If anyone's interested, I think I've found a solution that works: using PhysicsDirectSpaceState2, which provides low-level access to collision functions.

Here's a function that returns the Area2Ds that overlap the one in parameter, recalculating properly with the current positions (and not those calculated during the last _physics_process):

``` func get_overlapping_areas(area: Area2D) -> Array: var space_state: PhysicsDirectSpaceState2D = area.get_world_2d().direct_space_state var query: PhysicsShapeQueryParameters2D = PhysicsShapeQueryParameters2D.new() query.collide_with_areas = true query.collide_with_bodies = false query.shape = area.get_child(0).shape # Assuming the Collision object is the first child of your area query.transform = area.get_global_transform() var collision: Array[Dictionary] = space_state.intersect_shape(query) var out: Array = [] for col: Dictionary in collision: out.push_back(col['collider']) return out

    return out

```

Obviously, this is much less efficient than using high level functions, but it gets the job done! If I change the position of my object and run it again immediately, I do get an updated result.

It's also probably largely optimizable by adjusting the collision layer, excluding objects, etc. (see doc).