Saumin Mehta

Last updated
Saumin Mehta
Born
Saumin Jayprakash Mehta

(1970-08-30) 30 August 1970 (age 53)
NationalityIndian
Education Bachelor of Commerce
Alma mater Don Bosco High School, Matunga
Occupation(s)Film producer, film director
Years active2000–present
Website saumin.com

Saumin Mehta is a Dubai-based film director, film producer, writer, animator, and VFX creative director, known for his work in film production, animation, and Post-production. He is recognized for his involvement in the production of the critically acclaimed film Midnight Delight under Dot & Feather Entertainment. [1] [2] His career includes the creation of various films, including the award-winning Corridor , The Trip, The Beginning of Our End, and Malcum. Additionally, he is the co-founder of FFTG Awards Film Fest, an annual international digital event based in New York. [3]

Contents

Early life and career

Born into a Gujarati Business Family in Mumbai, Saumin Mehta completed his Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Mumbai. He attended Don Bosco High School, Matunga in Mumbai. Despite working with his father in the family business, he nurtured a lifelong dream of becoming an animator, inspired by Disney.

In 1994, Mehta began learning animation at Microcell Graphics and Graham Computers. His dedication led to his first freelance 3D animation project for the Zee TV program "It's My Show." Subsequently, he ventured into projects involving 3D walkthroughs and interactive media.

In 1999, Mehta decided to pursue his creative dreams and moved to Dubai, where he entered the growing 3D animation industry. He directed his first independent feature film, The Trip, and immersed himself in production and post-production work for TV commercials and ad films for brands such as Pepsi, Snickers, and Emirates Airlines. He also created corporate films and informational videos for companies like Emirates Airlines and Gulf Oil. While managing these endeavors, he continued to produce and direct his films.

In 2007, Mehta joined the Brand Management Division of MBC Group, a leading Television Broadcasting Company based in the UAE. In this role, he focused on post-production work, including visual effects, animation, and VFX supervision.

Accolades

Filmography

YearFilmDirectorProducerWriterAnimatorNotes
2000The TripYesYesYesfeature film
2012Exeuntdigital effects - short film
2013SarlaYesYesYesshort film
Corridor YesYesYesshort film
2016 Midnight Delight YesYescreative producer, Post-production - feature film
2021MalculmYesshort film
CleptoYesshort film
Not a Flash LightYesshort film
The Beginning of Our EndYesYesshort film

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animal Logic</span> Australian animation and visual effects studio

Animal Logic is an Australian animation and visual effects digital studio based at Disney Studios in Sydney, New South Wales in Australia, Vancouver in Canada, and Rideback Ranch in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1991, Animal Logic has produced visual effects and animation for feature films such as the Academy Award-winning Happy Feet, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, Walking with Dinosaurs 3D,The Lego Movie andPeter Rabbit. The company was also recognised for its work as lead visual effects vendor on Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, which won Outstanding Achievement in Visual Effects at the 3rd AACTA Awards ceremony. In 2018, Peter Rabbit was presented with a range of accolades, including the AACTA Award for Best Visual Effects or Animation, and Australian Production Design Guild Awards (APDG) in Visual Effects Design and Drawing, Concept Illustration & Concept Models for Screen. Most recently, the company has produced work for the Warner Animation Group's The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and Marvel Studios' Captain Marvel. It is a subsidiary of Netflix.

DNEG is a British visual effects, computer animation and stereo conversion studio that was founded in 1998 in London, and rebranded as DNEG in 2014 after a merger with Indian VFX company Prime Focus; it was named after the letters "D" and "Neg" from their former name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinesite</span> Visual effects studio

Cinesite is an independent, multinational business which provides services to the media and entertainment industries. Its head office in London opened for business in 1994, initially offering services in visual effects for film and television, subsequently expanding to include animation.

The Indian Animation Industry encompasses traditional 2D animation, 3D animation and visual effects for feature films. In 1956, Disney Studios animator Clair Weeks, who had worked on Bambi, was invited to Films Division of India in Mumbai to establish and train the country's first animation studio as part of the American technical co-operation mission. He trained a core group of Indian animators, whose first production was a film called The Banyan Deer (1957). Veteran animator Ram Mohan started his career at Films Division's Cartoon Unit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Method Studios</span> Visual effects studio

Method Studios is a visual effects company launched in 1999 in Los Angeles, California with facilities in New York, Atlanta, Vancouver, San Francisco, Melbourne, Montreal, and Pune. The company provides production and post-production services including conceptual design, look development, on-set supervision, 3D animation/CGI, matte painting, AR/VR, compositing and finishing.

<i>Life! Camera Action...</i> 2012 American film

Life! Camera Action... is a family-drama film directed, written, edited, produced by Rohit Gupta, in his feature-length directorial debut. Starring Dipti Mehta, Shaheed Woods, Noor Naghmi, Swati Kapila, John Crann, this ninety minutes quasi-autobiographical film follows a girl in pursuit of her dreams of becoming a filmmaker against all odds. The film received several awards and nominations. Its theatrical release was limited to film festivals. The film received direct-to-DVD release and subsequently on other video on demand (VOD) platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dipti Mehta</span> Indian American actress

Dipti Mehta is an Indian American actress best known for her portrayal of Reina in Life! Camera Action... bringing her multiple international awards and nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rohit Gupta</span> American film director

Rohit Gupta is a film director, film producer and entrepreneur who resides in the United States. He is known for directing Midnight Delight, Life! Camera Action..., Another Day Another Life, winning several awards & nominations. Gupta is the founder and owner of Dot & Feather Entertainment production company, Film Festivals To Go (FFTG), and FFTG Awards Film Fest.

