India is the country of honor at Annecy 2008 and a special delegation from the Annecy festival will be visiting India in the last week of October through to early November.
The delegation will interact with several studios, artists and film makers during their visit and will also participate at the NASSCOM Animation and Gaming summit in Mumbai on November 1 and 2, 2007.
Earlier this year, NASSCOM had taken an Indian delegation to host the India pavilion at MIFA, which is the B2B trade fair at the Annecy festival. Eight Indian companies including Picasso Digital Media, Gameloft, Landmark Toonz, Prime Focus, Kahani World, Anirights Infomedia, Jumpgames and Kilnidea Animation Studio had participated at the pavilion.
Speaking to AnimationXpress.com, Annecy Sales Manager for the International Animated Film Market, Mikael Marin shared, “The capacity to present and promote animation in all its different forms has made Annecy a worldwide point of reference for the animation industry. India is the country of honor at Annecy 2008 and we are looking forward to our India visit where we want to interact with artists, film-makers and industry representatives. Animation is blooming in India and the idea is to showcase fresh concepts and expressions in animation to the international community.”
“Also on the Animation business front, India is amongst the most exciting destinations globally both as a developer as well as a domestic consumption market. A lot of collaboration is possible on the business front,” he added.
“We are especially excited about participating at the NASSCOM summit, where we hope to interact with a majority of the industry which would be present,” he further added.
For the past 45 years, the beautiful lakeside town of Annecy, located in France has been hosting the International Animated Film Festival which includes competitive categories for Feature films, Short films, TV films, Commissioned films and Graduate films.
Hosted alongside the film screenings and competition and as part of the overall festival is MIFA, a specialized trade fair that brings together the animation industry for all broadcasting mediums.
Indian films that have made waves at Annecy include music video Deewana (made by Flirting Vision with Animation by Suhael and Shrirang Sathaye) and Geetanjali Rao‘s Printed Rainbow.