Path-breaking animation director Arnab Chaudhuri will be honoured with the Legend of Animation Award at Animation Masters Summit 2020 – Digital Edition. Organized by Toonz Media Group, the virtual Summit will be held from July 20 to 24, 2020, over the Zoom platform.
Arnab, who passed away on December 25, 2019, was a creative genius who had a major influence on the Indian animation industry. His directorial feature Arjun the Warrior Prince is the only animation film from India till date to be long-listed for the Academy Awards. An alumnus of National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, Arnab has worked with several major entertainment organizations such as Turner, Walt Disney and Channel V. The Legend of Animation Award 2020 is being conferred on him posthumously for his distinguished contribution to the animation and entertainment industry in India.
“Arnab was a true genius who was always ahead of his time. Apart from his astounding creativity, he was also much loved and admired by the people who worked with him. He has collaborated with Toonz at multiple levels for several projects, and often gave master classes for our in-house artists. Arnab’s untimely death is a heavy loss for the creative fraternity in India. The Legend of Animation Award is given away every year at Animation Masters Summit to honour a legend from the field of animation in India. This year, the Award committee was unanimous in their decision to confer the award to Arnab posthumously,” said P. Jayakumar, CEO – Toonz Media Group.
Arnab Chaudhuri’s wife Ashima Chaudhuri and his brother Sudeep Chaudhuri will symbolically accept the award at the inaugural session of Animation Masters Summit 2020 on Monday, July 20, 2020. Participants can attend the session as well as other master sessions at the event by registering for free at www.animationsummit.in.
Prior to this, Promax India also honoured the late animation maestro with an award named after him. The brand renamed their “Rising Animation Talent” award to “Arnab Chaudhuri Award”
Animation Masters Summit 2020 will be a five-day event and will include sessions by masters from diverse fields of media and entertainment across the world. This includes veteran Indian cinematographer Ravi K Chandran whose works include Virasat, Dil Chahta Hai, Black, Kannathil Muthamittal, etc; National Award-winning Bollywood composer Shantanu Moitra (3 Idiots, Parineeta, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Lage Raho Munnabhai, etc.); Academy Award-winning character animator Sajan Skaria (Finding Nemo, Inside Out, Cars, etc); acclaimed animation feature editor and ACE Eddie Award winner Fabienne Rawley of Zootopia fame; noted illustrator and animation director Chris Appelhans whose works include , freelance animator and story artist Cinzia Angelini who has worked in films such as Despicable Me 3, The Grinch and Spider-man 2; and gaming expert and General Manager (India and SEA) of Epic Games Quentin Staes-Polet.