Indulge your inner art and film buff by attending this animation festival

A still from Bideshini

If everyone you know buys tickets to watch movies, why don't we buy them for film festivals? Animators Guild India Fest (AGIF) 2022 looks to open its doors to not just professionals or enthusiasts in the industry but the whole family to soak in the art of animation, films and film projects. Launched in 2020 as a web zine, the platform will host the first edition of its on-ground festival this weekend in Bandra.

A still from Into The Woods

Rituparna Sarkar, a member of the organising team, shares that the aim was to curate an international flavour animation festival in India, throwing light on animation happening in various pockets and bringing the community together in a cohesive way. Co-member Snigdha Rao adds that the platform looks to make animation, usually seen as a subset of film, accessible, so that it can carve a space for itself within the larger industry and help people understand its scope and impact.

A still from De De, which will be shown at the animation festival

With a mix of workshops, panel discussions, activities, art and design pop-up stores, a kids' zone, food, live performances by Ishaan Nigam, Sherise D'Souza and Tushar Sharma, and others, the two-day festival moves beyond animation and extends an invite to visual storytellers, film and art aficionados and anyone who generally enjoys animation and films; after all, a day spent watching short films sounds pretty good to anyone from any industry. Screening of films by international and national students and professionals have been scheduled across both days for viewers across ages, selected under various categories as well as previously unpublished indie projects.

Prateek Sethi and Rituparna Sarkar

Parallel to the event, two separate venues will host panel discussions and workshops by national and international experts including a mixer for the India chapter of Women in Animation, and a kids' workshop by Tehzeeb Khurana, animation director and founder of Toon Club, who will teach 10-to-15-year-olds the basics of frame-by-frame animation. Other sessions include the screening of Kandittund (Seen It!), by E Suresh, founder and head of Studio Eeksaurus, and director Adithi Krishnadas. The session will also delve into its making; #Artfluence by Harun Robert, the host and creative director behind the show M.A.D., will look into the life and work of a modern-day artist; the India premiere of Hard Boiled, a stop motion animation satire by Peter Sluszka, animation director of Hornet Studios, followed by a discussion on the film. Sluszka will also host a talk that will dive into the world of stop motion. Rao highlights the Script to Screen panel discussion by heavyweights in the industry. Noting the rise in independent content creation in the last few years, she elaborates, "We tried to put together a panel that would talk about what it takes to see an idea from its nascent stage as a concept line, to develop it along the way to an OTT platform."

Snigdha Rao

Co-member Prateek Sethi, reminds us to expect the screening of films with a diverse range of styles, treatments, narrative structures and storylines, sessions, and workshops that cut out the conference feel of such discussions to ensure a fun event.

On: November 26 and 27; 10 am onwards
At: Pioneer Hall, St John Baptist Road, Bandra West
Log on to: agifest.com
Cost: Rs 1,000 onwards