(Video) M'sian students bag top award for animation short film with final year project - Updated

PETALING JAYA: A Malaysian team won the Flying Elephant award during the two-day Toonz Animation Masters Summit in Trivandrum, Kerala, yesterday with their final year project.
The team of graduating students from Multimedia University, Cyberjaya bagged the award for their animated short film The Cliff House which tells the story of an old man who is determined to build a tower in order to reach his goals.
According to lead animator Tan Lih Haur, 24, the team consisting of Wong Jin Yao, 23, (director, editor, lighting and shading artist), Woon
Chee Khai, 23, (modelling artist, lighting and shading artist, simulation and effects artist, compositor) and Kong Wei Cheng, 24, (art director, animator, digital matte artist), The Cliff House was initially their final year project which they had submitted in order to graduate in their course.
"We had done the short (film) and had submitted it as our final year project to graduate by November, last year.
"We felt the impulse to polish up the film and the team had it completed by March before deciding to post as many entries as possible for various competitions both at the local and international stage," Tan said when contacted by theSun, today.
He said the short film also earned a nomination the 4th International Festival of Short Films on Culture & Tourism which was held in March at Jaipur, India.
While the team felt happy that their work has been recognised, Tan said their immediate plan is to seek employment.
"We had a discussion on possibly collaborating for future projects but at present we want to seek for jobs and get better at what we do," he added.
The two-day summit featured leading animators from all around the world. Among them were lFred Wang, Vice-President of the China Film Foundation, Lauren Glaubach, Head of Programming and Strategic Management, YouTube Family and Learning, Amy Blair, Programming Manager, YouTube Kids, John McKenna, creative producer, among others.
The second prize in the Animation Short Film category went to Indonesian director Gloria Abigail for her work Oh Bey, while the third and fourth prizes went to Taiwanese director Po-Han for his film Close Circuit and Joe Chang from China for Rain Lotus.
Venika Mitra's All I Want won the top honours in the live action short film category while Akhil Narayanan's production Planto was adjudged the best short film in the student category. The competition this year received over 925 entries from up and coming and aspiring animators.
In the live action short film category, the second prize went to Afghanistan director Masood Islami for his work Swap, third prize to Vishal Srivastava from India for Wajood and fourth prize to Malaysian director Tan Ce Ding for his work Hawa.
Watch the short film here: