Awards and Festival Screenings

AWARDS
WINNER
Best Production Award,
My Queer Career competition
Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival, Feb 07
WINNER
Best Tertiary Animation,
EnhanceTV ATOM Awards,
Melbourne, Oct 07
WINNER
The audience award for Best Women’s Short,
Pikes Peak Lavender Film Festival,
Colorado Springs, Sep 07
RUNNER UP
Best Student Animation Film
Warburton Film Fest, June 08
RUNNER UP
2nd Women's International Film and Video Competition,
Quezon City, Philippines, March 07
RUNNER UP
Best-short-short, Director’s Club Awards
Fresno California Reel Pride GLBT Film Festival, Sep 07
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Most Innovative category,
Best Australian Short Films, DENDY Awards
Sydney International Film Festival, June 07
NOMINATED
Best romance for Best In Short Film Season 8
Logo MTV, September 09
NOMINATED
Best Australian Short Queer Film,
Melbourne Queer Film Festival, March 08
NOMINATED
Best Queer Short Film, Planet Out Awards
Miami International GLBT Film Festival, March 08

VCA RELATED AWARDS
WINNER
E.H. Shepard Award
Innovation in drawing for animation at the VCA, Sep 06
WINNER
Anthony Ganim Postgraduate Award
Production and realisation of a graduate film, Jul 06
WINNER
VCA Artistic Merit Scholarship
For Post Graduate studies in Animation at the VCA, March 06
NOMINATED
VCA School of Film & Television Award
Outstanding Overall Graduate Diploma Student, Dec 06

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS 2009
Lismore Queer Fruits Film Festival, Dec 09
Melbourne Sexy International Film Festival, October 09
Perth Sexy International Film Festival, October 09
Montreal International LGBT Film Festival, October 09
Southwest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, October 09
Rio de Janeiro International Festival of LGBT Animation, Sept 09
Lesvos Greece Sappho Garden of the Arts film night, Sept 09
Mullumbimby Mullum Flicks Program, Aug 09
Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, April 09
Tucson DinnerWareArtsSpace public presentation, July 09
Hasselt Belgium De Madam public presentation, June 09
Genk Belgium De Bib public presentation, June 09
Sydney Caught Short Film Festival, March 09

BROADCASTING 2008
MTV USA Logo Best Short Films Program, Jun 08

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS 2008
Paris Lesbian and Feminist Film Festival, Oct 08
Melbourne Queer Film Festival, March 08
Mexico City Women in Film and TV International Festival, Sept 08
Vienna International Women Animation Festival, March 08
Kyiv Ukraine Molodist International Film Festival, Oct 08
Rio de Janeiro International Festival of Erotic Animation, Nov 08
Milan International GLBT Film Festival, Jul 08
Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, Jul 08
Ann Arbor Film Festival, March 08
Athens International Film and Video Festival, April 08
San Diego FilmOut GLBT Film Festival, April 08
Miami International GLBT Film Festival, April 08
Brussels GLBT Film Festival, Jan 08
Liege GLBT Film Festival, Jan 08
Tel Aviv Israel GLBT Film Festival, June 08
Toronto In side Out GLBT Festival, June 08
Downtown Dayton LGBT Film Festival, Sept 08
Winnipeg Gay and Lesbian Film Society, Oct 08
Jakarta Q Film Festival, Aug 08
Adelaide Fringe Festival, Feb 08
Warburton Film Fest, June 08
Bendigo Queer Film Festival, April 08
Cairns Queer Film Festival, April 08
Rockhampton Queer Film Festival, April 08
Austin, The Annual Out & Equal Workplace Summit, Sept 08


