Lust, Loneliness, and Legumes: Annecy Winner ‘Carrotica’ Makes Its Digital Debut

In a world where stop-motion often leans into the whimsical or the macabre, Berlin-based filmmaker Daniel Sterlin-Altman has carved out a space that is decidedly more… fertile. After a dominant two-year run on the international festival circuit—headlined by winning the prestigious Cristal for Best Graduation Film at Annecy 2024—Sterlin-Altman’s provocative short Carrotica is officially available to watch online.

Carrotica is a 13-minute dive into the parallel lives of a teenage boy and his single mother, exploring themes of queer desire and emotional survival through a lens of tactile absurdity.

The film follows Nadav, a 16-year-old boy, spends his time in the privacy of his bedroom secretly penning explicit gay erotica, navigating his burgeoning sexuality in a digital age. Shari, his recently single mother and a fertility botanist, finds her professional interest in a particularly “seductive” carrot morphing into an intense, surreal fascination.

Through tango, musical interludes, and vibrant fantasy sequences, the film examines how we cope with loneliness and the strange places we turn to find intimacy.

As Carrotica transitions from the festival hall to the digital screen, it stands as a testament to the power of “weird” animation. It is a film that isn’t afraid to be messy, horny, and vulnerable—proving that sometimes, to find yourself, you have to get lost in the produce aisle.