A frame from Dried Up, made by a group of animators from a government-backed academy

Not just attracting investment for the state, the government?s IT drive is bearing fruit for the local animation industry, too.

A group of young animators from the government-backed Toonz Webel Academy has won a Special Jury Award at the recently-concluded FICCI BAF 2006.

Indranarayan Dutta, Tirthadip Ghosh, Basudev Nag, Shantanu Pal, Gargi Sen, Anupam Majumdar and Supam Adhikari ? all from the institute?s recently-passed-out 2D animation batch ? won the award for Dried Up, a two-minute short film on water scarcity developed by the group as its final project.

?The first prize in the short film (student) category was won by a group from France. But the jury members felt that it was a very close call and decided on the special award for Dried Up,? said Srimati Mukherjee, project leader at Toonz Webel Academy.

FICCI instituted the BAF (Best Animated FRAMES) Awards two years ago to recognise excellence in the animation sector. The awards are a part of FICCI-FRAMES, an annual ?global convention on the business of entertainment?, held in Mumbai last week. At this year?s event, 312 entries poured in from 15 countries.

?I was really excited to hear the news, since no animated film from Bengal has ever received a nomination, let alone won an award,? said Indranarayan, currently working with Toonz in Thiruvananthapuram. Others in the group are also working in different animation companies around the country.

Dried Up opens with a man unable to sleep because he hears water dripping somewhere. But he?s too lazy to get up and locate the source. Next morning, he wakes up to find there?s no water left in the world? from the canals of Venice to the Nile.

?We?ve planned to get together and watch Dried Up once again, since some of us had to leave before the movie was ready to be shown,? Indranarayan added.

?This award should go a long way in showcasing Calcutta's home-grown technical as well as artistic talent and abilities in the field of animation,? IT secretary G.D. Gautama said.