Award winner at Queer Screen

A Darwin Director has been named one of Australia's most promising filmmaker at the biggest queer film festival in the nation. Elka Kerkhofs, 35, won the production award at ‘My Queer Career’ competition, staged during the opening night of the Sydney Mardi Gras film festival on Thursday. Her animation 'Filled With Water' was one of ten films to screen at the Mardi Gras festival. “I’m very happy and excited about having won this award, because it will extend the life of my animation, and give the film further marketing opportunities” she said. 'Filled With Water' is a five-minute animation about love, heartbreak and finding fulfilment through loss. Kerkhofs said she believed her film won an award is because it carried an emotional message, and was technically proficient. . "I wanted to create a character that Lesbians could identify with," she said. “It’s hard to make an animated character that people can relate to." "I got a lot of emotional responses when people watched the film, so I feel I was successful in touching people with this character." ‘Filled With Water’ will travel around Australia as part of the queer screen touring program.

My attendance at Queer screen was funded by the NTFO.

PUBLICITY

Het Belang Van Limburg, Belgium, 15 February 2007
NT News, Darwin, Australia, 19 February 2007
BNEWS, Melbourne, Australia, 22 February 2007
Sydney Star Observer, Sydney, Australia, 23 February, 2007
Het Nieuwsblad, Belgium, 24 February, 2007
Pas Uit, street magazine, Belgium, 26 February, 2007

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