MUMBAI: Ultra Distributors‘ Jalpari - The Desert Mermaid recently won the MIP Junior Kids Jury Awards 2012 at Cannes. The MIP Junior Kids Jury award is the international showcase for children‘s and youth programmes and films.

As many as 115 producers from around the world had entered their programmes that were divided into three categories - Tweens (11-14 years), Kids (7-10 years) and Pre-school (3-6 years). This included both live action and animation in every category.

A jury of fifteen children from the International School of Nice judged their favourite film during a private screening session with the help of French TV presenter and producer, Billy. And the winning choice for the Tweens category, was the India presentation Jalpari - The Desert Mermaid.

The other entries for this category were Chilli Girl (Domo Animato - Columbia), Monster Mountain (Dancing Digital Animation - China), One and a Half Heroes (Fantawild Animation Inc - China) and The Eternal Song, Jazzit II - Zhejiang Dishun Tech Co, Ltd - China).

One interesting and shocking revelation noted by the experts in this year‘s MIP Junior was the Tweens are just not watching kids TV or only animation was not on their viewing list. They moved onto a more aspirational live action offering. They want to be immersed in stories and this bears out with their winning choice for the Tweens category, that was Jalpari - The Desert Mermaid.

This is the first time that an Indian film was selected that as well as won the award.