Unveils the real heroes of ‘Ninth 24 FPS Annual International Animation Awards’
On successful completion of ten glorious years of shaping the careers of thousands of young minds, Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) – one of the leaders in 3D Animation and VFX training has announced to host the Ninth 24 FPS Awards 2012 in association with United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) tomorrow, December 7th 2012, 7 pm onwards at the Lalit Intercontinental in Mumbai. This year, MAAC has organized a one day festival welcoming all to the grand ceremony of felicitating the creative minds in the field of animation.
The event has grown bigger with creative workshops, informative sessions, exhibitions and entertaining competitions such as Live Rock Band, Zoo Zoo with Zubin (chat show), B-Boying workshop, Gaming competition, MAAC Got Talent competition, The Longest Burp competition, Beat Boxing competition and Paint Yourself workshop. The winners of the competition would be awarded on the spot. To add to the festive celebration and create a fun-filled atmosphere, companies such as Logitech, Faxtel, Firepro, Gunnar, Vimanika Comics, Something Sketchy, Trikke, Rahul Commerce, Letraset, Wacom, Xquisite’s and Mimobot would offer high-end, creative products at discounted rates.
With over 250 contest entries from countries like China, France, Europe, Singapore, Netherlands Germany, USA etc and more than 5000 animation enthusiasts expected to attend, this event is gaining momentum by every passing year and will attract more professionals than ever before.
The categories for 2012 awards are Best VFX Short Film: Student, Best 3D Animated Short Film: Student, Best 2D Animated Short Film: Student, Best Game Design 2012: Studio/Professional Category, Best Visual Effects Feature Film 2012: Studio/Professional Category, Best TVC 2012: Studio/Professional Category, Best TV Series 2012: Studio/Professional Category and Best Animated (2D/3D) Feature Film 2012: Studio/Professional. Pacing with the industry diversity, the added nominations for this year include ‘Experimental Animation’, ‘Stereoscopy’ and ‘3D Generalist’.
The jury panel comprises of renowned personalities from the animation fraternity, which includes the likes of Ms. Shelley Page- Dreamworks, Merzin Taveria- Prime Focus, Mehul Hirani – Crest Animation Studios, Viral Thakkar-Pixion, Subhajit Sarkar- Rhythm & Hues, Madhu Sudhanan International VFX Consultant, E. Suresh, Eeksaurus, Vaibhav Kumaresh, Vaibhav Studios and Gitanjali Rao, Independent Animation film maker amongst other industry stalwarts.
For the second time in a row, MAAC-UNIC collaboration has provided a platform to the students to promote the 8 Millennium Development Goals based on the theme – The Future We Want, through their animated movies, creating a sense of inspiration amongst the audience, to come forward and help bring a positive change in the society.
Over the past nine years, this event has gained momentous support from the global animation fraternity and has been a key driver and promoter of fresh animation talent in the country. The winning team of last year’s 24FPS from MAAC’s center in New Delhi had got an opportunity to work with UNIC this year and their film, ‘The Pink Bangles’would be screened at this event.
At the event, Mr. Ninad Karpe, MD & CEO, Aptech Ltd said, “With animation movies like Arjun, Madagascar, Chota Bheem being created, we believe animation is here to stay and it has become a preferred career choice amongst the youngsters today. Awards like 24 FPS bring the best talent forward and motivate them to do better. Strengthening our partnership with UNIC, we hope to contribute positively towards accomplishment of the millennium development goals.”
Elaborating on the forthcoming awards, Mr. Ram Warrier, Business Head, MAAC said, “We are delighted to present the 9th 24 FPS Awards on the completion of a successful decade this year. We have been instrumental in providing quality education and empowering animation aspirants, thus projecting Animation as a ‘Career of the Future’. 24FPS has become popular as a global platform for rewarding the animation apprentices. We believe that we will continue to seed the minds of future generation with creativity.”