Eminent animation filmmaker Nina Sabnani has been chosen for the Lifetime Achievement Award of the 18th International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK), in recognition of outstanding contributions to documentary and short filmmaking. The award carries a cash prize of ₹2 lakh, a sculpture and a citation.
Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan will present the award at the festival’s closing ceremony at Kairali Theatre, Thiruvananthapuram on September 30. Ten films by Nina Sabnani will be screened at the festival, to be held from September 25 to 30 at Kairali, Sree, and Nila theatres in the capital.
Ms.Sabnani, who received the National Film Award for Best Animation Film in 2016 for Hum Chitra Banate Hain, is an animator, illustrator, researcher and educator. Her films weave together art, storytelling, ethnography and oral traditions, with her collaborative works with artists and folk storytellers receiving national and international acclaim.
Nina created the film Hum Chitra Banate Hain in collaboration with Sher Singh, a traditional Bhil artist from Madhya Pradesh. Her other notable films include Mukand and Riaz, Tanko Bole Chhe (The Stitches Speak) and Baat Wahi Hai.
She has been honoured with the Big Little Book Award for Illustration (Tata Trusts, 2018), the Legend of Indian Animation Award (Toonz Media Group, 2021) and the Ram Mohan Award of Excellence in Animation (2024). Her collaborative project with artist Shrilekha Sikander, Fleeting Moments, was exhibited at COP27 in Egypt in 2022.
Sabnani co-founded the Animation Design Programme at the National Institute of Design, where she taught for two decades from 1985 to 2006. She later taught at the IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay. She has served as a jury member at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival (2024), SIGGRAPH Asia (2023) and Indie-AniFest Seoul (2017). She is currently associated with Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru, and UPES, Dehradun and serves as Festival Director of the AniMela International Animation Festival.
Previous recipients of the IDSFFK Lifetime Achievement Award are Anand Patwardhan (2018), Madhushree Dutta (2019), Ranjan Palit (2021), Reena Mohan (2022), Deepa Dhanraj (2023), Naresh Bedi and Rajesh Bedi (2024) and Rakesh Sharma (2025).
Published – September 16, 2026 08:53 pm IST
