Award winner at the EnhanceTV ATOM Awards

Director, Elka Kerkhofs with Producer, Donna Molan

Elka Kerkhofs won the Award for best Tertiary animation in the Atom Awards. The 2007 EnhanceTV ATOM Awards 25th anniversary presentation took place last night at The Plaza Ballroom in the Regent Theatre in Melbourne.

Each year, the program recognizes excellence in over thirty categories of Film, Television, Animation and Multimedia and celebrates the very best of Australian and New Zealand production. The 2007 EnhanceTV ATOM Awards are open to the education and industry sectors, students, production companies, independent filmmakers, educational bodies and educational producers in both countries.

Kerkhofs acknowledged that the award was “a testament to the story’s success” and thanked the Victorian College of the Arts “who were instrumental in helping me express this intimate story onto the big screen.’ Elka commended the other films in the category; ‘It makes me especially proud, that the judges picked ‘Filled With Water’ from such a selection of quality.’

Elka won the My Queer Career film competition in Sydney earlier this year. Following that, she was invited to travel the film all around the world. The film has traveled to various festivals in America including New York, and San Francisco amongst others. It now has a distributor in North America and this month the film is playing in various cinemas in Elka’s birth country, Belgium. The film has taken the Gay Film Festival Circuit by storm.

Elka says: ”Your relationship changes to your film over time. When you are creating the work it is all very personal, but after it is made, it tends to take on a life of its own. People from various parts of the world have identified with the film in their own personal way, which has been so rewarding. I’m feeling especially honoured receiving the award however on home soil”.

The best Tertiary animation Award is awarded to a most promising filmmaker demonstrating an innovative, skilled and mature command of technical elements in animation.

'Filled With Water' is a five-minute film about finding love and losing love.
The film’s producer, Donna Molan says: “It’s had a lot of success at gay and lesbian festivals, but it’s not just for queer audiences. The film is essentially about finding fulfillment within yourself and I think that this message is universal and resonates with a wide audience; gay or straight”.

Elka started working on a new animation film ‘Golden Woman’ with Darwin writer Mary Anne Butler and Producer Kate Breen for which the team received NTFO development funding to kick-start the project.

'Filled With Water' will play this month at the Euroscoop in Genk on Thursday the 25 of October at 20.15u and Sunday the 28 of October at 11u and Thursday the 1 of November at 20.15u.