My Love Affair with Marriage

My Love Affair with Marriage is a 2022 semi-autobiographical adult animated musical comedy-drama film animated, written and directed by Signe Baumane, her second feature following Rocks in My Pockets (2014). The story follows a young woman, Zelma, on her 23-year quest for perfect love and lasting marriage, set against a backdrop of historic events in Eastern Europe. Pressured by Mythology Sirens to be the ideal woman and is unable to free herself from the biology of her own brain, Zelma finds love and loses it multiple times before discovering who she really is. Told from a female point of view, this is a coming-of-age story of love, gender, marriage, abuse, hopes, fantasies, and ultimately, finding a better place for women in society.

An international co-production of companies in Latvia, the United States and Luxembourg, the film took seven years to complete. Kristian Sensini of Italy composed 24 songs and wrote the score. Yajun Shi of China animated the Biology sections. Dagmara Dominczyk voices Zelma, with executive producer Matthew Modineas being one of Zelma's husbands.

My Love Affair with Marriage had its world premiere at Tribeca Festival on June 11, 2022 and went on to screen at many other international festivals. It won a Jury Distinction for a Feature Film award at Annecy International Animation Film Festival, an Excellence in Narrative Directing award at Woodstock Film Festival, Best Feature Film awards at both Viborg Animation Festival and Fredrikstad Animation Festival and was nominated for a European Film Academy Award, the first Latvian film to do so. Huffington Post named it as "one of the best movies of 2022."