Mumbai, India, March 13: Whistling Woods International (WWI), Asia's largest Film, Television, Animation and Media Arts institute today announced that Ajay Nair, alumnus of WWI recently won an award at the International Communications Fest hosted by Manipal University.

The movie 'Almost There' won 'The Best Animation Film' trophy. Out of the 105 films which were selected for the film competition on 'Live Action' and 'Animation', only 2 animation films were short listed.

Find below the premise of the movie

'Almost There' is a 3D animation film about a boy whose several attempts to catch his school bus fail. Eventually this drives him to build an automatic device that would finally help him to wake and get ready. Though successful, his sleep catches up with him, once again. 

The judges at the International Communications Fest at Manipal University were Mike Pandey and Vincent D'souza. Rahul Bose, Prahlad Kakkar, Sankalp Meshram, Kiruba Shankar, Girish Ranade, Sandhya Ravishankar and Krishna B Mariyanka were among the other key guests.

This film was a diploma film made by WWI students; Ajay.R.Nair, Neha Ghuwalewala, Prashant Koshy, Rahul Belawade and Reeja Karai with the guidance of faculty members Gokul K ,Kumar Chandrashekhar, Dnyaneshwar Jagdale, Dhananjay Khore, and Jyotirmaya Gadnayak within the span of 6 months.

On being awarded as 'The Best Animation Film', Ajay Nair said, "Being one of the two short listed films for the festival was an achievement in itself. It feels great to receive appreciation for your work especially when the jury is impressed. I would like to thank Whistling Woods International for providing us world class education supported by highly experienced faculty and the latest technology and infrastructure."

About Whistling Woods International:

Promoted by Subhash Ghai, Mukta Arts Ltd & Film city Mumbai, Whistling Woods International is Asia's largest Film, Television, Animation and Media Arts institute. WWI provides world-class education in all technical and creative aspects of filmmaking and television through 2-year, full-time residential programs in 8 specializations namely Acting, Animation, Business of Film & Television, Cinematography, Direction, Editing, Screenwriting & Sound.

The full-time faculty of Whistling Woods International is a body of academics and industry professionals (like Subhash Ghai, Naseeruddin Shah, Rajen Kothari, Anjum Rajabali, etc), with regular guest lectures by leading film-makers, actors & technicians (like Rakeysh Mehra, Vishal Bharadwaj, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Ashok Amritraj, Shyam Benegal, Madhuri Dixit, Govind Nihalani, Farah Khan, Makarand Deshpande, Suhasini Mulay, Neeta Lulla, Rajkumar Hirani, Nagesh Kukunoor, etc).

WWI has initiated affiliations with several international film schools. Some schools that we have finalized tie-ups with are Griffith College Australia, Seneca College Canada, and The Norwegian Film Institute, Bradford College & Deakin College Australia. WWI is also in advanced talks with several top-tier film-schools from the USA, UK & Canada, with finalized agreements with these schools expected shortly.

All in all, WWI strongly marches towards becoming THE place for media education in Asia, if not the world. For more information, please visit www.whistlingwoods.net.