Studio Eeksaurus’ Kandittund (Seen It) won the Best Animation Film Silver Conch at the recently concluded Mumbai International Film Festival 2022. The animated short has been directed by Adithi Krishnadas and produced by Nilima Eriyat. Academy Award winner Resul Pookutty along with Vijaykumar have done the sound design for the film.
The director was awarded with a cash prize of Rs 1,50,000. Sharing the proud moment, Krishnadas told Animation Xpress, “Due to covid restrictions we were unable to attend any of the other festivals that we are nominated for, MIFF 2022 was the first ceremony which we attended on ground. Really felt honoured and moved.”
The 12-minute Malayalam short film features P.N.K Panicker and his super-natural encounters. P.N.K Panicker is the father of Eeksaurus Studio founder Suresh Eriyat.
Talking about the win at MIFF, creative director Eriyat shared, “Kandittund! is a dedication to my father and his fabulous stories that I grew up hearing and believing. He is 92 years old now and was super excited when we showed this film after making it without his knowledge. He was very happy to know about the award too. I am grateful that Adithi and our team worked their way through two lockdowns and the difficulties associated with that to finish the film brilliantly. This is probably the finest 2D animation film from the table of Studio Eeksaurus and we are proud about it. A recognition of this stature from the prestigious MIFF is a huge boost for our team’s spirit! This is the first ever award that we received in person, very special that way too.”
Kandittund has also won Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in animation at Fantasia International Film Festival (FIFF) 2021 and Best Gripping Movie at the prestigious T-short animated film festival.
Not revealing much about the future projects, Krishnadas said, “It’s too early to talk about them, but there are some promising film projects the studio is working on.”