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Press Release

2nd Golden Cursor Animation Awards presented at Mumbai;
the Awards honour excellence in Animation VFX & Gaming

11th May, 2009

Mumbai: Arena Animation, a global leader in hi-end animation training, in association with Cell18, one of Asia's largest production houses & creative arm of Network 18, presented 'The Golden Cursor Animation Awards’ in Mumbai. In its second year, the Awards were graced by the presence of world renowned animation and gaming 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. Ninad Karpe, CEO & MD, Aptech Ltd, Anuj Kacker, Global Head – Arena Animation & Aptech, & Ravi Dighe, Sr. Vice President, Aptech Ltd., graced the occasion.

Aptech's MD & CEO Ninad Karpe, Games Workshops' Ian Livingstone, Pixar's Anthony Christov & Big Animation's Ashish Kulkarni enjoying the Awards nite

‘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 a welcome 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.

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.”

Anuj Kacker, Global Head, Arena Animation addressing audience

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.” 

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, 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 of the Awards were:

Best Animated Feature Film Roadside Romeo - Yash Raj Films and Walt Disney and Tata Elxsi
Best Student Short Film Stuk
Best Short Film Professional Samba Mamba (Ooga Booga) - Vaibhav Studios
Best Animated TV Series Chota Bheem - Greengold
Best Animated TVC (TV Commercial) Sulekha.com - Famous Studios
Best Animation PSA (Public Service Announcement) Flavours - Viacom 18
Best Channel Id/Promo Flying Menace (Ooga Booga) by Vaibhav Studios
Best Title Sequence Roadside Romeo by Yashraj Film Studios and Walt Disney
Best Animation/Live Action LG - Prime Focus
Best VFX Feature Film Love Story 2050 - Prime Focus
Best Lyrics Roadside Romeo by Yashraj Film Studios and Walt Disney
Best Music Roadside Romeo by Yashraj Film Studios and Walt Disney
Best Animation (Professional) Roadside Romeo-Tata Elxsi
Best Mobile Game Ghatotkach: Eat on Before Dawn - Shemaroo
Best Online Casual Game Conga Bugs - Game Tantra
Best PC Game Ghajini - FX Labs
Best Animated Edutainment Content Rhymetime in Toyland by Shemaroo
Best Comics Moksha - Vimanika
Best Console Game Hanuman Boy Warrior - Aurona Studios
Storytelling Contest The Nasal Power
Best Animation (Student) Dug Dugi - Sandeep Saini, Lokendar Singh,Kapil Kalra, Amit Mathur, Hitesh Sen
Best Character Design Samba Mamba - Vaibhav Studios
Best Animated Character Samba Mamba - Vaibhav Studios
Academic Contribution to the Animation Industry Sekhar Mukherjee
Award for Future Attraction Neki and Pooch Pooch - Famous House of Animation

About Arena Animation:

Expertise that spans 15 countries, and training that is globally respected, characterize Arena. Arena Animation is a global leader in Animation and Multimedia education and trains students as well as professionals & entrepreneurs in the latest industry relevant courses. Arena's range of courses mainly comprise of training in areas such as Animation, Graphics, Gaming, Web and Interactive Multimedia among others.

Arena Animation imparts intensive training through industry relevant curriculum that prepares students for jobs with the best names in the multimedia, animation, and entertainment industry thereby enhancing the Arena Animation certification confidence amongst the animation & multimedia aspirants.

For further details, contact:

Adfactors PR Pvt Ltd
Richa Seth
Phone: (0) 9930143531
E-mail: richa.seth@adfactorspr.com

 

Aptech Limited
Sonia Narula
Vice President
Corporate Communications
Telefax : 011 416 466 46
E-mail: sonian@aptech.ac.in