Zee Institute of Creative Art (ZICA), the nation's first full-fledged Classical and Digital Animation Training Academy, was started in 1995 at Padhmalaya Studios, Hyderabad with stalwarts from Soyutz Multfilm Russia and NID. This year, 2015 marks 20 years of its existence. Eminent faculties who helped establish the foundation of the Institute are: Victor, Alexander, Tarasov, Irina Sakian, Dhimant Vyas, Prakash Murty, Srinivas Bhakta, I.S. Mathur, R.L. Mistry and Yeshu Patel.

In this long journey of ZICA, its students have achieved a lot of accolades for Brand ZICA. The student films have won awards and recognitions in Chicago, Hiroshima, Hyderabad children's film festival, Germany, Russia and many more countries. It has given stalwarts to the Indian as well as International animation/Vfx/movie industries. Zicaites have led in movies like Magadheera, Bahubali, Makkhi, Bhag Milkha Bhaag, Elizabeth, Pirates of the Caribbean and many more. Zicaites have also been in the core teams of large companies like TATA Interactive, Whistling Woods, Disney India, Prana, Dream Works and Sony motion pictures, amongst others.

ZICA Student Awards include:

- National Award 2014 - Best Animation Film 2014, Mr.Sukankan Roy (DAFM)
- Aching art (Short Animation Film) (Mr.Pradipta Santra, B.Sc in Animation & VFX)
o 2nd prize, Mumbai Shorts International Film Festival 2013
o Official Selection - Festival Du Film d'Animation de Paris, 2014
o Official Selection - Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival 2014
- The Shinner (Short Animation Film)
o Winner 3rd prize Annual Graphics and Animation Film Awards (AGAFA) - 2013, Indore
o Nominated for 6th Jaipur International Film Festival JIFF-2014
- Student Nuker of the Year (Competition by NUKE Software) - Mr.Pankaj Bandolia
- A Story (2D Animation Short Film) - Winner of Best Animation Movie (Student category), Bangalore Shorts Film Festival, 2012
- ZICA Cochin students' Film - Winner of Live Action Short Film at Malayala Manorama Short Film Festival, 2012

- ZICA Indore's Film "Hum Hai Na" Won 1st Prize in 48 hrs Film making competition held by The Animation Society of India (TASI).
- ZICA Indore students has won IMA Animation Maestro Competition - 2014 in 3D Animation & Script Writing Category
- Mr. PARASH SHARMA (ZICA Guwahati student) for winning National level artwork competition organised by WACOM.
- Special mention, ZICA Guwahati's student was part of the India's Magnus Opus movie Baahubali

Awards for ZICA:

ZICA has been awarded with the 'Asia's Best Institute in Graphic and Animation Design' category in Asia's 100 Best & Fastest Growing Education Institute Award 2013' organized by WCRC Leaders

- Asia Edition and process evaluated & validated by KPMG in India

ZICA Indore was awarded with the Best Animation & Visual Effects Institue of Indore, Madhya Pradesh, "EDUCATION EXCELLENCE AWARD 2014". The Award was presented by Shri. Babulal Gaur, Home Minister of MP.

Eminent Alumni of ZICA include:

ZICA Students get placed at the following Studios:

- Prana, Mumbai
- Prime Focus, Mumbai
- Red Chillies, Mumbai
- DQ, Hyderabad
- Pixion, Mumbai
- Reva, Mumbai
- Frames productions,
- Rhythm & Hues (R & H), Mumbai & Hyderabad
- TATA Elxsi Ltd, Mumbai
- Trace VFX, Mumbai & USA
- Anibrain, Pune
- Famous Studios, Mumbai
- Xentrix, Bengaluru
- Maya Entertainment Ltd, Mumbai
- L. V. Prasad Group, Chennai

Key achievements of ZICA:

1. AESTHETICS 2014 - For the first time, we have conducted National Student Meet (AESTHETICS 2014) in Karjat (Near Mumbai). Students have also participated in national short film competition. This event is highly appreciated by our students and Business Partners.

2. Pedagogy Revised - Project / portfolio / short film is very important for every students to get absorbed in a good studio so we have upgraded our curriculum by introducing project based learning from assignment based. This has been developed through extensive research and testing to stay ahead of competition from a quality delivery perspective.

3. ANITALK - We have created online master class (ANITALK) by renowned industry professionals such as Shri Ram Mohan - Father of Indian Animation, Shri Bhimsain Khurana - Pioneer of Indian Animation, Shri A. K. Bir - National Film Award winner for Best Cinematography, Shri Kireet Khurana - 5 President's Award & 4 International Award's Recipient, Shri Indraneel Guha - Head of Production at VCL, Tata Elxsi Ltd., Shri Hrishikesh Andulekar - CG Head, Pixion and many more stalwarts.

4. Short Film Competition: Students won many awards at Mumbai, Kolkata, Noida, Goa and Paris film festivals.

5. Game Concept Art Contest: We had an exclusive tie-up with Custom Technologies to develop concept art for URBAN VIKING, mobile game. Today URBAN VIKING game has characters designed by our students.

Report By: Kamalprit Singh

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