3rd Annual ELAN Awards

VANCOUVER, BC Apil 27, 2009 - ELAN Producers announced that Saturday night's awards were a huge success and that their Host, Tom Kenny ("SpongeBob SquarePants©") made certain that everyone had a good time ... That along with the opulent venue (Fairmont Hotel Vancouver's Pacific Ballroom), the gourmet meal, fantastic performance by "Splittig Adam", the amazing enthusiasm from the audience and, of course, the excitement of those who walked away with statuettes, of course.

The evening was attended by 400 of the best from Video Game, Animation and Visual Effects, many of whom had traveled a long way to attend. Carles Salvany and his "Number 6" team came all the way from Spain for their nomination in Best Student Video Game while other nominated students flew in from Ottawa and from Los Angeles. Also in from LA was Microsoft Game's Global Product Manager, Guy Welch who brought with him Ross Perez, Senior Producer of their nominated game Gears of War 2 developed by Epic Games; also accompanying Welch was Rich Bryant, Writer for another of their nominated games, Fable II from Developer Lionhead Studios. Chet Faliszek and Heather Fagan from Valve Software flew in and is it ever a good thing that they did as they walked away with four of the nine video game awards. On that note the winners at the 3rd Annual ELAN Awards are:

3rd Annual ELAN Award Winners:

STUDENT AWARDS:

1. Best Student Video Game

Deguiyu

Bryant DJ Davey, Xbox Director; Su Yon Sohn, Web Presence Director; Liam Kelly, Support

Masters of Digital Media,Centre for Digital Media, Vancouver BC

2. Best Student Animated Production

Snared

Shane Plante

Algonquin College Animation Program, Ottawa ON

3. Best Visual Effects in a Student Project

Space Bar

George Kyparissous

Lost Boys Learning, Comox BC

VISUAL EFFECTS:

1. Best Visual Effects in a Visual Effect Driven Feature Film

The Embassy VFX, Inc. / Ironworks Prod's; Marvel Studios / Paramount Pictures

Iron Man

The Embassy's Winston Helgason, Visual Effects Supervisor; Charlie Bradbury, Visual Effects Producer; Stephen Pepper, Compositing Supervisor; Michael Blackbourn, CG Lead

2. Best Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series, Miniseries or MOW

Bartleby Co. and The Halcyon Co. in assoc. with Warner Bros. Televisions

Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Jim Lima, VFX Supervisor; Steve Galich, SFX Coordinator

3. Best Visual Effects in an Independent/Short Film

Pix Ray VFX / Gloryous Production, 2.8 Pictures

Rock Garden: The Love Story

Andrew Szerszen, VFX Supervisor; Guy Gatenby, Lead Matte-Painter; Michael MacInnis, Lead Composer

4. Best Visual Effects Shot

Spin VFX / 20th Century Fox

Max Payne

Jeff Campbell, VFX Supervisor; Eric Doiron, Compositing Supervisor; Mark Schreiber, Lead Animator; Tim Sibley, Lead FX TD

5. Best Digital Environment

Spin VFX / 20th Century Fox

Max Payne

Jeff Campbell, VFX Supervisor; Eric Doiron, Compositing Supervisor; Mark Schreiber, Lead Animator; Tim Sibley, Lead FX TD

6. Best Animated Character MPC / Walt Disney and Walden Media

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Greg Fisher, Animation Supervisor; Peta Bayley, Lead Animator; Julio del Rio Hernandez, Lead Animator; Tom Reed, Head of Rigging

ANIMATION AWARDS:

1. Best Feature Length Animated Production

WALL-E

Disney / Pixar

2.Best Animated Television Production

Zeke's Pad

My Pad Prod's / Avrill Stark Entertainment; Bardel Entertainment Inc. / Flying Bark Productions

Delna Bhesania, Producer; Liz Scully, Producer; Leonard Terhoch, Producer; Avrill Stark, Producer

3. Best Animated Short Subject

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (intro cinematic)

Blizzard Entertainment

Jeff Chamberlain, Director; Phillip Hillenbrand, Producer

4. Best Director for an Animated Production

Wapos Bay: The Series

Wapos Bay Studio National Film Board of Canada

Dennis Jackson,Director; Melanie Jackson, Director; Cam Lizotte, Director

5. Best Voice Over in an Animated Production (All genres)

Tom Kenny

Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants

6. Best Character Animation

Toot & Puddle

Mercury Filmworks / National Geographic Kids Entertainment

Graham MacDonald, Animation Director; Emma Gignac, Animation Director; Kim Buck, Animation Supervisor; Justin Sels, Animation Supervisor

7. Best Art Direction

Zeke's Pad

My Pad Prod's / Avrill Stark Entertainment; Bardel Entertainment Inc. / Flying Bark Productions

Zoe Evamy, Senior Art Director; Patricia Atchison, Art Director

VIDEO GAME AWARDS:

1. VIDEO GAME OF THE YEAR

Left 4 Dead

Valve

2. BEST CONSOLE GAME

Fallout 3

Bethesda Softworks

Todd Howard, Game Director; Emil Pagliarulo, Lead Designer & Writer; Gavin Carter, Lead Producer

3. BEST PC GAME

Left 4 Dead

Valve

4. BEST CASUAL/ARCADE GAME

Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst

Big Fish Games

Pat Wylie, Adrian Woods, Chris Campbell, Producer

5. BEST MOBILE/HANDHELD GAME

Club Penguin :Elite Penguin Force

1st Playable Productios/Disney Interactive

Tobi Saulnier, Founder & CEO, 1st Playable Productions; Zhenelle Falk, Producer/ Designer; Andrew Carroll, Lead Programmer; Ian McConahey Stead, Lead Artist

6. BEST SOUND in a VIDEO GAME PROD'N

Mike Larson, Audio Director; Steve Jablonsky, Composer; Jamey Scott, Sound Designer; Joey Kuras, Sound Designer

Epic Games, Microsoft

Gears of War 2

7. BEST ART DIRECTION

Istvan Pely, Lead Artist

Bethesda Softworks

Fallout 3

8. BEST GAME DESIGN

Gabe Newell

Valve

Left 4 Dead

9.OUTSTANDING TECHNICAL INNOVATION

Gabe Newell

Valve

Left 4 Dead

Getting behind in support of the ELAN Awards are their Event Partners, Activision Publishing, Inc. and the Seven Group as well as the ELAN'S Founding Partners Radical Entertainment, Relic Entertainment, Offload Studios (Official Supplier of the ELAN Award Statuette), IGN (Official Media Partner), Shangri-la Vancouver (Official Hotelier) as well as the ELAN'S Associate Partners Blue Arc, Hitachi, sgi, SPIN VFX, David Kaye Productions and the esteemed firm Buckley Dodds & Associates which will once again preside over the judicial process. And, of course, Michelle Pedersen & Katie for their Hollywood-style hair and makeup as well as Moore's Formal Wear for Men and Marilyn's in West Vancouver who made certain that all of us looked fabulous!

"As the Movie Industry goes to Hollywood for its Oscars, so will the world of Video Games, Animation and Visual Effects come to Vancouver for their ELANS."

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My apologies for the lack of pictures. Please go to the website www.theelans.com for photos later today.

Holly Carinci

Founder & Producer

The ELAN Awards

604.218.3993

holly@theelans.com