I would urge upcoming animators to attend more and more festivals like Mumbai International Film Festival – Michael Dudok De Wit

Mumbai: “Both passion and logical thinking drives one to make films as one can not work without the other. Animation is only about doing it, be it doing designs, writing scripts or penning down ideas”, said Oscar award winning animator, Michael Dudok De Wit in a conversation with the media at the Film Festival today. “I would urge upcoming animators to attend more and more festivals like Mumbai International Film Festival and keep on learning”, he added.

While talking about animation created through CGIs, he said he is a hand-drawn animator and that hand-drawn animation is loved by everyone even though CGI seems to be taking over. Talking about his experience in India he told the media about his previous visits back in 1989 and the time he visited Varanasi, calling it “the most intense city” on the planet. He was much influenced by Satyaji Ray’s movie Appu Trilogy, which made him decide visiting India one day to experience the ambience and rich culture.

His film Father and Daughter won the Academy Award for Best Short Film (animated). His film The Red Turtle (2016) was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 89th Academy Awards. The film, The Red Turtle will be screened during the festival.

Suresh Eriyat a popular Indian animator who created many animation movies through his Studio Eeksaurus. Nileema Eriyat, his wife and partner of Eeksaurus shared her experience about being in animation industry in India and abroad for that last 20 years. “Animation is still fairly new in India whereas the West has animation in films since a long time now. When my husband and I started this as career, there were only a few number of animators”, she said

Suresh Eriyat’s animation film Tuk Tuk and Fisherwoman won National Award.