This year’s ECFA Short Film Award at the Oberhausen Short Film Days went to SHOWER BOYS, a Swedish film by Christian Zetterberg, with an interesting approach towards young masculinity.
After training, best friends Viggo and Noel go home to Noel’s house and have a sauna. The friends start to compete on who is most manly. They’re not the type of boys qualified for a top score, but what feels only natural to them, might be regarded very differently by their parents.
The ECFA Jury: “Through the nuanced script, the outstanding acting and editing SHOWER BOYS reflects the complexity of growing up as a boy and freely exploring your emotions and desires. The main characters are being taught that they can be either “man or mouse”, but the story gradually deconstructs these kinds of stereotypes.”
The ECFA Jury were Nicola Jones (Germany), Nóra Lakos (Hungary) and Marta Nieto Postigo (Spain).
The Oberhausen Short Film Days is one of the first festivals that has already successfully completed a second online edition, with schools and kindergartens showing a growing interest in the festival programme. About 120 school classes and 20 kindergartens in total have participated. There were young audience competitions, a music video programme for youngsters and a special screening was held with all films nominated for last year’s ECFA Short Film Award.