There is more to sex than the physical act itself. Not for nothing do we tend to use metaphors and similes when describing it, rather than sticking to the facts: sex involves the imagination. Unbound from realism, animation is well placed to visualize the most intimate and wordless sensations in striking, surprising ways. In Desire Pie (1977), Lisa Crafts pictures orgasm as an explosion, followed by a dramatic fade to black. Like most of the films in this collection, this short focuses on women’s experiences of sex, and finds plenty to enjoy besides climax. Here and elsewhere, the successive waves of pleasure preceding la petite mort are represented by psychedelic shapes, sensually swaying across the screen or bursting onto it with excitement.

Not that the filmmakers gathered here are always oblique when depicting explicit acts. On the contrary: many of these animators go where few live-action directors would ever dare. Featuring anthropomorphized insect and animal characters, Phoebe Jane Hart’s Bug Diner (2024) crafts an unapologetically NSFW comedy sure to make anyone—vertebrate or otherwise—blush up to their ears or antennas.

Repurposing a pornographic scenario, the award-winning film playfully acknowledges that most mysterious element of sensuality: the role of fantasy. Full of creative possibilities, animation can give form to lustful flights of fancy. In Michaela Pavlátová’s Tram (2012), a routine train journey turns into a steamy odyssey for its daydreaming female driver. Suzan Pitt pushes things into more abstract but no less racy territory in Asparagus (1979), a surreal journey into a woman’s erotic visions of the suggestively shaped vegetable.

Whether they favor digital techniques or hand-drawn designs, painted cels or stop-motion puppets, the filmmakers in this collection all use animation to circumvent persistent taboos around sex and pleasure. From secret tremors of desire to orgiastic passion, from private self-discovery to arousing connection, these wonderful shorts offer up expansive perspectives on sex, celebrating sensuality as an eye-opening kaleidoscope of experiences and sensations.