Digital Studio Awards 2011: Winners revealed

Nayla Al Khaja and Ashraf Ghori were amongst the major winners at Tuesday’s Digital Studio Awards 2011.

Fourteen prizes were handed out at a glittering ceremony held in the Dubai International Exhibition and Conference Centre, during the Cabsat exhibition.

Nayla Al Khaja’s D-Seven Motion Pictures carried off the award for Production of the Year for Mallal, the story of a newlywed Emirati couple filmed on location in India.

Ashraf Ghori won the Up and Coming Filmmaker of the Year award for Levity: Xero Seven Minus 1, a CGI short that won recognition at Cannes.

Other key categories included Systems Integrator of the Year, Studio of the Year and Industry Personality of the Year

“All the winners are richly deserving of their awards,” said Walid Akawi, CEO of ITP Publishing Group, the event organiser and publisher of Digital Studio.

“ITP is honoured to be able to recognise inspiration and creativity in the regional production industry.”

Nayla Al Khaja, who was surprised but thrilled by her award, offered the following advice to aspiring filmmakers: “First of all, they have to forget about fear and just do it. If they have boundaries from the start, then they won’t be able to accomplish anything in this field. You need a lot of persistence, really going out there and making it happen.”

The event’s platinum, associate and silver sponsors were Hitachi, Newtec and Kit Digital, respectively. A distinguished panel of industry experts selected the winners.

A list of winners follows below. Please check back later for images from the ceremony.

Manufacturer of the Year
Harris

Distributor of the Year
Advanced Media

Systems Integrator of the Year
Sony Professional Solutions Middle East

Technology Implementation of the Year
Tek Signals for Al Jazeera Sport

Content Delivery Service of the Year
OSN for Showbox

Innovation of the Year
Chyron for Arabic graphics creation technology

Satellite Services Provider of the Year
Inmarsat

Audio Provider of the Year
Riedel

Industry Personality of the Year
Naim Saidi, CEO, First Gulf

Up & Coming Filmmaker of the Year
Ashraf Ghori

Studio of the Year
Eye Squad

Animation House of the Year
Optix Digital Pictures for Emirates ICE

Post-Production House of the Year
twofour54

Production of the Year
D-Seven Motion Pictures for Mallal