ASIFA India, the renowned professional body recognised by UNESCO and dedicated to the advancement of animation as an art form and a powerful communication tool, celebrated International Animation Day (IAD) ’23-24 in Pune on 4 May 2024. ASIFA, founded in 1960 in Annecy, France, has grown to include representation from over 42 countries and has a global footprint in more than 70 countries.
Throughout the year, ASIFA India engages in various activities such as workshops, seminars, case studies, film screenings, the popular monthly CGMeetup series, community activities, and educational events designed to support the Indian artist community. Recently Asifa India organised its Animation Day at Nehru Memorial Hall, Camp, Pune with an exciting line up of events. IAD-Pune was sponsored by NPAV net protector Anti-Virus, XP pen and event partners were Frameboxx 2.0, Arena Animation, Tron Education, MAAC & Veda Animation. Program started with Ganesh Vandana by Gaurav Suryavanshi.
After the lamp lighting from dignitaries, the event started with welcome to all the Expert Speakers, Pune sub-chapter Partners & Sponsors.
Chief guest and FICCI AVGC Forum chairman Ashish Kulkarni delivered keynote address and briefed about various initiatives taken in the AVGC sector in India and applauded the role of Asifa India for the last 24 years to build the community across 15 sub-chapters in India.
Asifa India president Sanjay Khimsera gave a brief about Asifa International & Indian team and updated the audience on various initiatives taken across India to help the community of artist. Khimsera admired role played by various stakeholders from Pune Sub-chapter for making collaborative efforts and coming together to celebrate the art. IAD Pune saw all the leading training institutes including Arena Animation, Frameboxx, MAAC, Tron, Veda Animation, studios including PhilmCGI, M2 Animation, ILM, GodSpeed Games and colleges contributing to the success of community building in AVGC sector.
First knowledge session of the day was on gaming by GodSpeed Games co-founder & director Druhin Mukherjee, who presented details about gaming industry and also conveyed the scope of various job roles in game design & game art areas and future of gaming in India.
PhilmCGI head of studio Amit Bhardwaj was scheduled to share a presentation and Mr. Vikas represented his studio and shared studio reel of PhilmCGI in animation.
Post lunch, Vinita Bachani representing WIA – India Collective presented the activities of Women in Animation – India Collective across India and also inspired young girls to take the centre stage.
Industrial Light & Magic, Mumbai senior compositor Manan Desai took an immersive session on the visual effects industry and gave detailed inputs about internship requirements at ILM India and its work culture.
After ILM’s presentation, M2 Animation, Mumbai senior development producer Subhajit S Sarkar took an insightful session on top few CG based projects from M2 Animation and also gave details about expectations from students on show reel creation, when they apply to the studio.
Industry experts from Pune present during the occasion included Pune supporters Bachani, Sarkar, Ashish Rathi, Nikhil Halli, Rishi Acharya, Rahul Bhojalwar, Poulmoee Bondre, Sanjay Bodhke, Pranay Binayke and Prasad Pise. After the presentations from various industry experts on animation, visual effects and gaming, top student winners from various competitions were felicitated by the experts and sponsors. Mandar Bothare, Palak Tayawade and Akansha Wavhal anchored the festival of Pune – IAD. Frameboxx students actively volunteered to ensure a smooth and successful IAD in Pune. A global film showcase of Best Collections from Asifa Awards of Excellence & Animayo – Spain added a touch of international flair. Watch some glimpses here:
Dedicated to nurturing a vibrant community of creative individuals, Asifa India will organise Mumbai–International Animation Day at Bharat Ratna Gaan Samragyi Lata Mangeshkar Natya Gruha Auditorium, Mira Bhayandar Area, Mumbai on 25 May from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm.
The AVGC industry would greatly benefit from the valuable insights of experts like ILM India compositing supervisor Sarika D Salian, The Mill project lead Vinod Shantaram More, Folks VFX head of learning & development Jayanti Mahapatra, UnderDOGS Gaming Studio founder Vaibhav Chouhan. The event will host a round table with IDreamz Studio & Arjun Tandan Films, Inbox Music and Pixel Art Film Festival showcasing student shorts. Mumbai coordinators includes Asifa India’s executive council member Devashree Vora and supporters include Rajeev Thakre & Sumit from Arena Andheri & Borivali. XP-Pen & BigFM 92.7 are event sponsors. One can register to participate via www.asifaindia.com or below link: https://lnkd.in/dVp_U9hZ
During the past few years, Asifa India has organised over 50 events and has been actively involved to support the industry. Recent events had global experts like Aubry Mintz, Noriko Matsumoto & Mie Onishi Shimooka, Almu Redondo, Ron Diamond, Jan Nagel, Chatrasal Singh, Lisa Goldman, Binal Shah, Pavani Rao Boddapati, Quentin Staes-Polet, Vik Malyala, Shobu Yarlagadda, Kabir Verma, Supriya Yarlagadda, Charuvi Agrawal, Prasad Onkar, Mehul Hirani, Saraswathi “Vani” Balgam, Jigesh Gajjar, Dhimant Vyas, B.N. Vichar, Munjal Shroff, Christopher Keenyan, Heather Kenyon, Vivek Reddy, Aarthi Videep, Swathi P.N., Gayatri Sethi, Nikhil Chandra, Dorababu Achanta, Rochana Jalan, Kiran Prasad, Harshit Penamata, Bhavika Chouhan, Prashant Buyyala, Vaishnavi Palleda, Saurav Sharma, RajaSekhar Buggaveeti, Siva Kumar Kasetty, Ashish Thapar, Vrinda Sood, Subrata Roy, Sneha, Divya Tak, Rituparna Sarkar, Roshni Kakad, Snigdha Rao, Vivek Ram, Rupali Gatti, Rajat Ojha, Prashant Nair, Jayanti Mahapatra, Yograj Bhat, Divya Tak, Rituparna Sarkar, Roshni Kakad, Snighda Rao, Sneha, Tanvi Mestry, Kalp Sanghavi, Nirupa Road, Nandini Rao, Nikhita Prabhudesai, Arvind Jeen, Suchana Saha, Narayan Ghara, Ravindra M Biswas, Vipul Agrawal etc.
Asifa India has also showcased “Best of Annecy 2023”, “Best of Animayo 2023” and the “Siggraph Asia 2022 – Computer Animation Festival (CAF) Travelling Show” during IAD events.
Asifa India would love to work with various stakeholders to create a lasting impact on the industry in India. Know more about recent updates on: https://shorturl.at/uGLRW
