Ketan Mehta and Nina Sabnani to be honoured at Animation Masters Summit

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 28 (PTI): Renowned film-maker, media entrepreneur and a pioneer for the Indian animation industry,Ketan Mehta and artist-academic Nina Sabnani will be honoured at the 2021 edition of Animation Masters Summit.

Organised by ''http://www.toonz.co''Toonz Media Group, the virtual Summit will be held from May 4 to 8 over the Zoom platform, a company statement said here.

For her invaluable contributions to animation and other visual art forms, spanning over a career of more than two decades, Prof Sabnani will be awarded the 'Legend of Indian Animation Award' at Animation Masters Summit 2021, it said.

Sabnani, who now teaches at the IDC School of Design, at IIT Bombay, is one of the first women artists to foray into the field of animation in the country.

A brilliant visual story-teller and recipient of several national and international awards, she received the National Award for Best Animation Film for her film 'Hum Chitra Banate Hai'.

A Fulbright Fellow, Prof Sabnani has also done extensive research in the areas of Folklore, Visual Ethnography, Participatory Film-making and learning pedagogies of traditional artists, among others.

Internationally acclaimed film-maker Ketan Mehta, best known for award-winning films like 'Bhavni Bhavai' (Gujarati), 'Mirch Masala', 'Maya Memsab', 'Mangal Pandey', 'Holiand Sardar' (all Hindi), will be given 'Special Contribution to Indian Animation Industry Award'for his overall contributions to the industry.

Mehta is also the founder of Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics, a leading visual arts academy in India, and Cosmos Maya Studios, one of the top animation studios in the country best known for popular animation IPs like 'Motu Patlu', 'Kisna,' 'Vir- the robot boy', 'Een-Meena-Deeka,' etc.

Both the awards will be presented at the inaugural session of the Summit on May 4, it said.

''Every year at Animation Masters Summit we give away the Legend Award to a legendary animation master in recognition of their life-long contribution to Indian Animation.Prof Nina Sabnani is one of the most revered figures in Indian animation today.She is like a guru to all of us in the fraternity,'' said P.Jayakumar, CEO Toonz Media Group.

''Ketan Mehta, who is being awarded the Special Contribution Award, has helped put the Indian animation community on the global map by founding one of the most successful animation studios in India.'' ''He also played a significant role in fostering new talent by establishing the Maya Academy,'' Jayakumar added.

The five-day event will include sessionsby a galaxy of stalwarts from diverse fields of media and entertainment across the world.

Indian film-maker Subhash Ghai will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural session.

The theme for this edition of the Summit is 'Embracing Diversity: Finding beauty in our differences.' The event will also have two panel discussions one on the scope of animation in Education Technology (EdTech) and another curated by Animation World Network (AWN) focussing on diversity in the kids entertainment industry, the statement added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)