Ahmedabad, 27 November: Anant National University announces the launch of Mooo Fest, an international moving image festival designed exclusively for students and creative academics. The five-day academic event marks a significant milestone in Anant’s commitment to expanding students’ creative horizons and equipping them with a global, future-oriented understanding of cinema and moving image practices.
Through live-action filmmaking, animation, sound design, text-based storytelling and emerging media technologies, Mooo Fest 1.0 offers an immersive and transformative learning experience for students, encouraging them to view cinema as an evolving language that blends creative expression with technology.
Sharing the university’s vision for the festival, Prof Sekhar Mukherjee, Professor and Programme Lead, Moving Image, School of Design, Anant National University, said, “Mooo Fest is a celebration of creativity, curiosity and collaboration. It deepens our students’ understanding of moving image and prepares them for the rapidly evolving cinematic and media industries. By bringing global perspectives to our campus, the festival enriches our students’ worldviews while keeping their practice rooted in context.”
The inaugural edition welcomes leading artists, educators, animators and practitioners from India and around the world, including Gailė Cijūnaitytė, an interdisciplinary artist from VilAA, Lithuania; Prof Gintarė Valevičiūtė Brazauskienė, artist and Associate Professor at Vilnius Academy of the Arts, Lithuania; Prof Isabel Herguera, animation director and educator, KHM, Germany; Prof Hans Koch, Sound Design, KHM, Germany; Silas Hickey, Founder of Custom Nuts Studio, Tokyo, Japan; award-winning animator Vaibhav Kumaresh; visual artist and educator Francoise Chalet from HSLU, Switzerland; Prateek Sethi, Board of Studies Member and Founder Director of Trip Creative Service in Mumbai and master students from KHM Germany, among others. Their participation transforms Mooo Fest into a vibrant global exchange of ideas, methods and artistic approaches, enriching both dialogue and practice.
Strengthening Anant’s existing relationships with its international academic partners, the festival becomes a platform for deepening collaboration and reimagining how filmmaking is taught and learnt. Through workshops conducted by global practitioners, panel discussions on contemporary and emerging practices, screenings of films from around the world and informal interactions between students, faculty, filmmakers and media artists, Mooo creates a continuous loop of observation, engagement, critique and creation.
Mooo also brings an intellectual depth to its programming. It acknowledges that visuals and sound have shaped human experience since the earliest civilisations. In today’s digital era, arguably the most recorded and documented period in human history, the moving image plays a profound role in shaping communication, culture and collective memory. By placing
student learning within this broader historical and societal context, the festival positions moving image as both an artistic expression and a vital contemporary language.
The fest reflects Anant’s commitment to creating a holistic learning environment that is grounded in the local context while remaining globally relevant. True to Anant’s mission of preparing solutionaries equipped for the challenges and opportunities of the future, the festival brings together industry leaders, academicians, researchers, students and the wider Anant community on a single platform to celebrate the moving image, share knowledge and advance creative inquiry.
With this inaugural edition, Anant reaffirms its role as a forward-looking, innovation-driven university, one that nurtures creativity, encourages experimentation and empowers students to engage meaningfully with the rapidly evolving cinematic and media landscapes.
