Celebrated last evening at the open lawns at The Renaissance, Powai, the FICCI Best Animated Frames Awards have grown bigger in terms of scale in comparison to the first edition of BAF held last year. A remarkable thing about the awards was that the winning animation professionals recieved their trophies from global and national luminaries from the entertainment mainstream including the likes of Barrie Osborne, Yash Chopra, Jon Niermann, Manmohan Shetty, Amit Khanna and Ramesh Sippy.

Indian Animation veteran Bhimsen Khurana recieving the BAF Special contribution to the Animation Industry(Indian) from LOTR producer Barrie Osborne

The excitement, the nervousness, the anticipation, the honor... that's what make award ceremonies something that everyone looks forward to.

Each awards ceremony has its moments and amongst the best moments at BAF was when Indian animation veteran Bhimsen Khurana recieved the Special contribution to the Animation Industry(Indian) and his trophy was presented to him by none other than Lord of The Rings Producer Barrie Osborne.

Khurana has to his credit many firsts in Indian animation including the first Indian animated TV series Lokgatha and Vartaman.

Retorting to the long citation read in his honor which listed his achievements over the last 50 years in Film, Television and animation, the modest Khurana said "Was it me?" Later on he commented to Animation 'xpress that "Today with this recognition I feel that hardwork pays and though they take their own time, results do come"

The BAF award for Special contribution to the Animation Industry(International) went to Mike Young of Mike Young Productions. Mike who could not make it to India sent in a special recorded message which was played out as a representative from his company collected his award.

Amongst other moments were when the ecstatic JWT team was all shouts, catcalls and whistles even as JWT's Bhaskar Mani went onstage to recieve his BAF Award for the best Social Welfare Film (Professional) for 'Bust that Noma'. MAAC student Neha Gupta was overwhelmed as she went on stage to recieve her BAF award for Best Promo (Students) for 'Concept Ad Motorola V3'.

Indian studios that figured in the winning list included Crest Animation, Paradox Studios, Dhruva Infotech and Vaibhav Studios.

Electronic Arts, Turner Entertainment and Studio Nix were amongst the international winners.

Here is a complete list of winners -

Short Films Professional -
Studio Nix, Australia for 'Twelve Months'

Short Films Students -
Eva Steegmayer, Institut of ANimation, Visual Effects and Digital Post Production Germany for 'Das Flops'

Special Jury Award -
Sudhanshu & Harun from NID for 'Once upon a Tree'

TV Episode -
Crest Animation/Mike Young Productions, USA for Rain Rain go away -Jakers

AD Film
Vaibhav Studios for Amaron -Pandu Mangal

Promos Professional
Turner Entertainment for Marinate You

Promos Students
Neha Gupta (MAAC) for 'Concept AD Motorola V3'

VFX (in film)
Yashraj Films - Dhoom

Social Wlefare/NGO (Professional)
J Walter Thomson for 'Bust that Noma'

Gaming
Electronic Arts, USA, for 'Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban'

Special Jury Award
Paradox Studios for Bomberbabe

Mobile Gaming
Dhruva Infotech for Pat Cash Tennis Pro

Special Contribution to the Animation Industry (Indian)
Bhimsen Khurana

Special Contribution to the Animation Industry (International)
Mike Young


Watch out for Animation 'xpress FRAMES 05 special issue (no3) for a special slide show and also for what the winners, nominees and industry had to say about BAF! Stay Tuned.