Honouring the Indian Animation Industry with ‘The Golden Cursor Animation Awards’

Media News

Mumbai, March 20, 2008

CNBC-TV18 India’s leading business medium along with Arena Animation presented ‘The Golden Cursor Animation Awards’ powered by Animation Xpress.com at a glittering award ceremony which took place in Mumbai today. Mr. Tim Mostert, creator of the ‘Speedy’ comic strip in South Africa and Animation Director & Co- Founder of Spark Unlimited, Mr. Sunil Thankamushy were the revered chief guests for the evening.

‘The Golden Cursor Animation Awards’ is a path breaking initiative that has been conceptualized with the objective of enhancing and shaping the future of the Indian Animation industry and to create a unique foothold in the international animation arena.

While commenting on the need for the awards in this space Shilpi Singh, Senior Manager, CNBC - TV18 said “Animation in India is currently riding on two key factors - a large base of highly skilled labour, and low cost of production. While the industry is gaining prominence steadily, several important factors such as the government's role is supporting the animation industry, producing original content locally, and the importance of training, will steer the industry to greater heights. India definitely has a lot of advantages and tremendous potential to develop the animation industry. While the industry is gaining prominence, The Golden Cursor Animation Awards, brings to light some of the best work that this industry has projected in the last few years.”

‘Tech2 and Arena Animation along with CNBC-TV18, and Aptech have instituted ‘The Golden Cursor Awards’ powered by Animation Express felicitated the animation developers in two major categories professional and amateur. The Professional entries were further divided sector wise which includes films, TV commercials, mobile entertainment, TV channels and animation games.

The winners of these definite awards were chosen after a comprehensive three stage process that involved the Indian Animation Industry nominating some of their best work across 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 an expert team of animation experts from The Cell (The network 18 graphics & animation team), AnimationXpress.com, Editorial team & Tech2 editorial team, short listed the entries basis the pre- determined parameters.

Prior to the awards ceremony The Golden Cursor Animation Award team devised an Amateur storytelling contest. The contestants had to tell their story within 4 frames, each entry was judged on characters, props and design and story concept. The best story was developed into a movie which was executed and showcased at the awards. The winner Kristofer Paul Mendonca was awarded at the ceremony by our revered guest Tim Mostert.

Apart from the ‘The Golden Cursor Animation Award’ categories the CNBC expert panel expressed the need to introduce a separate set of awards, to spotlight people who work behind the scenes. The awards recognized categories and individuals who have contributed outstanding work to the Industry. One of the categories introduced by the CNBC expert panelist was The Hall of Fame category - a special class of award that pay’s tribute to some of the legendary films which are timeless classics and mark their testimony to the Indian Animation.

Commenting on the awards Mr. Anand Gurnani, Co Founder, CEO and Managing Editor of AnimationXpress.com said “The Indian Animation, VFX & Gaming is growing rapidly and has achieved global standards, in terms of content, product quality and timely delivery. As the information and knowledge parameter of the industry, we at AnimationXpress.com believe that the next level of for the industry requires a consolidated outreach effort and we are glad to partner with CNBC-TV18 and Arena Animation for ‘The Golden Cursor Animation Awards’. This will help us to reach the entire Network 18 Universe that animation VFX and gaming is the future of entertainment and a great career opportunity”.

The major animation studios and producers from all over the world are now turning to India for opportunities for animation projects. As the Indian animation revolution gathers momentum and readies to conquer the world, ‘The Golden Cursor Animation Awards’ will help create a benchmark for excellence in animation in India and empowers the industry to its next level of growth.

For further information, please contact:

Hanmer &Partners Communications Pvt Ltd

Karishma Shah

Tel: 6752 4600

e-mail: karishma@hanmerpr.com