<i>Midnight Delight</i> (film) 2016 film

Midnight Delight is an American absurdist anthology film written and directed by Rohit Gupta. It is composed of nine vignettes of characters at a smoking lounge and their antics with people they have never met before. It stars an ensemble cast and produced by Gupta and Saumin Mehta under the production company Dot & Feather Entertainment. The film is the second feature directed by Gupta, best known for Life! Camera Action... and Another Day Another Life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Webber</span> Welsh visual effects supervisor

Tim Webber is a Welsh visual effects supervisor and is chief creative officer at visual effects studio Framestore. He is known for his work on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Children of Men (2006), and Gravity (2013), for which he received an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 86th Academy Awards.

Chris Lawrence is a visual effects supervisor. Lawrence and his fellow visual effects artists received an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for the 2013 film, Gravity. In 2016, Lawrence received his second Academy Award nomination for his work on the film, The Martian, at the 88th Academy Awards. In 2018, he received his third Academy Award nomination for his work on the film, Christopher Robin, at the 91st Academy Awards, and received his fourth nomination in 2021, at the 93rd Academy Awards for the 2020 Netflix film The Midnight Sky. He is the eldest son and heir apparent of Sir Henry Lawrence, 7th Baronet of Lucknow.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assemblage Entertainment</span> Indian animation studio

Assemblage Entertainment is an Indian animation studio based out of Mumbai, founded in December 2013, by industry veteran AK Madhavan. The studio distributes animation productions of major Hollywood studios and other independent production companies from around the world.

Rahul Chandrakant Thakkar is an Indian-American software inventor who was one of the 33 recipients of Academy Award for scientific and technical achievement in 2016. Thakkar won the Academy Award for creating the "groundbreaking design" of DreamWorks Animation Media Review System, a scalable digital film review platform.

<i>Le Building</i> 2005 French film

Le Building is a 2005 French animated short film directed by a team of final year students at Gobelins, l'École de l'image. The story depicts a series of slapstick accidents that cause destruction to a three-story apartment complex. Le Building's team of five directors is composed of Pierre Perifel and Olivier Staphylas, both of whom went on to become Annie Award-recognized animators at DreamWorks, Xavier Ramonède and Annie award-nominated Marco Nguyen, who have continued their careers with animation credits on various high-profile French productions, and Rémi Zaarour, who has since become a comic book artist, published under the pseudonym Pozla.

Shaheed K. Woods is an American actor, comedian born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. He is best known for A Gentleman, Midnight Delight, Life! Camera Action... earning him accolades.

Pierre Perifel is a French film director and animator, best known for his work at DreamWorks Animation. He has directed the feature film The Bad Guys (2022) and the award-winning short films Le Building (2005) and Bilby (2018).

The FFTG Awards Film Fest is an annual international digital film festival organized by Dot & Feather Entertainment. The event spans over two weeks in end of November and includes competitive categories like 'Film of the fest', 'FFTG Spirit award', 'People Choice award', 'Female filmmaker', 'Student filmmaker', 'Screenplay writer' as the top winners of the fest. The festival gives The Grand Jury Choice Awards in various categories including feature films, documentaries, screenplay, shorts.

Prakash Nambiar is a film director, producer, film writer, animator, entrepreneur and an author based in Mumbai. He's best known for the creation of two animated characters "Hum & Tum" for Yash Raj Films under his company Kathaa Animations. The characters were used in the critically acclaimed award-winning film of the same name Hum Tum (2004). Both characters are one of the most successful animated characters to be used in mainstream Bollywood film.

<i>Faraaz</i> (film) 2022 film by Hansal Mehta

Faraaz (transl.Tall) is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language biographical action thriller film directed by Hansal Mehta and produced by T-Series and Benaras Media Works. The film supporting an ensemble cast has Juhi Babbar, Aamir Ali, Aditya Rawal, Zahan Kapoor, Jatin Sarin, Pallak Lalwani, and six newcomers Jatin Sarin, Reshham Sahaani, Ninaad Bhatt, Harshal Pawar, Sachin Lalwani including Kapoor marking their debut. Based on actual event, it depicts the Holey Artisan Bakery, July 2016 Dhaka attack that shook Bangladesh. The film premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 15 October 2022, and released in India on 3 February 2023. At 69th Filmfare Awards, the film received five nominations, including Best Film (Critics) and Best Supporting Actor (Rawal), and won Best Male Debut (Rawal).

References

  1. Staff, TOI (9 May 2015). "Midnight Delight' wins big at the Cannabis Film Festival". Times of India. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  2. Sachin, Sachin (21 August 2016). "Midnight Delight picks up Best Drama-Comedy award". Indusage. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  3. "Saumin Meha - Cofounder". FFTG Awards. FFTG Awards. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  4. Roopa, Modha (17 June 2016). "Midnight Delight wins six awards in Accolade Global Film Competition!". Urban Asian. Retrieved 22 November 2023.
  5. Staff (5 April 2016). "Midnight Delight wins Classics award at the 2016 Camp Cult Classics Film Festival!". Urban Aisan. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  6. "Winner films for the July 2016 edition of iChill International Film Festival". iChill Theater Cafe. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  7. Roopa, Modha (9 May 2015). "Midnight Delight' wins big at the Cannabis Film Festival". Times of India. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  8. Halen, Adrian. "Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival Announces 10 Day Slate". HNN. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
  9. Modha, Roopa (12 July 2016). "Film festival favorite, Midnight Delight, to 'light' up your world with July 21, 2016 release!". Urban Asian. Retrieved 23 November 2023.