Awards and the journey so far

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Since the film was released in 2021, the Water Game has achieved the following awards and honours.

  • Stockholm City Film Festival (Sweden) – Semi-Finalist
  • ARG International Film Festival (France) - Finalist
  • NatureTrack Film Festival (USA) – Selected
  • Lift-Off Filmmaker Sessions (UK) – Selected
  • Istanbul International Architecture and Urban Film Festival (Turkey) – Finalist
  • Noble International Film Festival And Awards (India) – Selected
  • 12th Educational Film Festival Edukino (Poland) – Winner
  • Inheritance Festival (Northern Ireland) – Selected
  • Festival Angaelica (USA) – Selected
  • Festival RNAB (Brazil) - Quarter-Finalist
  • Manchester Lift-Off (UK) – Selected
  • Clapperboard Golden Festival (Brazil) – Selected
  • One Earth Awards (India) – Winner
  • Mysuru International Water Film Festival (India) – Selected
  • Festival del Cinema di Cefalù (Italy) – Semi-Finalist
  • Independent Video Film Festival Pavlos Paraschakis (Greece) – Semi-Finalist
  • WideScreen Film & Music Video Festival (Canada) - Quarter-Finalist

Films by their nature are big, loud and colourful. And need to be seen by as many people as possible otherwise why bother making them. So, after it was shown in the community and uploaded to Youtube, the next challenge was to find a new audience to tap into the very positive messages behind the Water Game film.

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Eventually I started thinking about the international film festival market and the fact that the green, educational and quirky message within the Water Game was truly international, especially once it was translated into foreign languages. The beauty of the international film festivals is that if it gets selected (which is a big IF as some festivals get around 3,000 plus entries) it gets shown for a period either in a cinema or online, to a big group of people.

  • "So that is what I did, and above is a map of the countries where the Water Game film was submitted to."
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  • "Hello, this is Jeonju International Short Film Festival.
    We really enjoyed the Film you sent us for the previous festival. Once again, we are holding the film festival this year.
    We would like to have one more chance to watch your film.

    FilmFreeway
    filmfreeway.com/jisff "
  • "Dear John Moratiel, The Afyonkarahisar Branch of the Chamber of Architects wants to show your documentary film " The Water Game" to a narrow group of architects in its own hall. May you give us permission? This will be a free and educational demonstration. May they do only one showing?
    I'll be waiting to hear from you.
    All the best, Selma Erdem
    Festival secretary

    Mimarlik ve Kent Filmleri Festivali
    https://www.archfilmfest.org/ "


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    In the process it was also translated into many different languages.

    Generally, this promotional exercise was great fun with some quirky results, like the film being shown in the UK on Brighton and Sheffield’s local tv stations for a while.

    The highlights were winning two awards.

  • A Golden Copernicus at the 12th Educational Film Festival - Edukino - in Warsaw, Poland.
  • One Earth Season 6 award from India.

    • A Warsaw diary

    In September 2022 I was asked to act as a judge at the International Films Against War Festival EDUKINO 2022 which was held in Warsaw, Poland. I believe that I was selected because the Water Game film had won an award at the previous years’ Edukino festival. edukino.pl/en/winners

    Working with my fellow judges Dariusz Regucki and Marek Brodzki, we watched a huge number of fantastic films and then had the difficult task of deciding on the winners of an Edukino award. I had a fantastic time with my hosts and festival organisers Aleksandra and Józef Chwedorowicz.



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    And was given a special tour of the city by my fellow judge Marek Brodzki, including a look inside the Warsaw Film School and seeing the house where Polish film director Andrzej Wajda lived.

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    Marek is an amazing character. He was the First Assistant Director on Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and worked on Polanski’s The Pianist. He also directed and brought to the screen the first version of The Witcher, now a popular Netflix series but originally based on the writings of Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski.

    The film festival took place online and over two days in the cinema of Warsaw’s Museum of Independence, showing over 40 selected international films, both drama and documentaries.

    My learning take-away from acting as a judge and watching these stories from around the world, was the humbling realisation that we live on a truly amazing planet with incredible civilisations, but we need peace for them to flourish and so enrich our lives.

    On the final day we had a gala presentation which was covered by the Polish media.

    For reasons which I am still not sure why, I was asked to lead the presentation of the awards, and although I could do it in English, several award winners were Polish, and I was dreading mispronouncing the winners name on national tv and at their moment of glory.

    Somehow, I got through. Phew!
    And the whole event was hugely memorable and great fun.
    To be continued.



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