Animated Video ‘Alchemy’ that is created by ‘Ekabhuya’ creative trio Janmeet Singh, Shivangi Ranawat and Pranay Patwardhan has picked up the HBO grand jury prize for Best Short at the 12th Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) and the team, as prize, received a cash grant from HBO. This year the festival showcased more than 30 film features, documentaries, and shorts at Arc Light Hollywood, venue of IFFLA.
This 5 minute video brings out stories of Indian people, their hopes, aspirations and transformation was shot on Bangalore streets, in markets and gardens and is composed with Live Action, 2D and Rotoscopic Animation, and music given by Bandish Projekt and spoken word by Last mango in Paris.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com about this win, Ekabhuya shares, “It’s very encouraging to see names like HBO support upcoming talent. From the team Ekabhuya, we thank HBO and the Festival for awarding “Alchemy” the best short film. We are glad that the festival and the jury welcomed the mix media style animation in storytelling.”
“Indian film festival of Los Angeles has been a memorable and successful journey for us. It was exciting to see the films presented to an International audience. The response from the audience and filmmakers was overwhelming and very encouraging. Los Angeles has a wonderful audience with an appetite for new content and stories from distant lands. The selection of films at IFFLA was very well curated and had a lot of variety in terms of style, language, tradition and storytelling.” Adds more
Last year, the film received Special jury mention – Professional category at ‘ASIFA Awards of Excellence’, we asked Ekabhuya about the factors that they feel have made the film to receive nominations and accolades, they say, “We feel the beauty of the film is that it is a story about modern day India, the lives of a billion people, their story, their hopes, aspirations and transformation. It is a fine balance between inherent spirituality and India’s giant leap towards progress and the music track provides the foundation for a poem, which evokes a contemporary subcontinent, where we see old and new co-exist and collide.”
Regarding the Short Film Awards, the jury released an official statement: “The Honorable Mention goes to LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. A well crafted documentary from a fresh filmmaking voice that seamlessly transports us from character to character and touched our hearts along the way. The Grand Jury Prize is presented to ALCHEMY. Culturally rooted and formally inventive, this film used mixed media to create a one of a kind film-going experience.”
Presently the team is working on a musical short film based on the villages and lives of people living in Kutch which will release soon.
“The music is by Maatibaani. It is filled with earthy and folk music with a lot of colour and excitement in the surroundings.” Adds further
And the trio is also working on some projects including story-boarding and look development of a feature length animated film.
This team started its journey together with animated short ‘Kaccho Gadulo’, which till date has won at Indian and International awards and festivals, ‘NFFTY- Seattle’: Jury award best animation film, ‘BSFF- Michigan’: Jury award and Audience choice award, ‘Josiah Digital Festival- San Antonio’: Best animation film and Best of festival, ‘PIFF- Pune’: Best animation film, ‘ASIFA Awards of Excellence- Mumbai’: Best animation film, ’24fps awards- Mumbai’: Best animation film., ‘Chennai Shorts Global Film Festival’: Best animation film, ‘TASI- Viewer’s Choice Awards- Mumbai’: Runner up animation category, ‘Bitfilm Festival- Hamburg’: Runner up animation category., ‘ICE Film Festival-Pune’: 3rd prize, ‘MIFF- Mumbai’: Best sound.
“We hope we continue to receive the love and support from the viewers and we will be back with another exciting story to tell.” concludes, Ekabhuya
To know more about Ekabhuya, visit their official website here.