2nd Year, Twice As Big, The Elan Awards Delivers The Winners

VANCOUVER February 16th, 2008 – Last night the Video Game, Animation Industry and Digital Art Students turned out in full force to celebrate Canadian supremacy in the fastest growing entertainment industry in the world. Canadian video game developers and publishers, animators and studio heads and the brightest students and top academia gathered at 2nd Annual Elan Awards held at The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts in eager anticipation to learn the winning names behind some of the biggest games and shows in North America.

This year's show also saw the Elan Awards open up to include International Award Categories attracting companies such as Microsoft, DreamWorks SKG, Insomniac Games, EA USA, VIZ Media and, of course, Fuzzy Door Productions that is the brain child of this year's Host, Seth MacFarlane. MacFarlane lived up to his enormous reputation as one of the Industry's top talents and rewarded the room full of top Video Game and Animation Talent/Execs with a hilarious "classic Seth" performance including a singing "Stewie" final act to close the show. The night went on to see MacFarlane win his first Elan in the category of "Best International Animated Television Production" for FAMILY GUY.

Nick Fletcher, Producer of DreamWork's the BEE MOVIE flew in from Los Angeles to accept the "Producer's Choice for the Inaugural Best Animated Feature" and Don Mattrick, recipient of this year's "Video Game Hall of Fame" sent a message of acceptance to the evening’s attendees: "I wanted to send a very sincere thank you for this Video Game Hall of Fame Award. I am truly honored to be selected, and sorry that I can't be there to accept in person. Congratulations to all the other winners at the Canadian Awards for Electronic Arts & Animation! Thanks should also go to Holly Carinci and Jack Weatherell for putting all this together. Hope you all enjoy the evening".

And on that note, the winners from last night's 2nd Annual Elan Awards are:

ANIMATION CATEGORIES

1. BEST FEATURE LENGTH ANIMATED PRODUCTION

Barbie as the Island Princess Rainmaker Animation Jennifer Twiner Mccarron

2. THE SEVEN GROUP AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATED PRODUCTION (Television Series)

Edgar & Ellen Bardel Entertainment Delna Bhesania, Barry Ward, Trish Lindsay, Barbara Ferro

3. BEST ANIMATED SHORT SUBJECT

Yellow Sticky Notes Jeff Chiba Stearns

4. BEST DIRECTION in a FEATURE LENGTH ANIMATED PRODUCTION

Barbie as the Island Princess Rainmaker Animation Greg Richardson

5. BEST DIRECTION in an ANIMATED TELEVISION SERIES

Ruby Gloom: Venus de Gloomsville Nelvana LTD Robin Budd

6. BEST MALE VOICE OVER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE OR TELEVISION PRODUCTION

Lee Tockar George of the Jungle Studio B

7. BEST FEMALE VOICE OVER IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE OR TELEVISION PRODUCTION

Marÿke Hendrikse Johnny Test Cookie Jar Entertainment

8. BEST ORIGINAL MUSICAL SCORE

Bruno and the Banana Bunch Cuppa Coffee Studios Adam Goddard

9. BEST STORYBOARDING

George of the Jungle: Naked Ape Man Studio B Dennis Crawford / Lyn Hart

10. BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN OR ART DIRECTION

Edgar & Ellen: Crushed Bardel Entertainment Greg Huculak and Zoe Evamy

11. BEST WRITING IN AN ANIMATED PRODUCTION

Storm Hawks Nerd Corps Entertainment Rob Hoegee

12. THE ELECTRONIC ART'S AWARD FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED PRODUCTION (Television Series)

Family Guy Fuzzy Door Productions Seth MacFarlane, David A. Goodman, Chris Sheridan, Danny Smith

13.THE INAUGURAL AWARD FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED PRODUCTION (Feature)

Bee Movie: Dreamworks Animation SKG

14. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD IN ANIMATION

Kai Pindal

ELECTRONIC GAME CATEGORIES

1. THE AUTODESK GAME OF THE YEAR

Mass Effect Bioware/Microsoft Games BioWare

2. BEST CONSOLE GAME

Assassin's Creed Ubisoft Assassin's Creed Development Team

3. BEST PC GAME

Company of Heroes Relic Entertainment Ian Thomson

4. BEST NEW VIDEO GAME COMPANY

We are honouring two companies this year:

Blue Castle Games Rob Barrett for The Bigs

Slant Six Games Brian Thalken for their Socom U.S. Navy Seals: Tactical Strike

5. BEST SOUND DESIGN IN VIDEO GAMING

Skate Electronic Arts: Audio Director: Lance Brown Sound Designers: Francois Lafleur, Bryan Rennie, Sean Webster, Terry Fairfield

6. BEST ORIGINAL MUSICAL SCORE IN VIDEO GAMING

Assasins Creed Ubisoft Jesper Kyd

7. BEST CHARACTER IN VIDEO GAMING

Commander Shepard (Mass Effect) BioWare/Microsoft Games Drew Karpyshyn

8. BEST ART DIRECTION IN VIDEO GAMING

Mass Effect BioWare/Microsoft Games Derek Watts

9. BEST HANDHELD GAME OF THE YEAR (psp, ds, etc...)

Socom U.S. Navy Seals: Tactical Strike Slant Six Games Brian Thalken

10. BEST GAME DESIGN OF THE YEAR

Mass Effect BioWare/Microsoft Games Preston Watamaniuk

11. BEST MOBILE/CASUAL/ARCADE GAME OF THE YEAR

Skate Electronic Arts David Manriquez

12. BEST WRITING FOR A GAME PRODUCTION

Mass Effect BioWare/ Microsoft Games Drew Karpyshyn

13. THE NOKIA AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING INNOVATION IN GAMING

Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts Relic Entertainment Josh Mosqueira

14. THE ERNST & YOUNG AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL VIDEO GAME OF THE YEAR

Crysis Crytek/Electronic Arts USA Cevat Yerli CEO, Crytek

15. VIDEO GAME HALL OF FAME

Don Mattrick

STUDENT ANIMATION AND ELECTRONIC GAME CATEGORIES

1. THE GOVERNMENT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA'S AWARD FOR STUDENT ANIMATED OR MOTION GRAPHIC PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR

Legend of Boruta Emily Carr Institute Bartosz Nowakowski

2. STUDENT GAME OF THE YEAR

Bloom Vancouver Film School Boring Games; Project Manager: Adrian Audet TEAM: Brennan Massicotte, Guilherme Ramos, Mike Wilson, Brian Vidovic

3. BEST ORIGINAL SOUND DESIGN/MUSICAL SCORE FOR AN ANIMATED PRODUCTION OR GAME

Le Building Vancouver Film School Doug Woods

4. BEST Student ART DIRECTION - GAME PRODUCTION

Seas of Europa Vancouver Film School Todd Agnello, David Bowring, Diego Rodriguez Pons,Ryan Stancl

5. BEST STUDENT ART DIRECTION - ANIMATED PRODUCTION

Mano Sinistra Emily Carr Institute Kate Lee

6. BEST STUDENT WRITING FOR AN ANIMATED OR GAME PRODUCTION

Documentary Vancouver Film School Lawrence Chung

7. READY TO ROCKET

Bartosz Nowakowski Emily Carr Institute