Ashish S. Kulkarni is Chairman of FICCI for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics Forum and Chairman of MCCIA Animation & Gaming committee. He has set up world-class animation studios in India and created the finest original Indian animated content, such as his magnum opus Little Krishna (2009) and Shaktiman (2011). Krishna and Kans was India’s first animated stereoscopy 3D feature film, released in three languages – Hindi, English and Tamil. His latest venture is India’s first girl superhero series, titled Mary Kom Jr. .
Ashish is a science graduate with Diplomas in Marketing & Sales Management, and Public Relations, Ashish worked with several companies finally becoming CEO of Reliance Animation and AIMS. Being one of the pioneers in animation education in the country after having designed the curriculums for Arena, Whistling Woods, Birla Institute of Technology, Manipal University,NIITE University, Annamalai University & Lovely Professional University, having served on the academic council of FTII Pune, Ashish S K initiated Reliance AIMS (Animation & Infotainment Media School) one of the most premium Animation and VFX education venture in the country. . As CEO he took Reliance Animation to the global arena while carving a niche as the finest Indian animation studio for original IP creation. Soon after he launched his own concern Punnaryug Creations.
Ashish has been a final jury member on iEmmys, Kid’s iEmmys, VES, 24 FPS, FICCI BAF, New York Film Festival, Banff Awards, Dada Saheb Phalke Awards.He has bagged several awards – too numerous to be named. Recently, in 2013, he was honoured with an Honorary Doctorate in Business Management by the Open International University of Complementary Medicines, Kuala Lumpur. He has one burning desire: to take Indian animated content to the global market and provide the artistic talents in our country a direction, a solid route map to take Indian Animation Industry to its heights.
Sekhar Mukherjee joined National Institute of Design as a student of Animation Design in 1992 after a two-year stint as cartoonist, illustrator, and graphic artist at the Economic Times, After graduation, Sekhar worked in various fields of Communication Design and joined NID in 2002 as a faculty in Animation Film Design. Since 2003, Sekhar has been heading Animation Film Design and mentoring the future generation of Indian graphic storytellers. He organises an international students’ animation film festival called Chitrakatha at NID.
Sekhar regularly contributes two comic strips for the Sunday cartoon column in Ananda Bazaar Patrika, a leading newspaper published from Kolkata. In May 2009, he received the CNBC-Aptech award for his outstanding contribution to animation education in India. He is also on the editorial board of Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, published by Sage Publications, UK. Sekhar is a regular invitee to many animation film festivals and events as the jury member and resource person both in India and overseas.
Ramesh Meer is the Chief Creative Director & CEO of The FX Factory, and has an experience of 44 years in the creation of Special Visual Effects for motion pictures and television as well as every aspect of film and television production. Ramesh Meer graduated in cinematography from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He decided to concentrate on special effects rather than become a cameraman and among the first films he worked on were those of Manmohan Desai starting with Amar Akbar Anthony. He worked on more than 200 feature films much before digital technology came into force. The varied range of Special Visual Effects he has worked on include optical, mechanical, miniatures, glass shots, pyro-technical effects and blue as well as green screen travelling mattes and chroma keys.
He then set up his own companies: The FX Factory and FX Post Pro. The two departments have now grown to six. As a creative director and visual effects supervisor, he has supervised and worked on the Visual Effects of more than 350 feature films, 800 teleserials as well as more than 1000 television commercials in the last four decades. He had also been responsible for system designing and integrating one of the biggest production cum post production facilities of India, CMM Studios now known as Aastha Broadcasting Network Ltd, where he served as a Vice-President (1994-1996). Ramesh Meer has also presented technical papers on Special Visual Effects and Virtual Reality in international forums like IBC in Amsterdam and ITVS in Montreux, Switzerland, apart from chairing the Broadcast India Conference for the last 19 years and a host of Indian and International Forums.
Jane Yu was born in Taiwan and received her M. A. degree in cinema studies from New York University. She began her career as a film critic and programmer. She has worked for the Women Make Waves Festival and the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and has been director of the Taiwan International Documentary Festival since 1990. She is also actively involved with many film festivals including Busan International Film Festival, Netpac, FIPRESCI, Women’s Film Festival in Seoul, Yamagata International Documentary Festival, Singapore International Film Festival as a jury member. She is also a co-founder of the Asian Network of Documentary Fund. Yu has written and translated various books, including the biography The Cinema Magician – Chen Po-Wen’s World of Cinema. Other publications include Asian Documentary Today and Women and Image: Diverse Views of Women’s Cinema. She is also the founder of the Book Meets Film Forum, which promotes the adaptation on film of Chinese books. She is also the producer of the documentary Face Taiwan: Power of Taiwan Cinema (2015).
