New Awards, Academy To Focus On Canadian Game DevelopersNew Awards, Academy To Focus On Canadian Game Developers

This year's Montreal International Games Summit will play host to the first ever Canadian Game Development Talent Awards, focused on recognizing Canadian talents "in all the major disciplines of game creation." Awards will be given for individual animators, audio professionals, designers, programmers, producers and visual artists, as well as a special emerging talent and hall of fame categories. The 2011 awards will cover work done between August 1, 2010 and July 31, 2011, and open nominations will be accepted via the awards web site from August 1 through August 19. Finalists will be announced October 15 before the awards are given out on November 2. The new awards show is a joint effort between Alliance Numerique and the Canadian Interactive Alliance, which are taking applications for a new Canadian Interactive Academy through June 29. Members of the academy will have a chance to serve on the awards jury, which will be chaired by former IGDA executive director and current Perimeter Partners consultant Jason Della Rocca. Eidos Montreal CEO Stephane D’astous will also serve on the jury in an advisory capacity. The Canadian Game Development Talent Awards have no relation to the Canadian Videogame Awards, which were handed out for the second time earlier this year as part of the Canadian Games Conference. Those awards focus on individual games, rather than individual developers, and are endorsed by the Entertainment Association of Canada.