Love, Sex and Stop-Motion: Sandrine Lambert’s Paper Porn Comes to NewCinema/Animated+

Belgian filmmaker and illustrator Sandrine Lambert takes an unexpectedly playful approach to sex, ageing and companionship in Paper Porn, a new two-minute animated short coming to Whush as part of the NewCinema/Animated+ showcase.

Made in 2026, the dialogue-free film follows Marianne, a 56-year-old woman who isn't particularly unhappy with her life — but isn't exactly happy either. One evening, she finds the courage to visit a café alone. There she meets a man, and an ordinary night develops into something more intimate.

Lambert describes Paper Porn simply as “an erotic animation about two people who are no longer young.”

Using drawings, stop-motion animation and her own piano music, Lambert approaches the subject through a deliberately simple and naïve visual style. Rather than presenting sexuality through idealised bodies or conventional erotic imagery, the filmmaker turns her attention towards ordinary people and the possibility of finding intimacy later in life.

Erotica About Ordinary People

The starting point for Paper Porn came from Lambert's feeling that everyday people are often absent from representations of eroticism.

“I feel there isn't enough erotica featuring ordinary people,” she says.

The film also presented her with a creative challenge. Lambert's illustration and animation have a consciously simple, almost childlike quality, and she wanted to see what would happen when that visual language was applied to a considerably more adult subject.

The contrast is central to the character of Paper Porn. Its title may suggest something deliberately provocative, but the story itself is straightforward and human: a middle-aged woman goes out alone, meets someone and discovers that life can occasionally be easier and more spontaneous than expected.

For Lambert, the intention isn't to make the subject more complicated than it needs to be. Her director's statement puts storytelling ahead of technique, with drawing, animation, narration and music treated simply as tools available to tell the story.

“The most important thing is the story I want to tell,” she explains. “For that, I use everything that lies within my area of experience: drawing, storytelling, and piano.”

Finding a Personal Approach to Animation

Born in 1974, Lambert has worked for years as an author and illustrator. Her move towards stop-motion animation grew out of a search for the most appropriate way to bring her stories to life.

Rather than relying exclusively on established animation methods, she has been developing her own approach, favouring analogue processes and simple means wherever possible.

That handmade philosophy is particularly evident in Paper Porn. The short does not depend on dialogue or text, instead communicating through drawings, movement, music and the progression of Marianne's encounter.

Lambert's preference for simplicity is not about reducing the importance of technique, but about keeping technique in service of the story. She describes her aim as finding a distinctive form of storytelling capable of connecting directly with an audience.

Sex, Ageing and Animation

Sex and eroticism are hardly unusual subjects for cinema, but Paper Porn approaches them from a perspective less frequently given centre stage.

Marianne is 56. She is not presented as an exaggerated character or an exception to a rule. Her desire for companionship and intimacy is simply part of her life.

That makes the choice of animation particularly interesting. Lambert can address a recognisably adult experience while filtering it through an intentionally naïve visual language. The apparent innocence of the drawings and the more daring nature of the subject exist alongside one another rather than cancelling each other out.

It also allows Paper Porn to challenge some familiar assumptions about what erotic imagery is supposed to look like and who is expected to appear within it.

For Lambert, however, the ambition for the finished film remains modest. Asked what she hopes audiences take away from the short, she gives a characteristically concise answer:

“I hope this short film can surprise people.”

A New Film Beginning Its Journey

Unlike many films arriving on NewCinema after an established festival run, Paper Porn is brand new.

Lambert has only recently completed the film and is currently awaiting responses from festival submissions. Its appearance on NewCinema/Animated+ therefore comes at the beginning of the film's life rather than after an extensive series of screenings and awards.

Whush audiences worldwide will now be among those able to encounter the finished work.

At only two minutes, Paper Porn is deliberately concise, but its combination of analogue animation, simple drawings, original piano music and an unconventional approach to erotica gives it a distinctive identity.

More importantly, Lambert takes a subject that cinema frequently associates with youth, glamour and idealised bodies and places an ordinary 56-year-old woman at its centre.

The result is a small, playful film about taking a chance, meeting someone and discovering that sex, romance and desire don't come with an expiry date.

Paper Porn (Belgium, 2026), directed by Sandrine Lambert, runs 2 minutes and will stream worldwide on Whush as part of the NewCinema/Animated+ showcase.

https://www.whush.com/newcinema-animated