The Toonz Media Group based in Technopark here will host its 19th annual Animation Masters Summit on Friday and Saturday (May 4 and 5) at the Park Centre.

Renowned experts drawn from different parts of the globe will attend the summit, a Toonz Media Group spokesman said here.

Animation veteran Ashish Kulkarni will inaugurate the event on Friday with the who's who of the industry in attendance.

Some of the big names delivering talks include Oscar fame Resul Pookkutty; gaming expert Aravindan Neelakandan; Antonine Torres, Head, South America, YouTube; Kiran Antony, Creative Director, Ogilvy and Mather; and PC Sanath, visual effects expert for Baahubali .

Interactive sessions and workshops will also be conducted under the guidance of the media and technology experts, the spokesman added.

At least 400 members of the animation and media industry drawn from within India and overseas will attend the summit, which will honour VG Samant, patriarch of animation, with the ‘Legend of Animation’ award.

The Toonz Media Group had launched the annual Animation Masters Summit in 1999. P Jayakumar, Chief Executive Officer, said that the global media industry is changing tremendously and at a fast pace.

The summit aims at presenting new trends which can give a fresh vigour to the industry segment with the help of modern technology and taking advantage of fresh opportunities, he added.

"Events such as this would help talented Indian youth come to terms with creativity and technology at the apex level and benchmark themselves to global standards.”

The summit will feature the fourth edition of ‘Flying Elephant Competition’ under the categories short films, students’ short films and live action short films.

Around 2,000 entries from various Asian countries have been received. Eminent film director Adoor Gopalakrishnan will give away awards to the winning short films selected by the expert jury panel during the summit finale on Friday.

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