2nd Golden Cursor Animation Awards presented at Mumbai

* Honoring excellence in Animation VFX & Gaming *

Mumbai, 11th May 2009: 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.

‘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.

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. ”

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, 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 of the awards were :

Category

Winner

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

Email: richa.seth {at} adfactorspr(.)com

Aptech Ltd.,

Sonia Narula

Vice President

Corporate Communications

Phone: 91 11 4164 6646

Email: sonian {at} aptech.ac(.)in