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Gitanjali Rao graduated with honours as a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art, Mumbai, in 1994. She is a Gold Medallist with seven awards for the Best Final Year Project at the Institute. She is a self taught animator, filmmaker, illustrator, teacher and theatre artist. She has since, independently produced, directed and animated three award-winning short films, Orange, Printed Rainbow and True Love Story. She has also made a live action short Chai. She also has a string of very popular and award winning animated commercials to her credit. Gitanjali also conducts masterclasses, workshops and presentations and has been in the jury at various International Film Festivals including The Cannes Critic’s Week 2011. She has been teaching storytelling, design and 2D animation, in various animation schools in India.
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Audrius Stonys (born 1966, Lithuania) is a member of European Film Academy and European Documentary Network. He is also Representative in the Board of Management of Eurimages-Film Fund of the Council of Europe. He began his creative activities in the last years of the Soviet Empire. Since then he has made 20 films as an independent filmmaker and producer. His films won many international film awards, among them, Grand Prix in Split, Audience prize in Nyon, prizes in Bornholm, Florence, Gyor, Neu Brandenburg, Oberhausen, Bilbao and San Francisco. In 1992 the film Earth of the Blind received European Film Academy award “FELIX” as the Best European Documentary film of the Year. The years 2004-2005 Audrius Stonys spent as a documentary teacher in European Film College, Denmark. He lectures in Barcelona, Tokyo, Berkeley, Stanford, Belgrade, checkout xpornmofos.com furry porn. He tutors at DocEdge, Kolkata. He is representative of Lithuania in Eurimages. Retrospectives and master classes: Switzerland, Russia, France, Japan, Israel, Czech Republic, Germany, New York, San Francisco, Belgium, Spain, Italy. Since 2006 he has lectured in Tokyo Waseda University.
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Siddharth Kak is a documentary maker, television producer, and presenter, best known as the producer and presenter of Surabhi (1993–2001). Siddharth Kak’s Television Company, Cinema Vision India, has won several major Television Awards and three National Awards and has produced more than 100 documentaries and several long running Television series for leading Television Channels in India. In collaboration with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Siddharth Kak is, at present, producing and hosting a primetime reality show HUNNARBAAZ! Mission Skill India! for the Prime Minister’s Skill Mission. He is also the Founder Trustee of the Surabhi Foundation for Research and Cultural Exchange (Surabhi FORCE) which is developing projects of National Cultural importance
He has served variously as a Member and Chairperson (twice) of the National Short Feature Film Awards, Chairperson of the Selection Committee for the Indian Panorama, a member of the Shilp Guru Selection Committee, Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India, the International Selection Panel of Judges of the “UNESCO-Seal of Excellence for Handicrafts” Award and member of the Suraj Kund Mela Authority which administers India’s largest annual Crafts Festival. At present he is a member of the Governing Board of the Central University of Jammu and the Executive Council of the Central University of Kashmir.
A well known foodie, he has written food columns for many national newspapers and has also produced and directed two very successful food shows, The Good Food Guide and the Star Sunday Lunch. Both these programmes were telecast on Star Television. He has also published a book of poetry Looking in Looking out and compiled a quiz book on India’s heritage Surabhi ke Sau Sawaal.
Uma da Cunha is a Programmer, journalist, researcher and casting director. She obtained her Masters Degree in English Literature from Delhi University and taught the subject for a year at Miranda House. After working as Copywriter with Lintas Advertising, Uma joined the Directorate of Film Festivals in Delhi as Deputy Director in the early 1970s. Over the years Uma has been the India representative of international film festivals held in Toronto, Dubai and more recently Busan. She is the Founder-Adviser of Indian film festivals held in London, Los Angeles, Stuttgart, The Hague, Florence, Houston, Melbourne. She programmes for the MJio MAMI and the International Film Festival of Kerala. She has been on the jury of Cannes International Film Festival (2009), Un Certain Regard (2010), the FIPRESCI jury at Pusan International Film Festival. In November 2015 she served on the International Jury for Feature Films at Cochin’s First All Lights India International Film Festival as also IFFI. She has also been active in film societies such as Anandam and initiated Dristhi. She also served briefly as President for Maharashtra Region of the Federation of Film Societies. Her work as casting director includes films such as Monsoon Wedding, Holy Smoke, Lagaanand Water among others. She has written extensively on the cinema and has edited several publications. She now edits Film India Worldwide.
