Still: Where Is My Sex Drive? - Nina Broers

In her Student Oscar-winning short film Where Is My Sex Drive?, Dutch director Nina Broers seeks to understand, maybe overcome, her own lack of libido. But what she doesn’t reckon on is a young male lead actor who has his own very entrenched views on the subject, and whose opinions as a side-lined and subjugated man are, he believes, continually disregarded. As the production continues, tension in the studio is cranked up to breaking point, and when Broers calls ‘cut’ for the final time, rather than signal a fist pump to her cast and crew, her response is to get away from the toxic set as quickly as possible, pursued by a concerned production assistant.

The film very much resembles a verité documentary in that it follows the shenanigans surrounding the production, and the subsequent fall-out among personnel both in front of, and behind, the camera. But things are not quite as they seem. What Broers actually set out to make was a “social experiment,” and the boorish, petulant responses of male lead Jacob to his onscreen girlfriend’s reluctance to have sex with him are actually scripted (even if he is given license to improvise far beyond what was written on the page). 

While girlfriend Brechtje, who represents Broers in the films, wants warmth and intimacy, Jacob (who represents “an impression” of Broers’ past lovers) continually wants sex, and becomes increasingly exasperated when this is not on offer. For him, every touch is conditional, and is designed to lead far beyond the needs and requirements of his partner. And at this point, Jacob the actor begins to empathise with his character, and complains that the story doesn't respect the needs and rights of men. He gaslights director Broers, belittling the very premise of the film and requests to have his name removed from the credits.

During post-screening Q&As Jacob has been eager to reassure that these are opinions that he does not share with his on-screen persona.

That said, the core issue at the heart of the film, that of diminished sex drive, is genuine, and one that Broers very much wished to confront, having experienced this regularly since the age of 16.

“I didn't really have a physical response to arousal. I've been researching it. But no-one could give me any answers. I've been to normal doctors or holistic experts, sex experts, mental health coaches, everything that you can find with people that might have an answer,” she tells SEE NL. 

An advocate of Dogma 95 methodology, she set out to find answers about her sexual malaise via the medium of cinema, seeking to wrestle control over her condition, all the time determined to examine how self-exposure, or placing one’s self into the mindset of another person, could enable navigation away from it. “The psychoanalysis behind it all is really interesting to me,” says Broers, who underlines the original goal of the film, to invite collective assessment of her diminished libido.

But Broers was thrown by the opposing arguments that resulted from the Dogma-inspired improvisation. Offering her actors too much latitude could end up subverting the entire object of the exercise, she realised, and so she had to re-establish control over the project. 

With spectacular results. It may have been a third-year film (at St. Joost School of Art & Design Breda), and the modest Broers points out some of its technical faults, such as how the external microphone and camera had to be synched by hand as the microphone on the camera was broken. But that didn’t stop it winning a coveted Student Oscar, which the director describes as a “cathartic” moment.

“The film was a cry for help. Now it's time to once more collectively look at this topic, see what we can find, to uncover more information or gain a new perspective,” Broers signs off.

Nina Broers’ short film Where Is My Sex Drive? has been selected as one of the finalists for the 2026 Student Academy Awards. The ceremony is organised in partnership with Rolex and will be announced on 14 September 2026 during the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The ceremony will take place at TIFF Lightbox in Toronto. Find out more about the finalists here.