Ovary-Acting

A thirty-something woman feels the pressure from everyone around her at her sister’s baby shower to have children of her own, so much so that her ovaries start talking to her to try and convince her.

 

Eva (Karlsen) is thirty-four. She’s fast approaching that life destroying cliff-dive of an age where women are told that their bodies suddenly change for the worse, and that fertility becomes a major issue until the long slow feminine death of menopause. All sorts of things are supposed to go wrong with having babies after a woman hits thirty-five, and Eva is fast running out of time, as she is constantly reminded by everyone around her who ‘cares for her’ and ‘has her best interests at heart’.

 

Granny is the most insistent member of the group to try and push Eva into motherhood, but everybody else is at it, too, with friends and family putting on their rose-tinted spectacles and throwing out platitudes that regale the simple positive pleasures of raising a baby. Eva is having none of it though, and tries to impress upon everyone that she still has time, and that she can make up her own mind about these things whenever she feels like it. This is not entirely true though and Eva’s fuzzy guts start trying to tell her otherwise as she bats away the onslaught of indoctrinated motherhood.

 

After a swift trip to the toilet (in the mother and baby changing area), Eva unexpectedly looks into the mirror to find herself pregnant with worry. This miraculous conception lasts a matter of moments before Eva is lying on the floor giving birth to her reproductive system. Her ovaries (and technically uterus, too) burst forth and land on the baby change mat, introducing herself as Ovy (Oxenham), the talking, floating version of Eva’s inner voice. Together, Eva and Ovy navigate the choices laid out in front of them as they discuss and argue over the idea of bringing a baby into the world.

 

Told in a cutesy animation style, with cloth puppets and their animated mouths and eyebrows, Ovary-Acting tackles some big issues with a gentle but firm direction and narrative. The characters are perfectly represented for the tale they are trying to tell, as nothing seems overly serious or terrifying in the fact that part of Eva’s insides have suddenly emerged from her body and started talking to her. The animation also allows for some surreal narrative moments which could not have been achieved through live action, or which could have appeared gross-out or just plain weird in a CGI context.

 

Around half-way through the twelve-minute runtime, Eva and Ovy break into a big song and dance number, which is very reminiscent and akin to those cemented in nearly every episode of the Netflix comedy, Big Mouth. This tongue-in-cheek attitude towards female reproduction is a soothing balm for those who may feel the pressure of the ticking biological clock along with Eva, and for everyone else it’s light-hearted and entertaining without seeming too flippant. Writer, Laura Jayne Tunbridge, obviously has to hit some pretty standard markers in the dialogue, of which some phrases and snippets can sound fairly tired and well-worn, with most comediennes, chat show hosts, and members of Loose Women having covered this ground many times before. However, she manages to blend this in with some fairly personal feeling dialogue and a light, modern touch, to keep things fresh, relevant and funny.

 

Ovary-Acting is a unique take on an age-old dilemma, which really comes into its own in terms of its style and storytelling. There is a lot to admire and enjoy about Eva’s journey into finding herself, and the fuzzy animation, led by Ida Melum’s direction, really adds to the feeling the viewer gets when watching her wrestle with her own emotions and self-justifications. There’s even a nice little fuzzy ballsack hanging about who just wants to say Hello. Ovary-Acting is a beautiful piece of storytelling which achieves the perfect balance in how it gets its message across, finding a way to not take itself too seriously while making points which everybody should consider, especially when they should keep their mouth shut and their noses out of somebody else’s business.

BAFTA® 2026 Longlisted Animated Short.