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The ACTF-produced NOAH & SASKIA was the only multiple award winner at the Australian Teachers of Media (ATOM) awards on Friday 7th October. The program won for both Best Children’s Television Series as well as the Best Secondary Education Resource. The latter was for the series accompanied by extensive teacher resources on an interactive CD-ROM.

HOLLY’S HEROES was also nominated for an ATOM award for Best Children’s Television Series and has been nominated for Best Children's Television Drama in this year’s Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards.

Also featuring prominently in the 2005 AFI Awards nominations is the feature film HATING ALISON ASHLEY which is nominated in 4 categories:

 Saskia Burmeister, Jan Logan AFI Award For Best Lead Actress
 Christine Madafferi, AFI Award For Best Adapted Screenplay
 Tracy Mann, AFI Award For Best Supporting Actress
 Paul Warren, AFI Award For Best Costume Design

The ACTF was an investor in HATING ALISON ASHLEY as part of its Independent Production Investment Program.

Other recent awards include the Golden Camera Award Noah & Saskia and the Silver Screen Award for Holly’s Heroes in the 2005 US International Film and Video Festival.

NOAH & SASKIA, HATING ALISON ASHLEY, and HOLLY’S HEROES are now all available from the ACTF as curriculum resources, accompanied by an extensive collection of learning activities. Go to http://www.actf.com.au/learning_centre/search.htm for further details, or http://www.actf.com.au/distribution/search.htm for international acquisition.

Further information on these above mentioned awards can be found at
http://www.atomawards.org/welcome.htm
http://www.afi.org.au/awards/nominees.asp
http://www.filmfestawards.com

On 22 October, Sam Carroll, co-writer of Noah & Saskia, won an Australian Writers' Guild (AWGIE) Award for Best Children's Television Drama (C Classification) for the episode "Extra Spicy". The AWGIE Awards honour excellence in screen, television, stage and radio writing.

Noah & Saskia received an Honourable Mention at the 52nd Columbus International Film & Video Festival, also known as the Chris Awards. According to the festival organisers, the award goes to productions "that the judging panel found the work to be of significant value and merit."

Noah & Saskia will also screen at the 2004 Chicago Film Festival in the Live-Action Television category. Noah & Saskia was selected from 700 entries from around the world. The Chicago International Children's Film Festival is the largest and oldest annual festival of films for children and features over 200 of the best live-action and animated films from 40 countries.

Every primary and secondary Government school in Victoria now has an unlimited licence to use the ACTF's groundbreaking new media program, Kahootz. In a landmark deal, involving over 1,700 schools, the Minister for Education and Training, Lynne Kosky, announced the Department of Education's decision to purchase Kahootz for all of its schools.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education, Youth and Family Services in the ACT purchased Kahootz for all government primary and secondary schools in the territory. Kahootz is a CD-ROM based multimedia tool set that enables students and teachers to explore, construct and investigate using three-dimensional worlds and objects. By 'publishing' their creations on-line at www.kahootz.com students can see what other classrooms are doing, learn from their Xpressions by deconstructing them and build upon each other's ideas. The ACTF is currently overseeing a number of trials with Kahootz between students from schools across Australia, New Zealand and the UK. Kahootz is also available for home use. More information is available at www.kahootz.com

The next venue for Li'l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers - The Exhibition is the Railway Museum in Ipswich from 11 February to 15 May 2005. For more information contact the gallery on (07) 3432 5100.

Li'l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers - The Exhibition has now been visited by over 160,000 children around Australia. The tour of the Exhibition is supported by Visions of Australia, a Commonwealth Government Program supporting touring exhibitions by providing funding assistance for the development and touring of cultural material across Australia. Entertainment distributor, Magna Pacific, is sponsoring the Queensland sector of the tour.

Noah & Saskia is now available on video and DVD for schools for use in the classroom. The 13 x half hour television series is a unique educational resource and the ACTF has developed a comprehensive package for English text studies, multiliteracies, Internet issues, media production and ICTs. These curriculum resources, developed in partnership with the Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA) and the Australian Association for the Teaching English (AATE), include:

o English and multiliteracies lessons
o The entire production process from script to screen available on CD-ROM and at the ACTF's online Learning Centre.
o The Making of Noah & Saskia, Trailer and extra scenes on the DVD.

All Learning Centre resources are searchable by titles, year level, KLA and theme. ABC TV's official Noah & Saskia website includes interactive elements including an online comic creation experience and feedback forum at www.noahandsaskia.com

To find out more or to order Noah & Saskia, contact us by email or telephone the ACTF on (03) 9419 8800.