Mathieu Roy is a Montreal-based filmmaker who works in both documentary and fiction. For the last decade, he has traveled the world while collaborating with a number of inspiring artists, including legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese. After a degree in Political Science and a brief stint in journalism, Mathieu Roy enrolled in the filmmaking programme at the New York Film Academy in 2001. In 2002, he entered Montreal’s National Film Institute (INIS) where he directed four short films and also met François Girard becoming a close collaborator. In 2003, Mathieu was hired as Martin Scorsese’s personal assistant for the filming of The Aviator. In 2005 his film François Girard’s Three-Act Journey was awarded the Prix Gémeaux for the Best Cultural Documentary. In 2006, he directed La Peau de Léopard, a documentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict featuring Québécois iconic journalist Pierre Nadeau. In April 2009, at the opening of the 27th International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA), Roy presented Death in Venice, a musical journey with Louis Lortie. The film was awarded the Prix du public ARTV and also screened at the Louvre, in Paris, and at the prestigious Morgan Library in NYC. In the summer of 2011 Mathieu completed Ecclestone’s Formula, a critical documentary about Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone. His documentary feature Surviving Progress (2011) is a reflection on the dark side of the ideology of progress and the future of our civilization. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and also traveled to important film festivals (IDFA in Amsterdam, DIFF in Dubai, FIFE in Paris, Ambulante in Mexico City, Planet Doc in Poland, Turin, Rio, Moscow, Göteborg, Tokyo, Goma, Kuala Lumpur, Bogota Vancouver, Mumbai). In 2013, Mathieu made his first fiction feature Another House, a family drama dealing with Alzheimer’s disease visit https://カジノ777.com/pachislot/blood-suckers-2/.
Biju Dhanapalan or Biju D, as he is popularly known, is one of the pioneers of visual effects in the Indian film industry. After obtaining a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, he went onto study Product Design at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay. Here, he accidentally stumbled upon the magic of graphics and animation. This trans-disciplinary training and expertise helped him in his career spanning two decades. Biju has also been involved in stereoscopic projects across varied media. Starting his career as a visual effects supervisor in 1997, Biju D has delivered visual effects for more than 100 feature films and leads a team of visualisers, animation and compositing artistes. Some of the major feature films featuring his visual effects magic include Dumkata, Johnny Gaddar, Lage Raho Munnabhai, Naina, Pinocchio, Yakeen, Hawa, Cape Karma and many more. Recently, he has joined hands with Frameboxx Animation & Visual effects for a project-based visual effects course that leverages upon Frameboxx’s Incubation Facility at Mumbai. The two-month full-time course is aimed at creating production-ready visual effects artists in India.
Mike Pandey is an Indian film maker specializing in films about wildlife and the environment. He has won over 300 awards for his work to spread awareness about biodiversity and species conservation. Born in Kenya, the Nairobi National Park,…
Don Askarian is an international producer, film director and screenwriter of Armenian origin. He was born in Stepanakert, Nagorno Karabakh. In 1967 he went to Moscow and studied history and art. He worked as an assistant director and film critic for a year after his study but was imprisoned between 1975 and 1977. In 1978 he emigrated from the USSR to West Berlin. Since then he has lived and worked in Germany, The Netherlands and in Armenia, where he founded his own film company Margarita Woskanian Film Production (1982). His first film was The Bear, based on Chekhov’s story (1983-1984). In 1985-1988 he made Komitas, which won several prizes at international film festivals and there was no looking back. With Komitas and Avetik Don Askarian became the most important Armenian film director”
In 1995 founded the production and distribution companies, Don Film in Armenia and in 1998, Askarian Film in Germany. In 1996 Don Askarian’s book Dangerous Light was published in Armenia. The book includes scripts, essays, interviews by Don Askarian as well as reviews of his films by the world press. He is a prize-winner at several international film festivals. Critics describe his films as “magic realism” but he himself describes his shooting method as the “creation of new reality”.
TV-Stations like ARD, WDR, ZDF, Channel 4, Arte, but also Belgian, Greek, Swiss, Slovakian, Armenian TV Channels are constant co-producers and buyers of all his films, which were sold and broadcast worldwide about 80 times. He is perhaps the only director whose “purely Armenian” films have been professionally distributed and proved financially successful in Germany, Japan, Holland, England.
Retrospectives of his films were held at the Philadelphia Filmfest of World Cinema ’93; Int’l Filmfest Figueira da Foz ’93; lnternational Filmfest Sao Paulo ’93; Tokyo lnternational Filmfest 1994 (https://www.ibetnetwork.com/new-casinos). In 2002 Don Askarian was honored with a Harvard Film Archive retrospective. In 2004, he received the Golden Camera Award for Life Achievement at Int. ART Film Festival, Slovakia.