MUMBAI: Cheers, whistles, applause and a standing ovation! The 1st Shaf IBM FICCI BAF Awards held last evening had the (100 plus audience) on their feet more than once.
India's animation industry, has been making headlines for a while now. With the likes of Disney and Pixar outsourcing work to India and other original content being produced, a 30 % annual growth is predicted by experts. The Awards seemed to be well timed.
Entries from the Major Indian studios like "Jadooworks, Toonz Animation India, Crest Communications, D Q Entertainment, Animagic India, The NID , and also other independent animation producers & students made viewing the nomination clips a pleasure.
Amongst the animation industry topguns present were Disney International's Andy Bird, Rajeev Marwah (CEO) , Ashish Kulkarni (COO) (he also hosted the show onstage)from Jadooworks, P. Jaykumar, CEO, Toonz Animation India, Tapas Chakravarti , MD & CEO, DQ Entertainment, Indian animation veteran Mr Ram Mohan ( who was awarded with the Lifetime achievement award).
Joan Vogelesang, President, Toon Boom Technologies (Canada) who was conferred a special award for her continuing support and encouragement to the Indian Animation Industry, couldn't make it to Mumbai, however she did call in with a thank you message even as her award was being collected.
The BAF (Best Animated Frames) jury consisted of Well known film maker Govind Nihalani, Nina Sabnani, Head Creative NID, Don Perro from Canada, Ms Margaret Donald from Mallard Media (Scotland) and Bob Last, Ink Animations (Scotland)
The Award winners are as follows -
1. Best Ads/Intro Spots : All Out Coil - Jadoo Works
2. Best Short Film (Students) : Pudchya Warshi Lavkar Ya - NID
3. Best Short Film (Studio) : Raju & I - Animagic India
4. Special Jury Award 1: Spandan - Meeenakshi Vinay Rai
5. Special Jury Award 2: The Adventures of Hanuman - Toonz Animation India
6. Best Animated Episode - Delta State, produced by DQ Entertainment.
7. Lifetime Achievement Award - Mr Ram Mohan
8. Special Award - Joan Vogelesang, President, Toon Boom Technologies.
