ECFA’s first Short Film Award was handed out at the Oberhausen Int. Short Film Festival to LISTEN, a short documentary by Dutch director Astrid Bussink about the Kindertelefoon (Dutch children’s telephone helpline). In times of fake news and politic threats, LISTEN’s message – listening is a virtue and that communication can actually help – seems refreshingly positive.
After the ECFA Award and the ECFA Doc Award, the ECFA Short Film Award is a new initiative to generate more attention for short films. After being launched in Oberhausen, other festivals welcoming an ECFA Short Film jury in 2018 will be Cinema in Sneakers (Warsaw), the Biennial of Animation (Bratislava), Filem’On (Brussels) and Olympia Festival (Pyrgos).
In the ECFA jury were Hilde Steenssens (Filem’On, Brussels), Lina Paulsen (Mo & Friese, Hamburg), and Ivana Jakobovic (Sedmi Kontinent, Zagreb).