Inked Dory is getting ready for her next OnlyFans stream. Like any other day, she carries a tray of essentials and places them on the bed. Her vape, beef jerky snacks, a bottle of vodka, and a glass of orange juice as a chaser. As she sits down on the bed, her demeanour is anything but sexy. This is her nine-to-five. As the stream begins, she gets to it, setting the rules on her own terms. Five dollars for a spank, 10 dollars for a “feet tease.”

Being a virtual girlfriend is much more than posting content on OnlyFans. Dory has a psychology degree and says that she is essentially her client’s therapist, “I’m just naked while doing so.” After making her bed the next morning and taking her dog for a walk, she sips her coffee while rating her client’s junk. Virtual Girlfriend provides a grounded depiction of sex work in Czechia, which begins with the boundaries made to differentiate the monotony of reality, such as household chores, from the online alter-ego. Dory hosts a workshop with other creators, Tinix and Rosalinda, and the documentary follows each of their stories through their successes and failures.

Every scene of the documentary is either a reenactment of a notable event in the model’s life or an uncomfortable intrusion on personal scenarios. Without any interviews or narration from the documentary’s subjects, conversations are taken at face value, and inner monologues are inferred by the audience.

Moments of discomfort can often be found in how director Barbora Chalupová captures the models’ partners, positioning their partnership as the antithesis to the sex worker lifestyle. In one scene, where Dory and her partner are barbecuing on their balcony with friends, one friend asks the boyfriend if any of the sex work bothers him. Even after his denial, he is continuously bombarded with questions and different scenarios as if his friends just can’t believe him. The camera then cuts to the boyfriend’s face. He smiles, but there seems to be irritation behind the joy. Whether he is getting progressively uncomfortable with his friend’s questions or trying to hide the fact that he does have some reservations regarding Dory’s sex work is completely up to the audience to decide.

Tinix’s boyfriend is even more problematic, as he is clearly insecure about his partner’s work. When asked about how he feels, he vocalizes that making long-form porn videos is his tolerance limit for her. These exchanges are shocking because the documentary’s subjects are very clearly going through sensitive moments in their lives, and the audience can clearly see them trying not to make eye contact with the camera. The documentary’s unfiltered quality ironically works in light of how much of these models’ lives is already being watched by the public online. What is considered only an alter ego for the model is accepted by the consumer as the complete person.

When Tinix visits a dominatrix to figure out how to best brand herself online, the dominatrix shares that sex work is not going to fix the woman or make her the person she’s aiming to be. For example, gaining validation from strangers online will not fill the void left by a family that has never wished her a “happy birthday.” The virtual girlfriend is an extension of who they are, not a separate piece.

Rosalinda serves as the clearest example of the divide between reality and the online world, as she wears a literal, performative “mask” in the form of a balaclava in all of her content. Her story in the documentary outlines the lead-up to her “face reveal” on OnlyFans, how she has to work with her partner to sort through the pros and cons that may come, and what unleashing that level of vulnerability online means. Rosalinda also deals with a devoted fan named Davi, who regularly pays her through lavish Airbnb rentals and massages. Davi has his own moments of uncomfortable realism when Rosalinda, out of pity for him, asks why he doesn’t go and find a “real” girlfriend. He rebuts that Rosalinda’s affection best accommodates his lifestyle, inviting audiences to consider whether consuming OnlyFans is beneficial for someone like Davi.

In many ways, Virtual Girlfriends is an aggressively accurate and bleak look at the OnlyFans industry. It might be lucrative for a small few, but the majority of models struggle to make it work. While ones like Dory gain a fleeting high from performing a lucrative livestream in front of their adoring fans, that high is short-lived once the laptop closes and the lingerie is taken off.

Virtual Girlfriends had its international premiere at Hot Docs 2026.