Indian filmmaker bags Bitfilm Fest award
Kadi Medidi from Hyderabad has won the Bitfilm Festival 2011 award for his short film, ''Feel the Punch'', in the 3D-space (computer-generated 3D animation) category.
He is the lone Indian to win the award. The other two awards have been bagged by Germans.
Alexander Gellner from Berlin won the FX MIX (digitally composed hybrid films) award for his short film “One Minute Puberty”, and his compatriot Philipp Scheifelbein from Frankfurt picked the “MACHINIMA” (films shot live in computer games/virtual worlds) award for his “Tales of Crusade”.
Mindgame story
“Feel the Punch” is a mind-game story written by Sripathi Bakam and revolves around a beggar and a commuter waiting to board a bus.
The game takes a startling turn when the commuter realises it is being outsmarted and leaves it none the wiser, as the gizmo discovers that the good old trick of shooing away beggars isn’t working anymore.
The film, which has won a clutch of awards, and is a rage on the YouTube, has been created by a team of six animation-obsessed minds led by Kadi Medidi as director.
The film’s tagline reads: “When technology is employed by the most unlikely of people on earth and in the most unlikely of situations, you are delivered a digital power punch that leaves you dumbstruck!”
Gellner’s animated short takes a tweaked-out, one-minute crash course through puberty.
“Puberty, the fun and exciting times you had with pimples, uncontrolled new powers, and a thousand things you tried out for the first time,” writes Gellner in his synopsis.
Schiefelbein’s epic fantasy “Tales of Crusade” is all about Alisa, a woman knight who is looking for her sister. On her journey, she’s caught in the web of evil forces.
Selection of winners
The winners were chosen by the global Bitfilm audience through an online vote.
The awards were conferred on the winners at a gala ceremony held at the Max Mueller Bhavan in Bangalore on Thursday.
The occasion also saw some of the most popular films in each category being screened with Bangalore’s sound artist Yashas Shetty performing live. The festival will continue on Saturday and Sunday.
All the 59 nominated films from this year’s competition will be screened.
