Ninja Thyberg still attended the directorial programme at the Stockholm University of the Arts when her short film Pleasure won the 2013 Prix Canal+ in the Critic’s Week section at the Cannes Film Festival. Two years later, she won the Student Visionary Award at the Tribeca festival for Catwalk (2015), a short film about clothing and power structures. She received a death threat for Pleasure, a story where a young porn model prepares for an especially demanding scene.
Thyberg seeks out topics related to body, power, sexuality and group dynamics – and explores them all in the half-hour long student film Girls and Boys (2015), where she switches gender roles and attributes of the girls and the boys in a high school class; in Hot Chicks (2014), a short film about five seasoned females who are chosen to dance in a music video; and in the short film Stallion (2016), where a teenage horse girl develops a sexual desire for her middle-aged teacher. When Thyberg was sixteen, she became an anti-porn activist and her interest in the structures of the sex industry led to studies in gender science, followed by a solid film education. The first of her many short films is Wet, a tale of fruit and pornography from 2009, a work that gives ample evidence of Ninja Thyberg’s devil-may-care originality and sense of humour.
In her first feature, again named Pleasure, Ninja Thyberg portrays a young woman who travels to Los Angeles with the intention of becoming a porn star. The film was selected for Cannes film festival Official Selection 2020, and was described by festival director Thierry Frémaux as “highly contemporary, powerful and disturbing”.
Nina Widerberg (2016, updated 2020)
(translated by Jan Lumholdt)
Basic info
Main profession: Director
Born: 1984
Active: 2010-
Filmography
Regi:
Pleasure (2021)
Hingsten (kortfilm, 2016)
Catwalk (kortfilm, 2015)
Girls and Boys (kortfilm, 2015)
Hot Chicks (kortfilm, 2014)
Pleasure (kortfilm, 2013)
Afro (kortfilm, 2012)
Mamma pappa barn (kortfilm, 2011)
R.O.V (kortfilm, 2011)
Egalias highschool (kortfilm, 2010)
Vi två (kortfilm, 2010)
Våt (kortfilm, 2010)
Manus:
Pleasure (2021)
Hingsten (kortfilm, 2016)
Catwalk (kortfilm, 2015)
Hot Chicks (kortfilm, 2014)
Pleasure (kortfilm, 2013)
Afro (kortfilm, 2012)
Mamma pappa barn (kortfilm, 2011)
Våt (kortfilm, 2010)
Producent:
Mamma pappa barn (kortfilm, 2011)
Våt (kortfilm, 2010)
Produktionsledare:
Pleasure (kortfilm, 2013)
Foto:
Våt (kortfilm, 2010)
Klippning:
Mamma pappa barn (kortfilm, 2011)
Våt (kortfilm, 2010)
Roll:
Vi två (kortfilm, 2010)
Våt (kortfilm, 2010)
Inspelningsledare:
A Safe Place for the Wild (kortfilm, 2010)
Rollsättare:
Hot Chicks (kortfilm, 2014)
Klippassistent:
A Safe Place for the Wild (kortfilm, 2010)
Awards
2022: Women In Motion Young Talent Award i Cannes.
2022: Guldbaggenominerad för Bästa Regi, för Pleasure.
2021: FIPRESCI-priset (kritikerpriset), Göteborg Filmfestival 2021, för Pleasure.
2015: Film in Obliqua Mecal International Short and Animation film Festival, Spanien, för Girls and Boys.
2014: 1 km film, för Hot Chicks.
2013: Canal+ Award, för Pleasure (kortfilm).