A F I L M B Y K O R N E L I A T A K A C S
Based upon Stephen King’s short story: THE WOMAN IN THE ROOM
Latest:
12/24 Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!
12/24 VOTUM has wrapped its 2024 festival circuit run! We were selected to seven festivals and won awards in three of these festivals. I am VERY proud of this project and I'd like to thank everyone who worked on this film!
12/24 Stephen King's Dollar Baby Program, after 40 years, ended in 2023. We are closing the year with VOTUM being one of the last 'affordable budget' Stephen King films! Thank you for the opportunity!
12/14 VOTUM screened at the LA Live Regal Theater as part of the Culver City Film Festival!
11/17 VOTUM Trailer! Composer: Marton Kereszturi, Editor: Aaron Singh, Director: Aaron Singh and Kornelia Takacs. Thank you Marton & Aaron!
11/17 Upcoming VOTUM screening at the Regal LA Live in Downtown LA in December! (Culver City Film Festival) Date TBD!
11/10 VOTUM has been selected for the Culver City Film Festival!
11/8 VOTUM screened at the 22nd. Hungarian International Film Festival in Los Angeles! Thank you!
10/11VOTUM Official selection and Kornelia won the Best Female Director award at Venice Shorts!
6/21: VOTUM was selected at the Marina Del Rey Film Festival!
6/16: VOTUM was selected and screened at the L.A. Film Festival at the Regal Theater at LA Live in June!
4/21: VOTUM won the BEST SCREENPLAY Award at the Hollywood Shorts Fest Film Festival in Los Angeles!
3/24: VOTUM won the Audience Choice Award in the Short Film category at the First Glance Film Festival in Los Angeles! (Thank you all for coming out and supporting the film!)
3/14: VOTUM had its World Premier at the First Glance Film Festival in Laemmle, North Hollywood! Congratulations!
11/25: Name reveal week! The official title of our film is: VOTUM!

WERK Video

VOTUM Trailer
The Film:
VOTUM was written, directed and co-produced by Kornelia Takacs. Our producer is Krisztina Weber. Our co-producers are Adam Felszeghy, Laszlo Nagy, Judit Romwalter, Melinda & Scott Delmonico and Tamas Bohacs. Our adaptation of Stephen King's The Woman in The Room © short story centers on the relationship of an ailing mother and her devoted son.
Peter's mother Mary is slowly succumbing to dementia in a Sanatorium. Mary knows that her condition is irreversible and time is not on her side.
Kornelia was personally drawn to this touching story. She so felt that it could be made into a quality movie; despite limited financial resources. The 18 minute drama was shot in Budapest, Hungary. The film takes place during the 1990's, on the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois.
Two years of hard work is paying off as the film has been selected to its third Film Festival in Los Angeles! It is wonderful to see the audience's reaction to the film. Thank you for everyone who helped and supported us along the way!
Accolades:
Official selection: Culver City Film Festival
Official selection: 22nd. Hungarian International Film Festival Los Angeles
Winner: Best Female Director - Venice Shorts Film Festival
Official selection: Venice Shorts
Official selection: Mar Vista Film Festival - Los Angeles
Official selection: L.A. IFS Film Festival (Independent Filmmakers Showcase) - Los Angeles
Winner: Best Screenplay - Hollywood Shorts Fest Film Festival - Los Angeles
Winner: Audience Choice - Short Film category - First Glance Film Festival - Los Angeles
Cast:
We are very excited to introduce our actor Balacs Csemy! Balazs has a talent not only for acting, but also for languages. He has studied acting in Hungary, the United States as well as in Germany. The way his character shone and his command of the English language makes him a true asset to this film!
We are thrilled to introduce our talented actress Klara Spilak! Klara did a fantastic job with our English script, delivering a strong performance! Klara has been involved in Film and Theater productions in Hungary for decades. Having her on set was great!
The voice of Kevin, brought to life by David Natale! David adds authenticity; and the perfect voice to VOTUM. David is passionate about audio. Besides working on the Call of Duty video game franchise in the Audio Department, he also works on his own projects.
Crew & Contributors:
Thank you so much for supporting the arts and our project if you contributed to our Kickstarter campaign!
I am grateful for your hard work and dedication to help us make this beautiful, and emotional film about a difficult subject. I tried to approach this topic with respect and humbleness. I could not be happier with the final result of how our film turned out!
From Cinematography and lighting, our grips and camera team, the camera and equipment from Sparks, our locations, set decoration, costumes, hair & makeup, the actors performance all added tremendous value to only list a few aspects. Our audio, SFX pros, our producer and co-producers. Our crew members who were first to arrive each morning to set up; and last to leave, our amazing 1st AD, Line Producer, Scripter, PA's and drivers, to our language dialect coach and background actors. Post Production was also crucial from editing to music and audio, down to our VOTUM poster design!
Every person and each department bought a lot to the table; with outstanding work and attention to detail. We shot during Covid, in the middle of Winter. Many of us have full-time jobs and worked in our spare time. I would like to thank each and every one of you for helping us make this film!