VANCOUVER March 19, 2007 — The Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts (CAEAA) is not only inviting the world to compete in the 2007 Elans on November 2nd, the Producers of the awards show will also be sanctioning worldwide industry supervisory in deciding the Canadian Student, Video Gaming and Animation nominees and ultimate Winners for this years prestigious Event.
Last year (the Elans’ inaugural year) the Jurors consisted of full-time educators of Video Gaming and Animation programs from Digital Arts Schools across Canada who selected the four final nominees per category from all of the Video Game and Animation Company submissions; Heads of Departments from Canadian Video Game and Animation Companies selected the final four nominees per category from all of the Canadian Student submissions. The final nominees in all categories were subsequently sent to media members around the world who acted as the final judges, selecting the 2006 Elans Winners.
“It has been brought to our attention that all three industries we award would rather have their peers act as jurors to select the final nominees,” reports Holly Carinci, Founder and Producer of the Elans. “Our challenge then became how we were to keep the nominations fair, given that the jurors selecting the final four nominees per category would be doing so through submissions from the very companies they themselves were from.”
After much research and advice from other awards shows, the CAEAA Producers decided on the following procedure: All final nominations and subsequent winners of the CAEAA Categories (Canadian Categories) will be juried by their industry peers plus one media member per Category Panel abroad (outside of Canada). All final nominations and subsequent winners of the International Categories for the 2007 Elans will be juried by their industry peers plus one media member per Category Panel from within Canada. This process, the Producers believe, ensures fairness in the selection amongst the submitting companies and institutions both within and outside of Canada, as well as it provides for world participation in the 2007 Elans which is an important new element to this year’s growing Awards Show.
The panels themselves will be made up by the following:
Jury Panels consist of 5 Jurors per Panel.
Each Category has one Panel.
No Juror sits on more than one Panel.
Each Industry’s Panels consist of Jurors from within their Industry.
All Companies/Institutions providing Jurors may provide more than one.
No two representatives from one Company/Institution will be selected to sit on the same Panel.
Every Juror must sign a non-conflict contract to be approved by the CAEAA.
Each CAEAA Category is juried by Panels from outside of Canada.
Each International Category is juried by Panels from within Canada.
All Nomination and Winning Ballots will be handled directly by the Elans Auditing Firm, Buckley Dodds.
(For much more detail on the 2007 Elans Judicial and Submission Processes, please go to “Awards” on the Official CAEAA Website, www.caeaa.com)
And now, “let the games begin …”
The Submission for Nomination process is now open for the Students wishing to compete in the 2007 Elans Student Categories (see list below). This year the Submission for Nomination process will be held in two separate segments: Student Submission for Nomination opened Monday, March 5th and closes Tuesday, July 31st in order that they may have the assistance of their teachers with their work. The Animation and Video Game Submission for Nomination opens Monday, June 4th and closes Friday, August 31st.
The international category selected by the Educators in Digital Arts advisory panel for the 2007 Elans is the INTERNATIONAL STUDENT OF THE YEAR AWARD. Schools that excel in the education of Students in the fields of Animation and Video Gaming outside of Canada are invited to submit the work of one student for consideration. Only one submission per International School (all schools outside of Canada) will be accepted for consideration for this Award. The International Schools may conduct an internal competition however they deem reasonable to select the Student they put forward for this award. The criteria for this award are the same as that of the CAEAA “Ready to Rocket” Award. A full list of the Canadian Student Categories and Criteria is available in the Awards page (and provided below) on the CAEAA Official Site, www.caeaa.com.
The 2007 Elans will be held on Friday, November 2nd at The Centre in Vancouver for the Performing Arts. The state-of-the-art structure, regarded as the premiere entertainment facility in the city, will host the nearly 2000 worldwide guests and participants of this year’s Elans, tripling the attendance of its inaugural year in 2006. The day following the glamorous Awards Night, the CAEAA Producers, along with their Event Partners Ernst & Young, Electronic Arts (EA), Autodesk and the British Columbia Provincial Government will host a very high-end networking day at their Official Hotelier The Sutton Place Hotel, Vancouver (one of only two AAA Five Diamond Hotels in all of Canada) for the CEOs and Upper Management of companies and institutions from around the world who attended the 2007 Elans.
Other important players already onboard to support the 2007 Elans includes: Foundation 9/Backbone Entertainment, Radical Entertainment, next level games, Studio B Productions, Mercury Filmworks, Western Imperial Magnetics, David Kaye Productions, Selkirk College, The Art Institute of Vancouver, Emily Carr Institute, Sheridan College, Vancouver Film School, and Elan statuette artist Dean Lauzé of D’Arts as well as the Awards Auditing firm, Buckley Dodds.
“As the Movie Industry goes to Hollywood for its Oscars, so will the world of Video Gaming and Animation come to Canada for their Elans.”
— Holly Carinci, CAEAA/Elans Founder & Producer |
