3rd Annual ELAN Awards
Saturday's awards ceremony "a huge success".
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