Renowned film-maker, media entrepreneur, and a pioneer of the Indian animation industry, Ketan Mehta, and artist-academic Nina Sabnani will be honored at the 2021 edition of Animation Masters Summit.

Organized by Toonz Media Group, the virtual Summit will be held from May 4 to 8, a company statement said.

"For her invaluable contributions to animation and other visual art forms, spanning over a career of more than two decades, Prof Sabnani will be awarded the 'Legend of Indian Animation Award' at Animation Masters Summit 2021," it said.

Sabnani, who now teaches at the IDC School of Design, at IIT Bombay, is one of the first women artists to foray into the field of animation in the country.

A brilliant visual storyteller and recipient of several national and international awards, she received the National Award for Best Animation Film for her film Hum Chitra Banate Hai.

A Fulbright Fellow, Prof Sabnani has also done extensive research in the areas of Folklore, Visual Ethnography, Participatory Film-making, and learning pedagogies of traditional artists, among others.

Internationally acclaimed film-maker Ketan Mehta, best known for the award-winning film Bhavni Bhavai (Gujarati), will be given 'Special Contribution to Indian Animation Industry Award' for his overall contributions to the industry.

Both the awards will be presented at the inaugural session of the Summit on May 4.

The five-day event will include sessions by stalwarts from diverse fields of media and entertainment across the world.

Indian film-maker Subhash Ghai will deliver the keynote address at the inaugural session.

The theme for this edition of the Summit is 'Embracing Diversity: Finding beauty in our differences'. The event will also have two panel discussions: one on the scope of animation in Education Technology (EdTech) and another curated by Animation World Network (AWN) focusing on diversity in the kids' entertainment industry, the statement added.