The two-day animation fest saw animation industry veterans and industry enthusiasts from all over India and also few outside India.
Day two of Anifest kicked off with Iranian independent artists Moin Samadi and Mehdi Alibeygi, giving audience a glimpse of the indie film scene in Iran. The duo showcased some amazing job done in advertisements and intricately directed animated short films.
“I studied every religion and culture minutely while creating the shorts. The story is a suppression of two worlds, Iranian and Aryan, but I wanted to keep the story original,” said Samadi while talking about his film Jamshid.
The team at TASI worked hard day and night to make the event a success and every volunteer was appreciated with a certificate at the felicitation that happened after the first session. TASI chairman Tony Singh said, “The event takes place for two days, but the outcome you see is because of the tremendous hard work, the team has done.”
Taking the audience in another world, Dipankar Goswamy shared his personal visualisation and interpretations of Indian classical music. The classical music played in the background and aptly played with the colours of his paintings. Goswamy’s project is in the works for 10 years, presenting a personal labour of love for the first time in India.
The audience left for a quick lunch break, all excited to vote for their favourite commissioned films. The films included various animated advertisements from various Indian animation studios. Started since past one year, TASI gives away Bhimsain Emerging Talent (BET) Awards to the most talented young animator (below 25 years of age). And the award was won by Diavakar Kuppan for his short film.
In the presence of entire Khurana family, well-known actor and a good old friend of late Bhimsen Khurana , Akash Khurana, unveiled a book titled, Chaar Pidhi Ke Kavi. The book is amalgamation of various poetries and is a tribute to late Bhimsen Khurana.
There was another set of independent professional films on the second day. All films creative and dedicatedly done, the judges sure had a difficult time to select just one. While the audience was all praises for the animation professionals in India, a bunch of young directors grabbed everyone’s attention with their unique ideas to save the environment, through animation. There was a special screening of films recommended by the pre-selection jury and curated by the committee for the audience. The films were created by kids in the age group of eleven to thirteen, mentored by Toon Club founder Tehzeeb Khurana.
A day filled with amazing screenings, the TASI Viewer’s Choice Awards ceremony was a moment of pride not just for the winners but the entire Indian animation industry. The awards were renamed as Ram Mohan Viewer’s Choice Awards (RMVCA) in the honour of late Ram Mohan. Shiela Rao presented the inaugural trophies to the winners of RMVCA.
- Student Short Films
Winner: O28 (Otalia Caussé, Geoffroy Collin, Louise Grardel, Antoine Marchand, Robin Merle, Fabien Meyran)
Runner Up: Ek Cup Chaha (Sumit Yempalle) - Independent Professional Films
Winner: 09:09 F (Avinash Medhe)
Runner Up: KPL (Ujjwal Nair) - Commissioned Films
Winner: Nick Rock Band (Vaibhav Studios)
Runner Up: Red Bull On The Road Stories Abish Mathew (Rituparna Sarkar – Visual Sarkarsm Design Studio) - Special Mention
Ek Cup Chaha (Sumit Yempalle)
My Mother Supriya (Tanmaya Bhatnagar)
Anifest 2019 ended with a vibrant session by Indian visual effects designer, coordinator and supervisor Srinivas Mohan, who took the audience on a ride into the world of VFX. He presented the audience with behind the scenes of 2.0 longwith the concept, previsualisation, shooting, visual effects and compositing.
Like every year, TASI’s Anifest 2019 ended on a grand note and we can’t wait for the exciting line-up for the next year.