*Maya Academy for Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) wins dual awards at FICCI BAF Awards 2006*

It is really great to see Indian students achieving so much with their talent in a international competition.

A team of student animators from Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics Ltd (MAAC), one of India's leading Animation and Visual Effects training academy won the Best Student Animation Film- Social Welfare Award at the FICCI BAF Awards 2006 held in Mumbai. The film that won the award, titled 'Takes You Higher?' dealt with the social message of anti-smoking. The other two films nominated in Social Welfare Award category: ' Just the last puff' and 'Fusion' were also from MAAC, thus students from MAAC swept all nomination slots in this award category.

Maya Entertainment Ltd, the parent company of MAAC also won an award for the out standing Visual Effects work done for the film Mangal Pandey - The Rising, which was awarded the Best Visual Effects in a Motion Picture award.

Commenting on the achievement of MAAC students, Naveen Gupta, COO, MAAC, said, "There was a fierce competition in this category as there were around 85 films competing for the coveted award. There were films from prestigious Animation training institutes and universities from around the world including Vancouver Film Studio, Sheridan etc."

The student members from the winning team of the award winning animation film ' Takes You Higher?' Satbir Singh, Deepti Gandhi and Gaurav Saini are currently working with UTV's Animation Studio in Mumbai. The winning film, has also won accolades in the past by bagging the Best Animated Short Film - Silver Trophy, Best Story / Concept Award and Best Modelling & Texturing award at the 24fps Animation Awards last year, an annual celebration and recognition of animation talent organized by MAAC and endorsed by the Industry.

'Takes You Higher?' was also nominated in the top five films at the Asia Image Apollo Awards 2005 held in Singapore under the category of Best TVC Under USD 15000. And more recently, the film was also awarded the Special Juror's Recognition by ASIFA India at the ASIFA Animation Day festivities.

Regards,
Tejash Shah
Web Designer, Binary Infotech
http://www.binaryinfotech.co.in
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