As the ‘orange economy’ takes off in the country, and classics like Chhota Bheem make it to the global stage, AniMela brings the best of Indian animation to the city
Lesbian Space Princess, an Australian animated sci-fi comedy film, will be screened at AniMela 2026. Pic/Cinestar
If you are looking for a break from the monotonous media cycle and yearn for something new and exciting, this is for you! AniMela, is back in town from February 19 to 22 at Whistling Woods International, Goregaon. The festival had its inaugural edition in 2024, and now it’s back for round three, bigger, and better than ever before!
AniMela features a diverse range of activities such as film screenings, exhibitions, conferences, and workshops. It is organised by the Aniverse and Visual Arts Foundation, which is a not-for-profit organisation working to build a platform for budding AVGC-XR (animation, visual effects, gaming, and extended reality) artistes. For this, the festival has partnered with the Annecy International Animation Film Market. Selected candidates also get a chance to present their creations in Annecy, France.
Chaitanya Chinchlikar
For non-artistes, the festival will feature screening of movies like Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (which is about a three-year-old girl who has just moved with her family to Japan), Lesbian Space Princess (an animated queer comedy film), and Arco, whose protagonist is a ten-year-old boy living in the year 2932 who time-travels to the year 2075 and gets stuck. Moreover, there will be location-based virtual reality experiences of the Titanic and the Colosseum.
Chaitanya Chinchlikar, vice president and CTO of Whistling Woods International, recommends four things that one cannot miss at AniMela 2026, “Firstly, the immersive experiences. This includes everything from virtual reality to gaming, of which some are curated by French professionals.
“Secondly, the panel discussions, masterclasses, and deep dives into stuff like successful Indian animation case studies, and applied AI for media and entertainment, which is beyond generative AI stuff. Thirdly, the film screenings, which will include content the general audience may not have seen before. Fourthly, the opportunity to engage with the showcases, comics and so on.”
Talking about the future of animation in India, Chinchlikar was hopeful. He said, “We have seen many successes in the field of Indian animation and games — films like Mahavatar Narasimha grossed more than R300 crore in the box office, Mighty Little Bheem on Netflix which is a spin-off of Chhota Bheem, the Sony PS Game Mukti which is a Sony Hero Project, and so on. There has literally never been a better time to be in the Indian animation, comics and video games industry!”
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