ABAI fest brings the Animation world to India

MYSORE, INDIA: ABAI Fest 2013 India's 1st exclusive film and digital arts festival for Animation, Visual effects Gaming & Comics was inaugurated in Mysore today at the Manasa Gangotri, University of Mysore.

Less than 5 per cent of the world's film festivals are dedicated to films made exclusively in animation and with visual effects. This festival presents a "buffet" of the best animated feature films; short films; game cinematics and visual effects that have never been screened in India.

ABAI supports the ambition of several constituencies to become a global player in animation, visual effects, computer games and comics (AVGC). ABAI has partnered with the government of Karnataka to develop the eco-system for talent, production and global connectivity.

"ABAI fest 2013 is a dream come true for the Indian VG community, we are featuring over 50 hours of world leading content from Hollywood, Europe and India," said Biren Ghose, president, ABAI and Country Head, Technicolor India

This event witnessed stalwarts such as Shelley Page Head, International outreach, DreamWorks Animation, presenting her "Eye Candy Show" which has travelled across the world, Ron Diamond, a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars) presented "The Giants' first steps" and the ABAI special edition of "Show of Shows" have all come together to launch this festival in their first full blown avatar.

Srivatsa Krishna, IAS, secretary, Department of IT, BT and S&T and Secretary, e-governance, Government of Karnataka said, "We are committed to ensuring that the AVGC initiative by the Government of Karnataka is taken to greater heights and are working on several initiatives to make this state the talent hub for the country. We are committed to making Karnataka the global hub for all digital content, manipulation and storage such that major global Hollywood and other productions, where digital content plays has a significant share, should be created here."

"These are the milestones we have chartered on the way to creating a ‘digital media city' as well as a Media Park to support the media and entertainment industries. Launching ABAI fest becomes an important brand building for these objectives and engages a wide cross section of stakeholders who should come here annually and become the Center point for attracting producers, directors and studios to Karnataka for their future work," added Krishna.

Krishna further added, "This will be the prime AVGC cluster and will become the engine for global digital production after we have implemented our vision. We are pleased to support ABAI in making this a globally recognized festival, hopefully one that becomes an Annecy and Cannes someday soon."