OFFICIAL SELECTIONS 2007
RICA Wissembourg France International Animation Festival, Nov 07
San Francisco International GLBT Film Festival, June 07
New York NewFest International GLBT Film Festival, June 07
Melbourne International Animation Festival, June 07
Melbourne ATOM Awards finalists screening, Oct 07
Philadelphia PhillyFest International GLBT Film Festival, Jul 07
Austin International GLBT Film Festival, Oct 07
Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival, Opening Night, Feb 07
Liverpool Outsiders GLBT Film Festival, Nov 07
New York Mix GLBT Festival, Oct 07
Hasselt Belgium Zebra Centrum Festival, Oct 07
Genk Belgium Euroscoop program, Oct 07
Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Oct 07
Soa Paulo Mix Brazil International GLBT Film Festival, Nov 07
Quezon City Philippines, International Women’s Film Festival, Mar 07
Fresno California Reel Pride GLBT Film Festival, Sep 07
Milwaukee GLBT Film Festival, Sept 07
Brisbane Queer Film Festival, Closing Night, June 07
Berlin 2nd XPOSED International Queer Short Film Festival, June 07
Colorado Springs Pikes Peak Lavender Film Festival, Sep 07
Virginia Out! Hampton Roads Film Festival, Sep 07
Adelaide Feast fundraiser, Sep 07
Darwin Pride Film Festival, May 07
Melbourne VCA Graduation screenings, ACMI, Dec 06

Finalist at Queer Screen

A DARWIN filmmaker’s short animation has been chosen to screen at the opening night of the Sydney Mardi Gras Film
Festival in February. Elka Kerkhofs’ 'Filled With Water' is one of 10 films to screen as part of the My Queer Career competition at the biggest queer film festival in Australia. “It’s a real honour,” Kerkhofs, 35, said. “It’s absolutely amazing.” “The animation took me about five months of solid work...I had no social life.” “Now it gives me goose bumps.”
Filled With Water is a five-minute animation about love, heartbreak and finding fulfilment through loss. “It’s a journey through the mind and body in search for love,” she said. Kerkhofs has been in Melbourne for the past year where she completed a one-year course in animation at the Victorian College of the Arts film and television school, where she made Filled With Water. She said the screening at the film festival would give her international exposure.
As a finalist of My Queer Career, Kerkhofs will be in the running for the world’s largest prize for gay and lesbian short
films, the International Iris Prize - worth more than $60,000.

PUBLICITY

NT News, Darwin, Australia, 20 January 2007
Darwin Sun, Darwin, Australia, 23 January 2007
Het Belang Van Limburg, Belgium, 23 January 2007
De Standard, Belgium, 25 January 2007
Het Nieuwsblad, Belgium, 26 January 2007
LOTL, Sydney, Australia, 28 January 2007
Sydney Star Observer, Sydney, Australia, 8 February 2007
JOY FM, Melbourne, Australia, radio interview, 10 February 2007

Synopsis - 250 words

This is a story about Anoka who lives in a city where the streets are cluttered with sculptures and the beaches are filled with dog statues. Anoka feels a deep emptiness in the world around her. Everyday she takes herself to the beach as if this is her only existence. She skates her way through the only life she knows. Until one day she walks into a large TV and for the first time her heart glows red for the ballerina within the screen. Anoka finds her way into the TV and immerses herself in the ballerina’s world sharing her heart and falling in love. They dance and blend together as one and get flooded by hundreds of roses. Then after a very passionate kiss a transformation takes place and she can only watch in disbelieve. The ballerina changes in a bottle of wine and the roses change into glasses filled with red wine. The bottle falls over and crashes all the glasses and the TV screen and breaks in the lifeless world she once knew. She realizes that the love she is looking for has been inside and around her all along and at that moment she allows herself to become one with nature. Finding your heart can mean losing it first.

About Filled With Water

Anoka feels deep emptiness until she walks into a TV and her heart begins to glow for the ballerina inside. But she learns filling her heart can mean breaking it, when the one you love craves a stronger desire.

Read 250 word synopsis here

SPECIFICATIONS
Language---------English
Running Time-----5 minutes
Format-----------Beta SP & DVD
Sound-----------Stereo
Aspect Ratio------16:9
Frame Rate-------25 frames per second
Country of Origin-----Australia
Film Completed-----December 2006
Production Company-----The Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne

PRINCIPAL CREW
Writer, Director, Animator-------Elka Kerkhofs
Producer---------------------Donna Molan
Supervising Producers------Paul Fletcher and Robert Stephenson
Rotoscoped Anoka-----------Kye Plunkett
Life Anoka-----------------Sarah Grimmer
Ballerina------------------Louise Williams
Voice over Anoka-----------Eryn Jean Norvill
DOP-------------------------Kye Plunkett
Production Assistant-------Maria Karagiozakis
Editor------------------Elka Kerkhofs
Online Editor---------Declan Mclougan
Sound Designer and Mixer---------------Ben Hurt