Celebrating the art of animation since 1999, Animation Masters Summit is back this year to host its annual event which will be held on 5 and 6 May in the Technopark campus of Thiruvananthapuram in the God’s own country- Kerala.
Conceived by Toonz Media Group, the event brings together veterans of the animation industry from various parts of the world to share their knowledge and provides a platform to the aspiring talent to interact with their role-models.
This year, Animation Masters Summit will celebrate ‘Passion for Animation’ – “the infinite fire of passion that perennially drives us to seek higher planes of creative fulfilment.” The summit will also launch the third edition of its Flying Elephant Competition– a platform for the masters and amateurs to showcase their talent through film-making.
The Flying Elephant competition has received 925 entries from across the world out of which best four will be shortlisted in the four categories- Animation Short Films, Animation TV Feature & Series, Live Action Short Films and Short Film- Student Category. A runner up and winner will be announced in all these four categories.
The two-day summit will commence with an inaugural ceremony at 9 am on Friday, 5 May. The inauguration will be done by Fred Wang, vice president of the China Film Foundation and director of the board of Hong Kong International Film Festival Society. The inaugural ceremony will be followed by sessions from masters like venture capitalist Keyur Patel, Sony Pictures Networks, VP and programming head, Ronojoy Chakraborty and renowned screenwriter Anjum Rajabali.
Following the tradition, Toonz has curated a line-up of the finest experts from the industry including Abhijit Avasthi (Ad guru and Sideways Consulting founder), John McKenna (One Animation, studio head), Dong-Su Jung (ICONIX Entertainment, new business division, director), Shrikumar Menon (branding expert and film-maker), Chris Henderson (executive producer), Amy Blair (YouTube Family & Learning, programming manager) and Lauren Glaubach (YouTube Family & Learning, head of programming).
Besides the Masters, a high profile delegation from Amazon India, a top representative from Turkish national broadcaster, representatives from national and internationals broadcasters, top notch production and creative studios and other experts and members from the fraternity are also expected.
The summit will honour the legend Bhimsain Khurana, who is also known as ‘The Father of Indian Animation. The award function which will be held on 6 May will give away prizes to the winners of the Flying Elephant Competition and conclude with a cultural program.
