Burning bright: Olivia holds her very own Olympic torch, with her Olympic flame burning behind her.
A Tallygaroopna girl has won the national MyState Student Film Festival award for Best Junior Film — Regional for the second year in a row.
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Olivia Akers, 8, won the $1000 award for her film titled Olivia’s Olympics, which showcased her many pets and farm animals as they competed a modified Olympic Games.
During her September holidays, Olivia, with the help of her mum, dad, brother and uncle, filmed her pets competing in a range of tasks — from which cow could produce the most milk, to an egg-laying competition and a swimming race with her ducklings.
She had hoped to include a few more of her animals, but some of their behaviour made it too difficult, with ‘Kitten Karate’ and ‘Turkey Tree Climbing’ having to be scrapped.
“It took a long time because we had a lot of misbehaving animals,” Olivia said.
“My big dog Billy was being naughty when we were filming the dog races. He kept on jumping over the fence, so we had to build a taller fence just for him.”
Keeping the cows on the podium also proved difficult, with the entire family having to work together to keep them on the podium as they filmed the medal ceremony.
Although she had trouble with some of her animals, she said her pony, Lady, was the most well behaved and her favourite part to film.
She said she came up with the idea of Olivia’s Olympics when the Tokyo Olympics were broadcast on TV earlier this year.
“The Olympics were playing on the TV all the time this year. At first, I hated it because I wanted to use the TV, but after a while I sat down and watched it and really liked it,” Olivia said.
“I think my favourite event was the swimming.”
The judges’ criteria this year required all the films to be no longer than four minutes and for them to incorporate the word ‘window’ into their film.
Winning smile: Olivia poses with her winning trophies.
Olivia decided to incorporate this year’s prerequisite into her film by beginning and ending it staring out the window, dreaming of creating her own Olympic Games.
Last year, Olivia won the prize for her film Imagination, which followed her around her farm as she completed her daily chores.
She saved her winnings from last year but made a deal with her parents to buy a Nintendo Switch if she won the prize this year, and she plans to buy the aptly named Animal Crossing as her first game, saying she has wanted the game since she was six years old.
She hasn’t told her friends at school yet, but with her trophy being presented to her on the final day of school, her friends will soon find out about her achievement.
Olivia plans on entering the competition next year and has already started working on a video. She hopes to dress up as a mermaid, with next year’s prerequisite being ‘water’.
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