A very unique and interesting animation international film festival, Lumi?re Digitale, was conducted as a part of the 3 – day Supinfomania festival in DSK Supinfocom International campus based in Pune, India. This two-day animation festival, Lumi?re Digitale was aimed at federating animation communities, with a particular focus on the Asian region, by being a platform for original, innovative content. The festival brought together international directors, animators and CG artists as well as high-profile speakers for three days of Supinfomania. Along with the screening of the 250 students‘ short animation films, the festival included a unique Buyers – Producers Summit.
Mrs Tanvi Kulkarni, Joint MD from DSK Supinfocom International Campus shared, “We feel there are huge gaps between teaching, Studio environment, content developers, buyers and broadcasters. Many mid size studios or entrepreneurs (It could be an aspirant student) don‘t have any clue about the market dynamics and how they should go about. Therefore we tried to provide a platform wherein everybody can interact, discuss and share the knowledge.”
The Buyers and Producers Summit brought together on one platform Global Animation Stalwarts, top of the league Broadcasters and Studios from all over the world to India and have close interaction with the Indian studios, large, big and small. The Summit included Keynote Presentations, Panel Discussions, Pitching Sessions and Mentoring and feedback to selected animation pitches. It was designed especially for Indian Studios seeking to pitch their own content as well as seeking co-production deals as well as collaboration. The summit was powered byAnimationXpress.com.
The summit featured International stalwarts such as Mike Young, CEO, Moonscoop USA, Paul Robinson, Former Managing Director, Kidsco, Linda Simensky, Vice President, Children‘s Programming PBS, Krishna Desai, Director, Programming South Asia Turner International India Pvt. Ltd, Biren Ghose, Head, Technicolor India, Rajiv Chilaka, Founder & Managing Director, Green Gold Animation and AK Madhavan, CEO, Crest Animation ; Ashish Kulkarni,CEO, Reliance Animation among others.
The two-day sessions deliberated the fact that the Indian Animation Ecosystem with more than 450 Studios has been making its mark on the global map for more than a decade now. India has now reached a take off point where Indian studios are not only excelling as production facilities but also as co-producers and creators and owners of their own shows (Intellectual Property), their own icons and characters. Indian companies have also begun to step out, fund, acquire and partner the best in the world.
The festival also had an Animation Marathon wherein participating student teams had to create a 3D Animation film in a stipulated time of 36 hours. The Marathon was flagged off on December 2 at 5 pm and ended at 5 am on December 4. The esteemed jury consisting of stalwarts from the industry then judged the winners at a screening of these films.
Animation films produced by DSK Supinfocom students which have received international acclaim and won several awards at various international festivals were also screened on the occasion. Films which have won various laurels like Special Mention at ASIFA‘s IAD, best student film at Anifest 2011 (India), best student film at Shot too Short (India), Best Creativity award at Digicon-6 (Japan) grabbed the attention of the discerning audience.
Globalization and the increasingly globally competitive environment means Cost, Scale, Quality and Fresh Appealing Cultural content is at a higher premium then it ever was. The Global Ecosystem of Broadcasters, Distributors, Publishers, Buyers and Studios is working closer with the Indian studios.