Indian animation had plenty to cheer about as the ANN Awards 2026 brought together a new crop of creators and celebrated the veterans who helped shape the country’s visual storytelling landscape. Held as part of the Animation & More (AM) Summit 2026 in Mumbai, the awards recognised excellence across animation, filmmaking, independent studios and emerging talent.
Organised by AnimationXpress, the awards this year expanded their creative roll call with the inaugural Ramoji Animation Excellence Awards, alongside the Ram Mohan Award for Excellence in Animation, Arnab Chaudhuri Director’s Awards and DigiCon6 Asia Awards.
Ram Mohan Award for Excellence in Animation
Some names do not merely belong to animation history; they helped write it. This year, the prestigious Ram Mohan Award for Excellence in Animation was presented to celebrated Indian painter, author, cartoonist and storyteller Aabid Surti.
Instituted by AnimationXpress in association with Graphiti Multimedia in honour of Padma Shri Ram Mohan, the award recognises individuals whose contribution to Indian animation reflects the passion, craft and pioneering spirit of the father of Indian animation.
Surti’s creative career has stretched across comics, literature, painting, theatre and screenwriting. With more than 80 books to his credit, his storytelling universe has produced characters that have travelled across generations and languages.
Among his most enduring creations is Dhabbuji, the lovable and mischievous character Surti created in 1963 for Dharmayug, the Hindi weekly from The Times of India. He also created Bahadur, widely regarded as India’s first comic-book superhero, along with characters such as Inspector Azad, Inspector Vikram and Shuja.
His work has crossed well beyond the comic strip. Surti’s short-story collection Teesri Aankh won the National Award for literature in 1993, while his novel The Black Book sparked considerable discussion and was translated into several languages. As a painter, his distinctive Mirror Collage technique earned appreciation in Japan at Expo ’70, while the Government of India’s Films Division commissioned the 1972 short film ABID to showcase his canvases.
The award was presented by Graphiti Studios co-founder Munjal Shroff; Graphiti Studios co-founder and COO Tilak Shetty and AnimationXpress founder, chairman and editor-in-chief, Anil NM Wanvari. The honour was, in many ways, a fitting full circle: Ram Mohan helped build the foundations of Indian animation, while Surti’s characters and stories helped prove just how far Indian visual storytelling could travel.
Arnab Chaudhuri Director’s Awards
From one animation legend to another, the awards then turned the spotlight on the legacy of Arnab Chaudhuri.
A visionary director, a bold storyteller who pushed boundaries beyond the ordinary, and an extraordinary artist, who,s work and thinking, was way ahead of its time. He made animation mainstream and cool when he first started at Channel V. His film, Arjun: The Warrior Prince, became the first Indian animated feature to be shortlisted for the Oscars in 2012, along with being nominated for the best feature across the most prestigious International film festivals.
Introduced six years ago, the Arnab Chaudhuri Director’s Awards celebrate two generations of creative talent: the Animation Ace Award, for established directors, and the Young Ace Award, for emerging and student filmmakers.
The 2026 Arnab Chaudhuri Animation Ace Award went to Triparna Maiti for her short animated film The Chair. She is a Mumbai based animation artist, writer and filmmaker. She studied from Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), with a specialisation in animation cinema.
The Animation Ace Award was judged by a jury comprising people who knew Chaudhuri, worked alongside him or shared his creative values. The jury included:
- Pete Bishop | ex-lecturer and filmmaker, UCLan and UAL, Central St Martins
- Rob Middleton | creative director, On Air Promos Sdn Bhd
- Orion Ross | vice president, Disney Kids and Family international animation
- Nina Sabnani | festival director, AniMela 2026
- Prakash Moorthy | professor of practice, UID NCR and GD Goenka University
- Ashima Avasthi Chaudhuri | creative consultant and executive producer
- Anil NM Wanvari | founder, chairman and editor-in-chief, AnimationXpress
The Arnab Chaudhuri Young Ace Award 2026 went to Kalyani B of National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, for her film Mareechika (The Mirage of a Dream). The Young Ace category celebrates creators still finding their feet but already making bold creative moves, a reminder that every established filmmaker once had a first frame, first film and first leap into the unknown.
Ramoji Animation Excellence Awards
The ANN Awards also added a new feather to its cap this year with the launch of the Ramoji Animation Excellence Awards.
Inspired by the legacy of late media baron Ramoji Rao, the awards celebrate creative and technical achievement across animation and the wider visual storytelling ecosystem. The recognition spans originality, craftsmanship, collaboration and innovation, with a particular focus on talent and independent studios shaping the future of Indian animation.
The inaugural awards were presented in two categories: Young Animator of the Year and Best Indie Studio of the Year.
The Young Animator of the Year award went to Unnikrishnan V, Carmond Infinity, for Maayan and Kingarakavyam. The Best Indie Studio of the Year honour went to Entangled Studio.
With the new awards, the ANN Awards have widened the net bringing independent studios and young creators into the same frame as some of the industry’s most established names.
DigiCon6 Asia Awards
The awards then looked beyond India, connecting home-grown animation talent with the wider Asian creative community through the DigiCon6 Asia Awards.
AnimationXpress continued its role as the official Indian representative for the prestigious awards, which provide creators with an international platform to showcase short-form animation and visual storytelling.
From the entries received this year, three Indian projects were selected as winners and will represent India at the DigiCon6 Asia finals in Japan, competing alongside creators from across Asia.
The winners were:
- Best Art: Jhijhak — Jigyasa Gupta
- Best Story: Watermelon Disaster Episode 5 – Varsity Junior — Karthik Rangappa and Shyam Wanare
- Gold: Kingara Kavyam (Poem of the Enslaved) — Rahul Riji Nair
The three winners now carry India’s creative flag into the wider DigiCon6 Asia competition, where their work will go head-to-head with projects from across the region.
From a pioneering cartoonist and storyteller to established directors, indie studios and young filmmakers, the ANN Awards 2026 painted a broad picture of India’s animation ecosystem. And that may be the real story behind the trophies. Indian animation is no longer content to stay in the background, it is creating characters, studios and stories with ambitions firmly set on the world stage.
