and Stewart was a grad student in the Art and Technology department, gravitating toward film. Carré was already enmeshed in Chicago’s thriving alternative comics scene. Experimental animation seemed to combine all of their interests. “Animation felt like a place to mix our interests in experimental film, unusual narratives, unexpected processes, and possibilities of graphic forms together,” said Stewart. “The interdisciplinary nature of SAIC really shaped Eyeworks too—rigor, experimentation, and integrity, and a real focus on history and community-building that Chicago really excels at.”

A residency at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) animation summer program in 2010 directly inspired the launch of Eyeworks. Every day of their visit, they watched animations in the school’s small Bijou theater. “There’s something about sharing the experience with a group in a theater, and seeing some of these gems that just largely aren’t seen or known about,” said Carré. “It felt really nice to experience watching artist-made animation in that cinematic space.” When they came home to Chicago, they visited Chicago Filmmakers to delve into the experimental animation 16mm prints in their catalog and put together a program, and Eyeworks was born.

After screening at several Chicago locations over the years, Eyeworks has currently settled at Northwestern University’s Block Cinema. “It’s not too big, it’s not too small, not too stuffy, not too scrappy,” said Stewart. “It’s just the right fit for Eyeworks. And we love that admission is always free at the Block.”

Carré and Stewart think of each festival like an anthology. Because there are no submissions or competition aspects, the shorts are a mix of old and new. Sometimes, they might sit on a short film for years until they find the right program. They’re also thoughtful about the ephemera, hiring a new poster artist each year and printing programs that fans can take home as keepsakes, working with the Chicago print and design duo Sonnenzimmer for many years of the festival.

In a full-circle moment, Carré and Stewart both currently teach in CalArt’s Experimental Animation program. Both artists have had successful careers outside of the festival: Stewart’s short films have screened places like International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and Image Forum in Japan. Carré’s interdisciplinary work in animation, comics, ceramics, and textiles earned her a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship.

"The interdisciplinary nature of SAIC really shaped Eyeworks too—rigor, experimentation, and integrity, and a real focus on history and community-building that Chicago really excels at."

Eyeworks always centers on Carré and Stewart’s creative partnership. While the fest has evolved, they want to retain the feeling that inspired them in the first place. “There’s growth, but there’s also a built-in ceiling to how we want to expand,” said Carré. “There’s a DIY sensibility to how we approach the series and the scale of it.”

“I think longevity is important—to build up a conversation with people and the films we are interested in,” said Stewart. “That’s the real pleasure of doing this for a longer time—it’s another year of checking in. Can we put something together that reminds us of what experimental animation can be? Every year we look forward to the feeling of sitting in the theater, watching the program we’ve been working on for the first time, and getting that feeling of ‘Yes! This is it!’” ■