Honouring the Indian Animation Industry with 'The Golden Cursor Animation Awards'

Company Brief

New Delhi, May 11, 2009

CNBC TV18 India’s leading business channel along with Arena Animation the Global leader in Animation Education, presented ‘The Golden Cursor Animation Awards’ powered by Animation Express.com in Mumbai. In its second year the awards were graced by the presence of world renowned animation artists – Anthony Christov, Art Director for the Academy Award winning Wall-E and BAFTA winning Ian Livingstone, of Tomb Raider fame as the chief guests for the evening.

Indian animators are leading the pack and are second to none in terms of their skill sets. India is today a prime destination for animation outsourcing for the entire world. This can be accredited to the fact that besides possessing requisite technical & creative skills, Indian animators handle English well as well as understand western humour. Also, with increasing demand for localised content, domestic animation industry is set to witness good times in future. From ‘Ramayan’ which heralded the emergence of Indian animators to multi-million dollar animation outsourcing deals, animation in India has come a long way.

Anthony Christov, Chief Guest and Art Director, said “I am surprised that most of the students in India asked me questions on creativity and not about the softwares. I have noticed the hunger to be creative in the Indian Students I met.

I think this is a great thing. Animation is a field where you have to break ground every day.” He also added that if India continues to provide the right education, these students can definitely produce master pieces.

Ian Livingstone, Chief Guest, Product Acquisition Director, Eidos and Bafta Winner, said unlike movies, games offer players a chance to interact with the medium.” He also added that even with issues surrounding it, Grand Theft Auto 4 was the largest selling game last year with 6 million copies sold in the first week of its release.

‘The Golden Cursor Animation Awards’ is an initiative honouring the best work in Indian Animation that has enthralled the world. In its first year ‘The Golden Cursor Animation Awards’ received an overwhelming response. The industry recognised them as an essential initiative to recognise and encourage the outstanding work done by Indian Animators.

The momentum continued in the second year with entries pouring in for various categories. A highlight this year was the ‘Amateur Storytelling Contest’ that received more than 200 entries.

The winners of Golden Cursor Animation Awards were chosen after a comprehensive three-stage process that involved the Indian Animation Industry nominating some of their best work across 25 categories. Post that, a panel of experts short listed the top 3-5 nominees in every category and the same were presented to an eminent jury panel comprising of the animation industry’s most revered names, who short listed the entries based on the pre - determined parameters. The distinguished panel for the awards included:

- Madhusudanan - Director and CEO-Geon Studios

- Mr.Madhavan – CEO-Crest animation

- Gitanjali Rao - Animation film maker

- Yunus Bukhari - VFX Producer, Artery Animation & Fx

- Ashish Kulkarni - CEO, Big Animation

- Puneet Sharma - Technical Advisor, Arena Animation

- Anand Gurnani - CEO, Animationxpress.com

The winners for the 2nd Golden Cursor Animation Awards included:

While commenting on the awards Neel Chowdhury, Vice President, Marketing, CNBC-TV18 and CNBC AWAAZ said, “Indian Animation industry has proved itself as being one of the best in the world. From being an outsourcing destination for animation it is increasingly being recognized for its creative contribution in the animation industry. These awards recognize the strides made by the creative professionals of the Indian Animation Industry and honour the best in the animation sector. The awards will also further spur the growth of the industry in India and empower the industry to its next level of growth.”

Mr. Anuj Kacker, Global Head, Arena Animation, said, “India is home to some of the world’s best creative talent that has produced work of global standards. At Arena Animation it has been our constant endeavor to nurture and refine that talent and give a platform to all those creative people to showcase their work to the global audience. Golden Cursor award is a manifestation of these efforts. ”.

Anand Gurnani, CEO & Co- Founder, Animation Xpress said, "We are glad to be associated with CNBC TV18 and Arena to power Golden Cursor for the second year in a row. The effort for AnimationXpress as always is to showcase the best of Indian work. We thank the participants, the jury members and the industry overall. The process of calling for entries, making the industry aware about the awards, bringing together the jury, setting the parameters and then inviting the industry to participate it’s a full circle and I would say that every passing year we will evolve and improve the mechanisms, continuously adding to the credibility and aspiration value to the Golden Cursor Awards which have already gained considerable popularity."

For further information, please contact:

Hanmer MS&L

Karishma Shah

Tel: 6752 4600

Email: karishma@hanmermsl.com