Charles Darwin University (CDU) graduate Elka Kerkhofs (pictured) has won the award for Best Tertiary Animation at the 2007 Enhance TV ATOM Awards.
The Belgium-born Elka graduated with a Masters in Visual Arts and a Diploma in Contemporary Music from CDU and has since won national acclaim for her work.
The 2007 EnhanceTV ATOM Awards, which took place at The Regent Theatre in Melbourne, recognise excellence in more than 30 categories of film, television, animation and multimedia and celebrates the very best of Australian and New Zealand production.
Elka’s animation, Filled With Water, is a five-minute film about finding love and losing love.
She said she was overwhelmed that the judges chose Filled With Water from such a selection of quality films.
“I have an entire range of people I need to thank who were instrumental in helping me express this intimate story on to the big screen,” she said.
“Your relationship with your work changes 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.”
The Best Tertiary Animation award is made to the most promising filmmaker demonstrating an innovative, skilled and mature command of technical elements in animation.
Elka won the My Queer Career film competition in Sydney earlier this year. After her win, she was invited to travel the film around the world. It now has a distributor in North America and this month it will screen in cinemas in Elka’s birth country, Belgium.