Baggage
2025 · 5m
Directed by Lucy Davidson
Genres: animation, comedy, drama
Tones: humorous, melancholic, tender, whimsical
Three female friends who are literally suitcases check in for a flight. One receives a 'HEAVY' sticker and grows anxious as they approach the X-ray scanner, knowing it will expose what's hidden inside her — her private insecurities, emotional wounds, and bottled-up feelings including grief and social anxiety. The physical mechanics of airport security become an exact metaphor for emotional vulnerability and the fear of being truly seen.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Stop-motion suitcase-women navigating airport X-ray as emotional vulnerability metaphor — five and a half minutes of a tidy literalization. Cute, fine, and exactly as much as it sounds like.
Stop-motion suitcase-people at airport security as a metaphor for emotional exposure is the In a Heartbeat-Negative Space tradition of single-image conceptual animation, dialogue-free in black-and-white. The conceit is tidy almost to a fault, but the craft is sound.
Five minutes twenty-three of B&W dialogue-free stop-motion where literal suitcase-women navigating airport X-ray becomes the metaphor for emotional vulnerability — that's a tight conceit-to-runtime ratio, and the format choice (no dialogue, no color) keeps it from getting cute. Memoir of a Snail is a real reference, not just a comp.
Reviews
Funny, sharply observed and crafted with real attention to detail, every scene of the five-minute short feels considered — from the expressive puppets to the cleverly imagined world they inhabit.
At its core, Baggage is really a story about female friendship. The final scene captures this beautifully — an unspoken moment of solidarity as the friends roll through the world together, each carrying her own load, and sometimes a bit of each other's too.
An extraordinary examination of unresolved trauma and empathy among female friends.
In the sub-five-minute runtime, Davidson is able to reflect on female friendships, lingering grief, and how we live with the parts of ourselves.
Baggage is a visually distinctive and delightful film. It uses animation effectively to tell an engaging and meaningful story that anyone can relate to.
Festivals
- SXSW Film Festival 2025
- Sydney Film Festival 2025, Dendy Award Finalist
- Flickerfest 2025, Best Animation
- Peninsula Film Festival 2025, Best Animated Short
- St Kilda Film Festival 2025
- Animation Dingle 2025
- London International Animation Festival 2024